We’ve come to like Modern Family so quickly because the new sitcom has so quickly made its characters vivid and distinctive. Oh, and funny. Little Manny, as played with uncommon adroitness by Rico Rodriguez, has been established in previous episodes as a precocious, articulate kid who can hold a mature, advice-filled conversation with, for example, his step-sister Claire (Julie Bowen).
Until last night, however, we didn’t know that Manny also excelled at a certain sport.
Manny’s skill at fencing didn’t end up being much of a good source for comedy, though. After the initial surprise of this athletic ability, his refusal to compete against a girl was just a momentary hitch in his unstoppable winning. And having the girl be so absurdly sympathetic (an orphan diabetic cared for by a nurse who brought a parade of wheelchairing friends to cheer on the girl) only undercut the humor more. If it wasn’t for Jay (Ed O’Neill) making those “Who Da Manny?” t-shirts and slapping son-in-law Phil (Ty Burrell) too enthusiastically on the sidelines, the Manny-as-fencer scenes would have been less funny than Claire and Mitchell’s sweet school-yard ice-skating.
Even the best sitcoms have an off-night, of course. I still really like Modern Family, obviously. I’m sure next week it’ll be top-notch-funny once again. But this week, what could have been a triumph for Manny’s character got lost too quickly. This excellent show was striving a bit too hard to make its overarching point about the pointlessness of striving too hard for excellence.
Agree? Disagree?
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I thought it was yet another hilarious episode… Sorry, Ken!
Sorry Ken I agree with Michael J. I too thought it was indeed another very funny episode.
Yes, I totally disagree w/the recap as well, I LOVED this episode!
I totally agree, the show was LOL-a-rific!!!
Loved the side story about Mitchell & Claire’s skating past! Oh, and wasn’t it SO SWEET when Jay put Manny’s trophy down….beside a picture of Claire/Mitchell from their skating days! AWWW!
Same here! I LOLed all over the place.
Oh, ken…you miss the mark again! another amusing episode, full of charm and witt.and the line at the end was full of win : guilt fades, but hardware is here to stay. whoop!
Have to agree with all the other posts. While I agree that humor with fencing wasn’t all that much, it didn’t need to be. I loved Alex taking advantage of her bro and sis. All the little moments add up to a lot of laughter.
yep, gonna disagree. My brother and I laughed and laughed. I thought it was hilarious.
Totally disagree. Thought it was absolutely hilarious and one of the best episodes the show has yet aired, along with “The Bicycle Thief” and “Run for Your Wife.” The iPod/phone charging was hilarious, too.
the episode was great. my favorite part was the baseball catch scenes
What about during those fencing scenes when Gloria was hugging Claire and jumping up and down in front of Phil? Gloria to Claire: “sorry sorry” Phil: “that’s okay”. C’mon that was funny!
had to take a cold shower after that..lol
This is the most consistent show on TV now. ABC comedies The MIDDLE, Modern FAmily and Cougar Town (which also had a great ep tonight) are one of the best, if not the best comedy package on tv right now
Cougar Town is just not funny. I’m not sure if it’s the casting department’s fault or the writing…but Courtney Cox-Arquette’s character’s son just cannot act. If he is “acting” the lines well, then the writing department needs to change his character; not one thing he has said or done has been funny (even though you can tell it’s supposed to be). And the same goes with his dad. I really wanted this show to do well and be funny, but alas, it is no Scrubs.
I don’t find Cougartown funny, either.
I thought I was the only one but I don’t find Cougar Town funny at all. The jokes are cheesy and I keep saying this but Courtney Cox is a little over the top and not funny. Their no hot guys on this show. The son is weird, ex-husband-gross, neighbor-unattractive, and the other is supposed to be a middle aged normal looking guy.
Hello Jules’s paper buddy is smoking hot!
clearly you are just looking to knock down the best new tv show of the year. it was once again absolutely hysterical!
“Mitchell, I’m fairly certain that Dad’s proudest moment was when you took off the flame-red unitard.” – Claire
HILARIOUS!!!! Loved when they showed the picture of them at the end when they used to ice skate and we got to see that hideous unitard. OMGoodness, this show is too funny.
yes! Fire and Nice. lol. I liked that it was in dad’s house on the mantel with all his other proud memories. Showed he really did care… awwww. lol
I laughed like crazy. This show never fails to bring the funny. You’re crazy.
NO kidding.
Meanwhile, the stupid EW writers will FAWN ALL OVER GLEE like it’s written by Jesus or something.
Freakin’ ridiculous.
Glee AND Modern Family are my two favorite new shows (liking one does not have to mean the other sucks)
Glee..is a turd….Modern family is real multi-dimesnsional comedy..Glee is ugh…so…horrible…
I really like both shows. Best new comedies AND best new TV shows.
You are totally wrong! I’m sitting alone laughing out loud. This episode was hilarious!!!
Did anyone else catch the custom shirt that Claire was wearing? “Claire and Present Danger”
haha, yeah I did.
I did! I loved that.
I caught it too.. little details like that make me love this show even more.
i was going to write about that too! the tennis rackets on it too. loved all the shirts, hope they show more of them in the future. good episode
ha, that made me crack up.
Loved that shirt. Also loved the stairs in the house “acting like a natural shoehorn”
Yes! That cracked me up
Put down the pipe Ken, this episode had my stomach hurting I was laughing so much. It has replaced the Office as my favorite show…The Office still rocks though.
This is the only show on tv that makes me laugh riotously throughout and leaves me in tears by the end. This is one great show.
Hear Hear!
I’m usually rewinding just to listen to the next joke that I missed because I was laughing so hard at the joke prior.
Me too. Thank goodness for DVR!
I agree with Ken. It wasnt horrible, just not as crazy funny as some of the other episodes have been. When I read the preview I thought the scenes with Manny would be really funny, but they were just okay. Also, for some reason, I think the stuff with Phil and Claire talking about their kids is consistently really unfunny. Does anyone else agree on that?
The idea is that Phil is over the top trying to hard, and yea sometimes it is annoying only because you want to slap him upside the head, but claire is more of a realist but still loves her husband no matter how much he unintentionally yanks everyones chain.
dump Phill.hit by a trruck would be nice…leave him in hospital..spoils an otherwise near-perfect show..
You’re crazy smokey. Phil is the best PART of the show. his interactions with his son are phenomenal.
LOVE Phil. Great, great article. Phenomenal timing.
Sorry, but I too thought the episode was hilarious! It’s possible that I’ve laughed more at others, but I certainly wouldn’t say that I enjoyed this one less than those. Cameron with his video camera? Priceless. “Some make home movies, I make home films.”
“You brought a wind machine!”
“Who puts wheels on a crib?”
I wouldn’t say this was the best episode of Modern Family so far, but I still laughed a lot. Even on its worst day Modern Family is still more funny than a lot of other comedies on tv
I agree… This episode didnt beat the trifecta of the last 3 legendary episodes but I think they probably knew they were competing with the World Series and decided to show one of their lesser episodes… still- Best New Comedy of the year… I hope it wins Best Comedy at the SAG & Emmy awards… the reign of 30 rock is officially over…
God I hope so. I HATE the fact that 30 Rock wins each year! Honestly, it’s not THAT funny.
You are so right, Heather. Not the very best, but still g-r-e-a-t. And, how clever not to show the actual jump of Cameron (oh, how I love him)on top of Mitchell – leaving it to our imagination was a bright move. And Jay’s moments were superb, as usual (to think I never liked the guy before… But now… go, Jay, go!)
You are so wrong Ken….It was super funny!!!
I love the show.
You look the like sun
I agree, kinda. It was still a funny show, but not quite as funny. I was a little disappointed, but only because I finally got some family members to sit down and watch it and it wasn’t on par. They laughed, but didn’t get why I rave on it all the time.
I’m sort of agreeing with Ken. It was a solid episode with some good laughs, but not as funny as some of the previous episodes. No harm though, like Ken said, even the best sitcoms have an off-night. Still the best new comedy of the fall season, and one of the best comedies on TV.
This episode emphasizes this show has heart. It may not be a laugh-out-loud funny as previous, but it makes this show good on other levels.
I liked the episode. But I get what Ken is saying. The ‘heart’ aspect of the show was a bit forced (I’m still waiting for an episode where they don’t do a feel-good-happy-music in the background ending) and Cameron running around with the camera was milking it a bit. Phil was excellent last night though.
huh? phil is the only blight on an other wise near-erfect show..please tone his character down or send him “sway” like Richie’s older brother on Happy Days..that would rock!
Are you kidding?!?! Phil is the best part of this show.
Gotta say i disagree SGIYE, I think Phil is the best part. His character constantly cracks me up! The baseball scene was hilarious!
I loved the scene where Cameron & Mitchell were talking about M’s ice skating & M mentioned that Cam couldn’t wear the color yellow & Cam was talking about M’s bitterness bubbling up–did you notice in the end Cameron had his yellow shirt on? Hysterical!
…I loved it! my favorite line was when Jay said, regarding Manny’s triumphs “we are proud of our little zorro”…
It wasn’t the funniest but it will still pretty damn funny.
oops i meant to say “was” instead of “will”
I totally disagree. It started off slow, but I thought the absurd piling on of sympathy for Manny’s finals opponent was one of the funniest things the show has ever done.
“I only wish her father could have made it back from Afghanistan to see this. Hey there’s our cheering section!” and the wheelchairs start rolling in… OMG I was cracking up!!
She’s diabetic…
Of course she is..
lol
I’m in agreement with Ken- not the greatest stuff ever, but I did enjoy the ep better than last week, and as a fencer myself, I loved seeing an episode of ANYTHING dedicated to the sport.
Phil and Luke selling houses was enjoyable
Hmmm… Totally disagree. I loved this episode, and even got a little choked up at the end.
This episode was the Emerald City at the end of my yellow brick road.
“Huh, you just did it. You made figure skating even gayer.” Ha ha ha ha LMAO! Cameron rules!
This is not much of a recap.
Loved it. Love the characters. Great writing, Great CAST -FUNNY!!!