Modern Family - The Bicycle Thief - Recap - Episode 02

Modern Family is great new comedy on ABC, and yes we're watching it! Here's the recap of tonight's episode from Desi Rottman:

SPOILERS AHEAD!

My first thought on Modern Family this week was that it was good to see Julie Bowen's character, Claire, out from behind the counters and laundry baskets. During filming for the pilot, she'd been pregnant, so Claire was able to go out into the real world and ride bikes with her husband and son. For a second I thought I'd forgotten to flip my TV from TLC over to ABC since the couple's interview resembled a Jon & Kate + 8-esque sit-down.

Mitchell and Cameron (the gay couple) are, without any kind of doubt, my favorite part of the show. I feel like I want to go over to their house, drink a few too many glasses of wine and watch some Kathy Griffin special. (And I'm pretty sure that a few of my gay friends have had that pink and paisley argument, too.)

I'm not so into the Jay and Gloria storyline, outside of him playing the homophobic father, but if sugar daddies in real life looked like that, I'd probably be going after them instead of the gay men I constantly go for. He spends the majority of the episode attempting to assemble a piece of furniture without instructions. Surprise! Just like a man. Later on, Jay takes his step-son to Disney after his father fails to follow through. He says in his interview "90% of being a father is just showing up."

Mitchell and Cameron bring their adopted daughter, Lily, to "Toddler Time" class being the forward-thinking parents they are. My favorite line of the episode came later in that scene: "I just stole a baby's intellectual property!" Mitchell says, having taken another child's stack of blocks to pass off as his own baby's. Bubbly Toddler Time teacher cheerfully pops out to offer a video of the child's milestone since classes are filmed by security cameras. Mitchell grabs Cameron, seething in his anger about Meryl Streep being called a poor choice for Mama Mia and the two make a swift exit, being upstaged by another gay couple (but not before Cameron takes the opportunity to "dance for his baby," turning the class into Diamonz or Bambi's or whatever gay bar is around your corner. They're just missing the disco ball.)

Phil goes behind Claire's back to buy a bicycle for their irresponsible son, Luke, so the men go out to bring home a bike. When Phil goes back into town later on, he finds his son's bike left unlocked and unattended outside the shop where he bought it. He takes it in order to teach Luke a lesson. Phil loses this bike in a neighbor's bedroom, having climbed in to unlock her house (Edie from Desperate Housewives, anyone?) and buys a new one for his son, leaving him to confront his son about the lost bike. Phil discovers that the bike he picked up outside the shop was not Luke's and is left with three bikes and the reality that he stole another kid's bicycle.

This week's episode didn't have me rolling the way last week's zingers did ("WTF? Why the face?") but all the best parts were still there. I felt like some of the initial stereotyping created on the pilot were shed and I look forward to the continued development of this Modern Family.