I’ve Got Dog Travis On It

Last night’s Modern Family and Cougar Town...

Spoilers ahead.

Modern Family – “Someone to Watch Over Lily” (B-)

I hate to say it, but I was a little disappointed with Modern Family this week. It had such a promising premise, with Cam and Mitchell looking for a guardian for Lily in the event something unfortunate happens to the two of them, but sadly just couldn’t cash in on its potential. There were a few great character moments, but on the whole the episode was light on the laughs.

Take the main Cam/Mitchell storyline. Now I will give it to the writers (and of course Sofia Vergara) for Gloria’s contribution. For what must have been the third week in a row she stole the episode. It was hilarious how inappropriately happy she was at the thought of getting Lily despite it meaning Cam and Mitchell’s untimely demise. But other than that, there wasn’t really anything fresh about the storyline. The sporting goods scene fell pretty flat in my opinion, and while I liked Manny’s talk with Jay that ultimately convinced Cam he would make a good guardian, it was more nostalgic than it was funny.

Hayley and Alex’s storyline was along the same lines. The two of them bonding over a shared experience was a sweet storyline, just not a very funny one. I really liked their final little talk in the car, but they barely even attempted to make a joke in that storyline, and while I like the sentimental aspects of this show, they can’t carry an entire episode on their own.

I also didn’t like that, because they didn’t want them stealing focus from Jay and Gloria in the A story, they portrayed Claire and Phil as scatterbrain parents. I get that it was part of the joke, but the execution was a little too over the top for my liking. I don’t really understand why they decided to shy away from a straight up competition between the two families. I think that would have been a pretty funny route too.

Anyways, with that said there were a few good lines. Some of my favourites:

CLAIRE: Phil the frying pans on fire.
PHIL: Son of Jor-el!

PHIL: How did I what? Know you were some place you left no trace of except for a tiny notation in your calendar. It was quite simple really; I noticed a tiny not... shoot

LUKE: I didn’t even have to take my pants off... I found that one out a little late.

GLORIA: That is great news! Lily, when something horrible happens you’re going to be all mine!
MITCHELL: It really is an if situation.
GLORIA: All mine!

And my line(s) of the episode:

PHIL: He doesn’t have issues, you’re just a worrier. Like when you thought he was never going to talk.
CLAIRE: He was 2 and all he could do was bark.
PHIL: I understood him!

Cougar Town – “Baby’s Rock ‘N’ Roller” (B)

I’m sorry, did Travis not walk out of the house with an engagement ring in the last episode? I was kind of hoping they would follow up on that storyline in this episode. Not so much though. So despite not being the episode I wanted it to be how did “Baby’s Rock ‘N’ Roller” do? Well it was pretty average. Every storyline had a few goods moments, but not enough of them to truly elevate the episode.

The main storyline in this one was Jules and Grayson looking after Ellie and Andy’s baby Stan for a night. Now I know what you’re thinking – Ellie and Andy have a baby? Well they do, they just never show him (the writers had a funny acknowledgement of this fact in the episode), which is totally fine with me. Babies on television tend to be pretty boring. Just look at Cece on The Office. It is worth noting that Bill Lawrence sitcoms rarely spend much time with the offspring of their characters, so perhaps he realizes this as well. Both J.D. and Turk (with Carla) had babies for multiple seasons on Scrubs and you barely ever saw them. Only Dr. Cox’s kid Jack ever got any screen time and that wasn’t until the kid could talk.

Anyways, watching Jules and Grayson get foiled by a two a year old was probably the strongest storyline of the episode. I laughed at their baby prison and the way Jules shoots awake with a barrage of questions. It looks like they’ll be trouble ahead though between Jules and Grayson as Grayson clearly wants a kid and Jules doesn’t. I was wondering when they were going to throw a real obstacle between these two and looks like now is that time. I really hope the two of them don’t break up though. They generate a ton of humour from Grayson playing the straight man to Jules’ more off the wall personality traits, and that’ll become a lot more difficult if they’re no longer a couple.

Laurie and Andy’s arc in this episode wasn’t the greatest I’ve seen from these two characters, but did have its moments. I thought one of the funniest gags in the episode was Laurie’s walk of shame minus the shame. It’s one of those storylines you could only pull off with her character, but watching how happy she was to still be able to have one night stands without going out to clubs was really funny.

And while Bobby didn’t get a ton of screen time in this one, he made the most of what he was given. I loved all the elaborate methods he devised to wake himself up, and even funnier were all the ways he managed to subvert them. I really loved his dog Travis and the hamburger snooze button. And I think maybe the most underrated joke of the episode was his sleep induced golf cart incident in the after credits sequence. I loved the big overhead shot they used to sell the bit. It was understated but hilarious.

Now for my favourite quotes:

JULES: He’s allergic to Telemundo?
ROSA: I think that’s more for me.

JULES: Rosa I’m great with kids. You know my son almost made honour role... twice. I’m a bit of a Mary Poppins.

TRAVIS: Oh, is this one of those times when you take something tiny and then say how it means something more profound?
BOBBY: My failure to wake up shows how I blow all my chances for a better life.
TRAVIS: Yeah, I called it.

LAURIE: I used to love clubs like that, now they suck... I don’t know who I am anymore.

ANDY: Plus it reduces the odds of you being randomly murdered by like half.
LAURIE: (unconvinced) I guess...

And my favourite joke of the night:

JULES: Stan should be sleeping now, but genius here gave him chocolate covered espresso beans.
GRAYSON: I thought they were raisins... and I wanted him to like me.