SkimIt
After a series of moderately convoluted episodes, Modern Family did a simple episode with three self-contained plots. Turns out the convoluted episodes are funnier.
Remember Phil's Friend Andre?
Now that Kevin Hart is starring in the No. 1 movie in America (Think Like A Man), it's convenient that the producers remembered that he played Phil's (Ty Burrell) new friend Andre in a couple of scenes in one episode. Phil and Andre are shopping for Phil's new car, and before he can buy the same old car he always does, they see a black convertible ... something. I dunno. I never cared about cars, even when I was the age where boys are supposed to care about cars. I was all about pop music and girls at that age.
Claire Accepts Her Destiny
But when Phil gets home with his midlife-crisis-mobile, he assumes Claire (Julie Bowen) is going to jump all over him for it. When she doesn't, it makes him suspicious. Even more so when she calmly offers to swap cars with him when it turns out the small black convertible is impractical for carting around clients. Naturally, when Claire starts driving it, she ends up ditching her errands and hauling up the Pacific Coast Highway. Which, honestly, I don't understand how anybody gets anything done in southern California. Shouldn't everyone be driving up the PCH whenever possible?
Another Reunion?
I swear I think they've done this story before, but Jay (Ed O'Neill) is heading off to a reunion of his high school football team at Pebble Beach, mostly so he can rub his success in their faces. When Gloria (Sofia Vergara) balks at flying up in a tiny private plane, they end up driving, until the car breaks down. Finally, Jay admits that it's his hot Latina trophy wife he wants to show off, so Gloria faces her terror enough to let their auto mechanic take them there in his helicopter. I'm assuming the helicopter takeoff scene was filmed where they used to do those scenes for M.A.S.H., because that's exactly what it looked like.
The Lost Bunny
Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) take Lily (Audrey Anderson-Emmons) to Chinatown on the subway -- yes, L.A. has a subway -- but they accidentally lose her beloved stuffed bunny on the train. Meh. Honestly, it wasn't their best storyline, although it was cute when Mitchell tries to Amelie Lily by saying Bunny had gone off on an exciting adventure and she calmly shoots down all of his whimsical lies with straightforward kid logic.
Would your significant other care if you bought a convertible? Was Gloria right not to want to fly in the little puddle-jumper plane? And why was Haley obsessively eating potato chips in the car?
Best Lines:
"Yeah, we wouldn't have been friends back then.'"
-- Andre can't get behind Phil's image of what it would have been like to have such a cool car in high school, which involves a perm and Hall and Oates.
"I was worried she'd think we were taking her back to Vietnam, but she seemed okay.'"
-- Cam worries about Lily's reaction to going to Chinatown for the first time.
"Unless you were a woman, black, Hispanic or gay."
-- Gloria disagrees with Jay's assertion that his high school years were the good old days.
"Might not be your call."
-- Luke (Nolan Gould) is uncommitted about Phil's protestation that he's not going to leave Claire just because he bought a sportscar.
"It was my turn to be irresponsible. And luckily, I had sunscreen in my purse."
-- Claire can only get so wild.
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