Modern Family 4×08 review: ‘Mistery Date’

I was always a sucker for punny titles! I give this episode a 4/5 laughs on the funny scale. The way to really get a 5 in my eyes is laughter throughout. Modern Family could really increase the laughter if they made ALL of the plot lines hilarious but with that said, they also do a good job balancing humour with real substance in their episodes.

Although Hayley got arrested and returned home last week, she was altogether absent in this week’s episode. It was definitely nice to see the mother and daughter dynamic between Alex and Claire as I feel like we’ve seen it between Hayley and Claire many, many times. We always see the similarities from Claire’s youth to Hayley’s but never really entirely see how she handles parenting Alex since she’s so different.

This week Claire takes Alex, Luke, and Manny to Alex’s academic decathlon out of town. Claire thought at first she would almost rather hope that Alex lose this year since she doesn’t want Alex to put so much pressure on herself. But when Alex actually loses, Claire realizes that she puts a lot of pressure on Alex as well because she loves parading her very smart daughter to the other parents. Alex understands that her mom is just extremely proud of her and they have their lovely bonding moment! I think maybe they could have spent more time building this up and just have gotten rid of the Manny and Luke subplot because I don’t really understand how that side story was meaningful or funny at all. It’s nice to see the kids but more of a focus on the growing relationship between Alex and Claire would have made the episode even better!

On the other hand, PHIL STOLE THE SHOW! My God, this was hilarious. I mean it is a little cliché in a sense but all of Phil’s lines could not have been more misleading to the poor guy he met at the gym. I always love it when Modern Family connects their plots and this was no exception. It was just so flawless when Cam was talking on the phone with his friend and Phil. Also, that moment when Phil finally understood was golden as well! Best plot of the night!

In other news, Jay struggles with giving his home office away for the nursery and he and Mitchell have a father and son bonding moment. Their father and son dynamic has always been a little tense but Jay especially has grown a lot to understand Mitchell and to treat him not only as a son but as a friend in this episode.  Cam struggles with being over controlling but that turned out for the best in the end!

Overall, Phil’s plot line made up for any other inadequacies this episode had (which were not that many anyway) and bumped the laughs to a 4 out of 5! Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!