The Moth Chase

Dear Moth Chase friends,

Well, that’s two weeks in a row that my husband and I have really learned something about ourselves from the Dunphys – so, maybe there really is real quality programming out there for women! Last week, as Claire ripped apart the kitchen in rage, and Phil puzzled over what it was he’d done, I knew each possibility wasn’t it – I knew it was that he’d finally taken Claire’s advice…from someone else…the second he did it.  Do other ladies out there deal with this with their husbands? I know it’s not just me, Claire, and the other one of my girlfriends who called me this week to rant about her husband doing the same. So this week, when the spa ladies started schooling Phil on how to handle his wife’s problems, my husband had to turn to me again and say with a panicked edge to his voice – “I’m not like Phil!!!”. Read the rest of this entry »

My raucous laughter at Modern Family had waned a little in the last few episodes, but this one brought it back.  This season has Gloria stepping fully into her comedic role and I’m finding her to be truly amazing!  Such a sexy woman doing physical humor is rare and, I imagine, difficult to pull off (it’s kind of like someone as sexy as Javier Bardem playing a creepy psychotic like Chigurh – so incongruous it works even more).  But the character who really captivated my attention in this episode was Claire. Read the rest of this entry »

I think that entire episode would be worth watching just to see Gloria’s amazing shooting skills!  Whenever she runs onscreen, I think her boobs are going to poke my eye out, and I sit 10 full feet away from the screen!  But she’s just so awesome, I pretty much end up overlooking the over-sexualization of her frame, and just enjoy this super hot lady being super amazing.  On what Colombian street did she learn to unbutton a shirt with a gun?  And who taught her to hold it sideways – the kill shot!  I’m sensing Manny’s not the only one who lost his childhood! Read the rest of this entry »

Dear MC readers,

Well, after a few weeks off (lots of work/family/vacation travel going on in our household), I was looking forward to returning to my moth chase friends with one of my favourite tv shows…what happened?  Was it just me (and hubby), or was this episode was completely off?  The timing seemed strange, as did staging, editing, writing, pacing and even blocking.  Scenes hung without closure or real transition and the jokes didn’t quite hit it.  It was so off from its usual amazingness that we wondered if some large section of those folks responsible for it – writers, editors, etc. – were on strike.  Read the rest of this entry »

These are important questions, so I can’t resist beginning this post by writing a little about the theology of this episode!  Watching Manny try to choose between Gloria’s wrathful, terribly-rule-bound, sort of superstitious God and Jay’s wishy washy, hunch-filled, nonsensical vision was hilarious.  It is curious to me that we’ve never seen Gloria attend church or really, significantly heard God mentioned before, and now religion is all of a sudden at the center of her life.  But I’m willing to let that one go for the sake of getting to watch two equally nutty theological schemes work themselves out.  I love seeing what happens when we begin to question our assumptions about God…and how we quickly realize how easily some of our foundational beliefs can fall apart.  Gloria’s vindictive, punishing God needs to be balanced by a vision of Heaven with clouds like trampolines, sunshine and butterflies (or not) if God is still to be seen to be good.  And Jay’s vision of everyone getting into Heaven requires an answer to where do bad people end up…quickly reproducing a vision of Hell, but with better real estate, if it is to satisfy the needs that our visions of Heaven satisfy.  But somewhere in that mess of reasoning, Gloria came up with something beautifully true Read the rest of this entry »

After last week’s great return, I have to say that this episode didn’t fully do it for me.  In some ways it felt a little forced (I found the whole lead up to the, “kiss your son, now kiss your lover” scene quite awkward…and not in that brilliant British Office kind of way).  To me, the pacing wasn’t quite right.  That being said, the payoff from the strange build up was quite lovely.  Jay’s kiss for Mitchell was actually sweet, and the immediacy with which it allowed a sweet kiss, almost off-frame, between Cam and Mitchell was also perfect.  And in a sense, it also felt like a significant television moment, in large part because of its insignificance.  I was watching a tv show on the history of same sex kisses on television the other day and was shocked to learn Read the rest of this entry »

What a great episode!  Even without the surprisingly funny Kobe cameo, the Kiss Cam, jokes about Peabo Bryson and the Spurt Locker, and a mud fight at the end, the episode would have been a home run for me with that Ave Maria/House wrecking scene.  Making a nod to another famous family – The Godfather’s Corleones – Mitchell sought out his stones in order to save his daughter from a random pigeon, destroying their kitschiest objets d’art in the process.  First, I love that black and white photo of Cam over the mantel-piece and watching it smash could have provided some powerful symbolism in any other context – but that dark, overly dramatic style is the precise kind of subtle humour I love in this show…then we had the decanter set I’ve been admiring all season – it’s funny how we become sub-consciously attached to background objects.  Finally, the fire extinguisher – I don’t even know what he hoped to accomplish with the fire extinguisher.  And all to the backdrop of Cam’s singing, which made it extra amazing because despite probably being able to do a lovely version of Tiny Dancer at the Karaoke bar, Cam just didn’t have the chops to pull off Ave Maria…even though it was sweet to watch him try. Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, so that final scene with the wedding vow renewal really got me.  These actors play family so well – they’re natural, sweet and loving with each other, and that’s what makes it work.  But even more than that, it was Phil’s line that you can’t have a honeymoon without a wedding that really defined the scene.  We so often try to recapture the fun, frivolous early days of a relationship, mistakenly and nostalgically believing that that’s the truth of who we are as couples.  But the truth is that those things mean little without the simultaneous commitments we’ve made to each other.  One of the things I love most about this show is that every week after finishing it, I’m reminded a little more of why I love my husband – that’s a good portrayal of love that too many sitcoms miss out on. Read the rest of this entry »

This episode picked up a familiar theme for sitcoms – partners not knowing what the other partner wants.  But it did two things with it that I found to be more interesting than its usual playing out.  Sure it had the missed communication and missed understandings – but the humour of the episode was not dependent on these.  The humour happened around them, but it wasn’t due to them.  There’s a core to the relationships on Modern Family that is never exploited.  For all the ways the family members mess around with each other, the writers never undermine the integrity of the spousal relationships for the sake of a laugh.  Anything that deals with the deep part of those bonds takes itself seriously – even in the midst of the crazy. Read the rest of this entry »

Really, if you had to pick anyone to play Phil’s dad, is there a more perfect actor than Fred Willard?!  Returning to the role for a second time, Willard served as the anchor for the Dunphy plotline last night as Phil had to try to figure out if there was something deeper than appearances to his dad’s emotional life.  Having always been close with his dad (they did once go out for Hallowe’en as a two-headed snake – man, I wish we had that footage!), Phil worries that he’s actually one of those guys with an emotionally distant parent he’s always pitied.  In the end he gets to breathe a sigh of relief as it turns out his dad isn’t emotionally distant, just a little emotionally shallow…not that that’s a bad thing.  Those broodier types of us often feel the need to think that happier people must have a deep, dark side.  But there really are just folks who float on the surface – they make tense family gatherings easier; they lift everyone’s spirits at work, and they’ve always got a joke (no matter how corny) to share.  What was sweet about this plot was Phi’s desire – and fear – to get to know the potential dark side of his dad.  It’s difficult to face the possibility Read the rest of this entry »