Modern Family - "Hit and Run"

Season 3, Episode 5

A story, in two parts

For all I’ve talked about the problems Modern Family has had with its structure, I’ve failed to explicitly state another general rule of television: a good structure doesn’t make up for a lack of poor jokes or a lacking setup, but it can help. Or, to put it another way, I found the first half of “Hit and Run” to be very trying, but the back half was far more entertaining, even if that’s not saying much.

The episode tonight had about seven plots, depending on how you were counting – Clair trying to run for office and then backing out, Phil trying to take care of the kids, Haley’s attempts to get a fake ID, Jay having problems getting the son of a former business partner to buy his bid to build closets, Manny doesn’t want to make a “flashy” project, Gloria thinks she has all the answers, and Cam and Mitchell squabble over the latter’s confrontational streak. Yes, that was a lot of plots for 22 minutes, none of which were really all that funny or original, and I was soon questioning why I even bother to watch this show anymore.

But then the halfway point hit, and some of these storylines started coming together when the whole clan gathered together at Jay’s house. Gloria, tired of no one listening to her answers, convinced Claire to run for office. When the family learns about Haley’s botched fake ID buy, Phil, Jay, Cam and Mitchell head over to the guy’s house to get back the money, and Mitchell takes down the guy, which somehow evens things up with Cam, because no episode of this show can ever end without out all the story lines at least pretending to be resolved. And Gloria uses the power of her awesome cleavage to solve Jay’s problems, while everybody pretends that that isn’t sexist in the slightest.

I’m not going to say that any of this was good or terribly interesting, but the second half of the episode did feel a whole lot more effortless than the first. As I’ve explained before, MF is at its best when it stops trying to be a throwback to 90s sitcoms and is just itself. And considering that the family, the whole of it, is the show, having the family converge on one or two shared locations and just having them and their problems bounce off of one another is what it does best. As much as I despise all the plotlines that the show likes to cram into just one episode, I’d feel better about it if I knew they were going to converge together by the end. And if the convergence happens sooner. And if they were more original.

Quotes, Etc:

Also making the storylines more palatable this week: fantastic guest stars. We had David Cross as Daune Bailey, Claire’s new political opponent; Samm Levine as the condo developer that butt heads with Jay, and The Guy Who Played Todd in Last Week’s Community Episode as the fake ID maker. (Okay, so that last one wasn’t really a guest star of note, but it did make me smile to see that actor, whoever he is, show up on two shows within a week.)

“Enjoy the show. I was always a fan of the Muppets, especially the two guys in the theatre that never shut up.”

“I want to be homeschooled.” “Really? You want me to learn you English?”

“And you’re easy on the eyes when you put a little effort into it.”

“I’ll admit it: I’m tuned on my powerful women. Michelle Obama, Oprah, Condoleezza Rice, Serena Williams….wait a minute…”

“Heh heh…assets.”

“Pssh, the police. Aren’t they too busy winning the War on Drugs?”

“Shotgun!” “No, no weapons.”

“Help, he’s slipping out of his skinny jeans.”

“The Fabulous Baker Boys. The title was misleading. A lot of Michelle Pfeiffer, that’s all I’m saying.”