Modern Family
Episode 22: My Hero
By: Carlos Uribe
Modern
Family is a show about three branches of a family.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
I
have worked for my parents before. It's nothing that I plan to do on
a permanent basis but I've helped their business out over a couple of
summers. I guess it wasn't a real job since I never got paid or
anything but I did get experience I could put on my resume. Working
for them wasn't so bad but I can certainly understand Claire's
hesitation on the offer to work for Jay. Jay is annoyed because the
man he's been grooming to take over the family business had to be
fired after he stole from his pension fund. He wants his company in
capable hands and he knows that Claire has been looking into getting
back in the work force. He offers her the opportunity to come and
work under him. He'll take her under his wings and teach her the
business so that she could one day take over. In his mind, it's a
win-win situation. Claire might appreciate the offer but she doesn't
want to take it. She doesn't want to outright reject the offer
because she doesn't want to disappoint her dad but she can't stand
the idea of working under him. She did when she was younger and she
found him to be too hard on her. It put her off as she doesn't think
that she should have to put with it. She changes her mind when Jay is
able to comfort Cam's insecurity as she realizes that her dad isn't
just a tough guy. He has a sweet center that could show up when
needed. Claire changes her mind and decides to accept the offer. It's
a promising decision since this means that the show can now create
conflict from the two of them working together. That is assuming that
the series remembers this for more than just one episode. Modern
Family may have helped revive the comedy genre but it's memory of
previous events has been pretty spotty and unreliable-just like many
sit-com comedies of old. Honestly, people complain about the lack of
development on The Big Bang Theory but it's just as bad on Modern
Family. Actually, it's probably worse because while the Big Bang
Theory has been fleshing out it's characters, Modern Family has been
busy turning them into stereotypes for easy laughs.
Jealousy
can be a weird creature. Cam doesn't mind that Mitchell is friends
with the only serious boyfriend Mitchell has had before Cam. The
ex-boyfriend, Teddy, invites them to come to a fundraiser that he's
hosting at a roller rink. It's basically an excuse to bring the whole
family into one setting before splitting them up into their own
little plots. It works fine and allows them to react to the stories
of other characters but this is minimal. It's also a way to allow Cam
to notice how the whole family has kept in contact with Teddy. They
seem to like him which does make Cam jealous. Cam has always felt
like he's had to work hard to impress Mitchell's family and to see
Teddy get along so easily with them must burn. It makes Cam feel
insecure about his place in the family and can't help but take every
action personally. There's a moment where there's a fire drill. Teddy
and Cam try to both direct the family to safety. Cam hopes they pick
him but Teddy is closer. The family decides to go with Teddy because
it's more convenient. If there was an actual fire then taking Cam's
way might have risked their lives more. It's a basic choice that
doesn't take into consideration whose been accepted by the family but
Cam can't help but take it like they picking Teddy. In the end, Jay
manages to make Cam feel better by revealing that the family was
actually happy when Mitchell broke up with Teddy. They might like him
but Teddy brought out the worst in Mitchell. They have accepted Cam
into the family because he makes Mitchell happy and that's what's
important. Cam feels better but he still displays a hint of jealousy
when Teddy steals the spotlight from him at the end. Overall, it's a
good plot as it takes Cam's insecurities and turns them to his place
in the family.
While
this is all going on, Phil decides to teach Gloria how to skate. This
is of course presented as funny as possible. Gloria can barely
control herself and she's terrified of being embarrassed. She's
mortified that people might see her fail so Phil has to do his best
to build up her self-confidence. After they practice in the parking
lot, they go in the roller rink only she's still nervous. Phil tries
to take away any public attention away from Gloria and towards him by
allowing his pants to fall down. It's a plot that's funny but it
doesn't have much depth. We don't really get into why Gloria can't
bear the thought of looking bad nor does it really develop the
relationship between Phil and Gloria. It was funny to see Phil try to
teach her but it's not as great as when Luke is made a teacher.
Luke's unconventional methods tend to always be funny but I guess he
was too busy wrapped up in his mini-plot. That mini-plot is actually
what gives the episode it's name. Manny and Luke are given an
assignment to write about a family member whose a hero to them. Luke
picked his mom but he's afraid his dad is going to be disappointed.
He actually starts to binge eat to try and cope with the fear until
Claire is able to put that off his chest. It's actually kind of
surprising that the episode didn't more with this. I mean Claire is
afraid of disappointing Jay when she turns down the job and Luke is
afraid of disappointing Phil. The two dilemmas are related but Claire
doesn't even seem to realize this. A tighter episode would have
connected them. As for Manny, he can't decide on which family member
is a hero as they all have flaws that cause him to cross their names
of a list. So he writes a paper on what a hero is and ends up getting
a C- because he technically didn't do the assignment. A plot that was
kind-of-funny but quickly became old as Manny kept crossing people
off his list. There wasn't any real depth and the ending narration
felt a little too sentimental to work. Although that he got a low
grade on it was a great punchline to the whole thing-it almost feels
like that time Jay made fun of sentimental endings in the pilot. That
was back when Modern Family had it's edge.
The
episode does feature a nice plot between Alex and Haley. The two
sisters hang around two boys. Haley notices that Alex needs some
advice on how to hit on boys. For instance, finding ways to showcase
intelligence without putting the boy down. As Haley notes, the goal
of flirting is to build yourself up rather than tearing the other
person down. Alex learns this lesson and is glad to get this advice
from her sister. So glad that she admits that Haley can legitimately
be smart at times. Haley accepts the compliment and starts looking at
community college brochures that she had previously thrown away. The
smile Alex has as she notices this is pretty great. I must admit that
a small constant arc throughout this season is how their sisterly
bond has been developing. They might be mean to each other at points
but they've started to look out for each other in a way they didn't
before Haley had graduated.
My
Hero is an episode with a lot of laws. The whole Phil plot felt empty
and the episode missed a big opportunity to connect Luke's fear with
Claire's insecurity. Manny's whole essay was mixed as the
sentimentality failed but the low grade he got for it was good for a
laugh. At the same time, it was a really funny episode and a lot of
the elements did work. My Hero is ultimately a great episode of
Modern Family that could have been a little better if it had been
able to utilize all of the plots better. It is a great achievement
that all of the plots in this episode, and there were a lot, managed
to all properly work but an extra draft could have made them all
great.
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