Lady J Love Explosion

Last night’s Modern Family and Cougar Town. Stay tuned tomorrow for my thoughts on tonight’s NBC line up.

Spoilers.

Modern Family – “Mother’s Day” (B)

There wasn’t anything wrong with “Mother’s Day”. To be honest Modern Family is built for this type of fluff holiday, and all the different plotlines in this episode worked on at least some level. Was “Mother’s Day” the funniest episode I’ve seen from this show? Probably not, but it was a solid effort that entertained while it lasted.

Of the three main storylines in this episode, my favourite had to be hiking with Claire, Gloria, and the kids. It goes back to my own childhood being forced into long boring hikes. I never got the appeal of driving to nature and walking for hours, only to end up right back where you started in the first place. Hayley’s comment early on in the hiking sequence pretty much captured what it was like to hike with me:

HAYLEY: How much further?
CLAIRE: Well I’d like to go far enough that we can’t still see our car in the parking lot.

And that prompted Claire’s very funny speech about wanting to hit her kids... sometimes. What really sold the joke for me was the level of detail she put into it. It showed just how much thought she’d put into it. Like how lining them up like dominos and knocking them all over in one shot would be efficient, but would take away the satisfaction of being able to knock them over individually.

I also enjoyed the Phil and Jay pairing. The two of them have been coupled together before and their unique dynamic has always been good for a laugh. This episode took their relationship in a different direction however, with Jay letting his emotions slip around Phil this time. That’s not to say there weren’t a few good classic Phil/Jay bits, like Phil’s Julia Child impression and his attempt to break out into song and dance around an unamused Jay, but the storyline really picked up when Phil read a note saved by Jay’s mother. Jay’s crying incident was played well by Ed O’Neill and Phil’s subsequent “proud lion” monologue as he awkwardly tried to hug Jay was an especially nice touch.

Mitchell and Cameron also had a few of their own strong moments in their storyline, with Cameron taking exception to being treated like the mother in their relationship. The image of Lily standing outside her parents’ room with balloons in hand had to be one of the highlights of the episode for me. I also enjoyed the look on Cameron’s face as he was reluctantly pulled into a group photo with mothers from Lily’s playgroup.

All in all I enjoyed this episode for what it was. It may not rank among the best episodes this series has to offer, but it had enough good laughs to entertain me throughout, and enough sentiment to do its subject matter justice.

My favourite quotes:

LUKE: It’s a spear, and it smells like Lemon Lime, a flavour coyotes hate.
MANNY: Where are you getting your information?

LUKE: I say we eat what we kill.
MANNY: Oh, than I guess we’ll be eating the mood.
LUKE: I don’t get you at all.
MANNY: I know.

LUKE: You know more people have died hiking than in the entire civil war.
ALEX: Okay, what book did you read that in?
LUKE: Book? Wake up and smell the internet grandma.

And line of the episode:

HAYLEY: We’re your mother now.

Cougar Town – “Lonesome Sundown” (B+)

Finally! Finally they revisit that Trav proposing cliffhanger from all the way back in “Walls” (from almost two weeks ago now – things just seemed simpler then). Unfortunately, I think that also means we’ve seen the last of Kirsten, but I’ll just have to get over that. Travis will have new and just as funny girlfriends in the future... hopefully.

But the episode was so much more than Travis proposing, thanks in no small part to the glorious invention that was “The Council”. Of all the hilarious ideas that have come out of Laurie’s head over the past two seasons, The Council had to be one of her best. From the hilariousness of watching Bobby implode over his non-punishment punishment to Little Richard, Laurie’s punishment for coming up with the judgemental committee in the first place, there was seldom a scene in this episode that the presence of The Council didn’t elevate.

Of course Jules’ had a pretty good week council or no council, spending the episode living in squalor aboard Bobby’s boat. Actually, while Jules was quite funny on her own making fire Castaway style and warding off angry homeless men, this storyline owes quite a bit credit to the awesomeness of Dog Travis as well. Seriously, I don’t think there’s a funnier animal on television today. I’ll fight anyone who begs to differ. Okay, I might not fight you. But I don’t think I laughed harder in this episode than when Dog Travis licked Ellie’s face as the Cul-De-Sac crew drank coffee in Bobby’s boat. Please, if you can think of a funnier pet on television than hit me up in the comments.

I was also quite entertained by the Travis and Grayson storyline this week. After hilariously mocking Travis for what seemed like the 100^th time this season (keep ‘em coming, they’re still funny) Jules pushed Grayson to become closer with Trav, which kicked off this formidable pairing. The banter between these two characters is always good, and the looming proposal gave them both some first-rate fodder to work with. I especially loved the discovery of Grayson’s homemade jewellery business, and the fact that both he and Travis share an admiration for Lou Diamond Phillips.

But it wasn’t just the jokes that made this story work. Some of the conversations between Grayson and Travis were quite poignant, and I enjoyed the bond they developed over the course of the episode, culminating in Grayson’s hilariously weird “I love you too man” at the end of the episode. One step at a time Grayson, one step at a time.

My favourite quotes:

JULES: That is the first time I’ve heard Travis say I love you too without it being followed by “now stop watching me sleep mom”.

LAURIE: It is time for some justice, foster home style! Except without the coat hanger brandings.

BOBBY: Now remember, spark good, fire bad. That little rhyme might save your life.
JULES: Not a rhyme.

TRAVIS: Grab him, he’s going Gollum on us.

ELLIE: If you lose I have to start calling Stan by his middle name. I can’t say I love you Hector, it’s not in me.

JULES: You bet on me?
ELLIE: I believe in you... and I was hammered.

And line of the night:

ANDY: Hey, we go down, we go down together.
LAURIE: Andy, you’re absolved because you’re easily influenced.
ANDY: How do we punish him?