Modern Family - "Egg Drop"

Season 3, Episode 12

Twelve episodes. That's how long it's taken me to reach a place with Modern Family that so many critics reach with other shows: I've simply hit a wall in which I can't seem to find anything to new about this particular show. I keep hitting on the same criticisms that I outlined at the beginning of the season, and I'm sort of sick of it, as I'm sure you are as well. So tonight, in the interest of protecting everyone's sanity, and while I mull over whether or not to continue weekly coverage of the show, I would like to approach tonight's episode from a large scope and see if I can't come up with something a little different. Because frankly apart from one or two scenes, “Egg Drop” only served to continue Modern Family's descent into frustrating mediocrity.

Now, the funny thing about hanging out on the internet all day is that I read a lot of stuff, and depending on how good some of that stuff is, I have anywhere between two to five articles swimming around in my head while I watch TV on any given night, and more often than not they affect my reading of episode and give me idea for how to approach a review. Of course I usually don't follow through with most of those ideas, because they tend to include a good deal of explanation, and is the case with my Modern Family reviews, that goes beyond the more simplistic approach I take with some comedies. However, I'm at the end of my rope, so let's try this out, shall we? 

The first couple of pieces come courtesy of the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour (which is still going on), where sticking a bunch of critics in the same place leads to exactly what you think it does: lots of theoretical debates about television. (Oh, and plenty of drinking, apparently.) Specifically, Twitter blew up the other day as critics, inspired by the ABC comedy panel, once again took to that old argument about the comparisons between multi- and single-camera comedies. While there were many points to conversation, one of the more salient point was how the single-camera style could in fact make older jokes work better based on the mere fact that the style looks “classier”.

The second bit of TCA news is much more specific, and much more brutal. At yesterday's panel for 2 Broke Girls, critics and showrunner Micheal Patrick King exchanged quite a few heated words over the state of that show, specifically how the critics loved the chemistry between Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs (which is awesome), while rightly criticizing the racist stereotypes of the diner (which are awful). While King made a whole lot of frankly odd points defending the show, he also brought out the old chestnut of “Well, are large audience sure seems to like it”, the boilerplate justification for why showrunners don't feel the need to improve their product.

How this all applies to Modern Family should at this point be pretty clear, because it's the same things that I've been harping on all season. Ever since winning its first Emmy for best comedy, MF has seemingly been coasting on their goodwill, as episode increasingly seem to be phoning it in terms of plot. This is something we already know, and this week's episode only helped to bolster that. Luke and Manny have a school project, and Claire and Jay get competitive! Cam and Mitchell interview birth mothers! Phil relies on his family to help him with a presentation, and they let him down! It's all old hat, frankly. 

And given all the thoughts that this TCA session has kicked up in my head, I can't help but wonder what portions of MF's current state are owed to which mitigating factor. Do people not realize that the show trades is tired storyline because it's shot in single-camera – nay, mockumentary – format, a format which has introduced so many truly great comedies over the past 10 years? Do the show runners produce such lazy episodes because they get so much justification for doing so (in the way of audience numbers and Emmy awards) or because they legitimately think this stuff is hilarious? Sadly, it's probably a combination of all three. 

The third piece I had in mind was Cory Barker's recent post on contemporary sitcoms, Modern Family in particular, which seem on the whole to place emphasis on characters being mean to each other over striking any sort of realistic balance between being mean and being nice. It's an idea that I've hit on in parts before (specifically Claire's nagging and Cam and Mitch's bitchiness towards one another), but it's not a connection that I've made in full. And since I've never noticed it, I'd be hard pressed to say it's bothers me, but maybe that's because the show “meanness” problem is one that just gets rolled all together under the larger umbrella problem of over-reliance on 90s-era sitcom staples.

But seeing that issue addressed directly in “Egg Drop” was certainly interesting, both for the coincidence with Barker's piece, and because it opened my eyes to something that I think has been missing from the show: earned pathos. While Gloria's comment that you don't truly love your family until you can yell at them was played for a joke, but it turned very serious when Phil got understandably upset with her and Haley for not supporting him at his presentation. Obviously the show was playing on Gloria's idea, but the much stronger one was the idea that maybe this family isn't perfect, and they let each other down in a big way.

I think the biggest problem with the reliance on meanness is that the show creates an illogical balance where the characters are allowed to be mean to one another for 19 minutes and then suddenly loving in the last two, and that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But I also think it doesn't make sense exactly where all this meanness comes from, which only expounds the problem. But something like a deep-seated feeling of resentment because your family doesn't support you, that's more logical, and can exist along with more loving behavior, even if it's a wider breadth of emotion that simple snappiness and loving behavior. Love makes us do stupid things, like continuing to be part of a family that doesn't respect our needs, and I wish the show had the courage to go to a darker angle like that more often.

One finale piece of information that I can't help but comment on (and it's actually cited in Barker's piece as well), is the depiction of Cam and Mitchell's relationship, which showrunner Steven Levitan went on record as saying that he think the show will be helpful in turning the tide of homophobic thought in society. Regardless of whether you believe in the concept (I do, but that's neither here nor there), I have to question whether this is the gay couple to help do that. As Barker says, their bitchiness with one another certainly doesn't help things, and I agree, but I also don't like how the show tends to waffle on just how “gay” or “straight” to make them.

Look, presenting Cam and Mitch as “normal” and doing regular things that straight couples do – such as meeting with prospective birth mothers – is a great way to help turn the tides against homophobia. Nor should the show shy away from the fact that they are gay, and it's okay for the show to depict them as such, as long as it's character-based. However, showing their uglier attributes, and having them get snippy at each other while doing some of those stereotypical gay activities – like Mitch's need to correct people invoked the anal-retentive gay stereotype; not to mention how competitive they get with the duet – makes it seem like there is a correlation between them being gay and them being mean to one another, and that's just not going to help anybody.

That's it. That's pretty much every problem I have with the show in it's current state, laid out in full. But I'm done criticizing the show for things that it's clearly not going to change, so this marks the end of my coverage of the show, assuming that it doesn't approve, and apart from any individual episode that provides me with something new to say.

Which leaves a spot open for another show to be covered. What would you like? The Middle? Suburgatory? Revenge? Psych? Sound off below. 

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Okay, the other part of the episode that I liked: Luke laying across the stair banister, egg in mouth, prepared to be the vehicle to help his egg drop safely. That was a well-done sight gag.

“I got 'crazy old witch', then 'go kill yourself', and 'I love you'.”

“Why did you have to get your toes done too?” “Well, there's this really cute boy at school who's kind of into my feet.”

“For your information, you came out of the womb like that. I'm not entirely certain there wasn't a twin in their that you bumped off.”