WARNING: SPOILERS
After a few weeks off, “Modern Family” is back with another of their many great guest stars: Greg Kinnear. While the main cast is great on their own, it’s always fun to see someone else who can match wits, come in and mix things up a bit.
Kinnear plays too cool, country-hopping Tad, a perspective client for Phil, with a recent divorce and a large bank account. After dinner at the Dunphy’s, Tad plants a lingering kiss on Claire much to her discomfort. So was the usually goofy Phil sent into a jealous rage? Of course not, he is too busy flailing over his hand almost-a-hug shake. That’s how things work on this show. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be very funny. We later find out that Tad jkisses everyone on the lips. Everyone. So Claire can lighten up and laugh at his jokes now. THIS is what finally makes Phil jealous. As we know, Phil thinks pretty highly of his humor and the power it has entertain his wife, so no man is going to steal his wife with subpar jokes. With the bromance off, I can guest we won’t be seeing much more of Tad.
That’s too bad. I take all the Greg Kinnear I can get.
Meanwhile Jay and Gloria are hosting Cam and Mitchell while their house is fumigated. Gloria and Cam seem thrilled to be spending time together, and I got the feeling that this is going to be an episode where we see a lot of close ups of Jay sighing and shaking his head. But this doesn’t happen. Well it does, because you know Jay has to shake his head at something during each episode, but it happened significantly less than I was expecting. Gloria and Cam clash, as do Mitchell and Jay. Manny, ever the genius, tries to fix things, but to no avail. A prank phone call smooths things over between Jay and Mitchell. Cam and Gloria just realize they were being overly sensitive.
Manny wasn’t the only preteen boy with more sense than his older counterparts this week. Yes, I’m talking about Luke. Alex and Haley are fighting after Haley is a better big sister to her Little Sister, Annie, than she is to her real little sister, Alex. Mid-fight Luke comes in and rains some truth on the two of them: they are both terrible big sisters to him. So what do the sisters do? Turn Luke into Betty Luke. A lot of things on this show, while hilarious, can be too far out there to actually happen in your own home. This felt real. As the youngest child in my family I know.
On a side note, I would love for Cam to organize my life because he was brilliant.
Sam Gillis can be reached for comment at [email protected].
