Warning: Spoilers!
“Modern Family” made up for not having a Halloween episode this year by having a Thanksgiving episode instead. This was the first Thanksgiving episode from “Modern Family,” and even though we didn’t see any more extended family, it followed an old tradition: the Pritchetts vs. everyone else.
Someone finally appreciates the awesome that is Phil Dunphy. An old neighborhood kid returns to town to buy a blimp after dropping out of college and becoming a wildly successful businessman. He says his success has come as a result of asking himself the one question I ask myself every day, “What would Phil Dunphy do?” This makes Phil wonder what could have happened if he had followed through with all his ideas. His reason for not following through: Claire. As a Pritchett, she is too practical and by nature, a dream killer. She’s shot down gems like adult tricycles and the helmet head scratcher (TM).
Father dream killer, Jay, doesn’t like Manny’s homemade Thanksgiving centerpiece. Jay doesn’t like a lot of things Manny does, but he really didn’t like that centerpiece. Gloria learned her lesson last season when she told Manny what she really thought (remember Mothers Day?), so she praises the centerpiece endlessly. As a Pritchett, it’s Jay’s job to serve up some cold, hard reality to Manny, even though you’d think Manny was old enough to know it looked like something he dug out of the trash and glued together. I thought Manny was artsy? I’m not, so maybe I just don’t understand.
The final dream killer, Mitchell, upsets Cam when he tells him he didn’t believe in his punkin’ chunkin’ story. In the story, Cam said him and his farm friends launched a pumpkin across a football field and into the open sunroof of a preacher’s car. Mitch isn’t buying it. Claire and Jay don’t either. So instead of eating dinner the whole family heads down to the football field to see who is right, the realist or the dreamers. Obviously, it’s the realist and the pumpkin doesn’t go more than a couple yards. The dream killer family decides being right isn’t that fun when the ones you love are wrong.
The usual voice over ends the show. “There are dreamers and there are realists in this world,” Cam said. “You think the dreamers would find the dreamers and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not, the opposite is true. See, the dreamers need the realists to keep the dreamers from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists? Well without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground.” Sometimes I find the voice over to be too sappy, but this time I don’t mind it. I really enjoy it actually. Maybe it’s because of Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s because I’m a realist who appreciates the dreamers in my life. Either way, “Modern Family” had a great Thanksgiving.
Quote of the week:
Cam – “There’s no such thing as a supportive womp womp. A womp womp, by its very nature, is vicious and under cutting.” If you missed it you can check out the full episode here!
Sam Gillis can be reached for comment at [email protected].
