Modern Family - "Fulgencio" - Review

If I had to recommend tv comedies to someone who had little knowledge of television, odds are that I probably wouldn’t suggest Modern Family. It probably wouldn’t broach my top 10 or even my top 20. The same goes for How I Met Your Mother and The Office for where they stand (though their earlier seasons might have me say otherwise). I want to abandon them; I want to clear up time to watch better, more enjoyable, less frustrating series. But I keep finding myself out of nostalgia for what these series used to be (and the glimpses of their former selves they occasionally show) and a desire for completeness, as if I can’t properly complain about how disappointing they’ve become if I’m not that stalwart individual suffering though it all. Modern Family hasn’t reached the consistently abysmal lows of HIMYM or The Office (although it edged along that line a fair amount last season).

Which is to say “Fulgencio” isn’t a very good episode either in terms of storytelling or in terms of jokes. I’m a sucker for a Godfather spoof as much as the next guy, but it feels like a poorly placed dues ex machina to solve a half-heartedly told story. We know Phil and Claire function as different roles for the kids and within the family but there wasn’t enough set up to establish Phil’s attempts to help his kids despite their protesting; there was also just as little follow through: we get a montage of Phil  sticking his nose where ought not to be stuck, but it’s dashed through without any time for any jokes to be told or scenes to breathe. 

We’ve never met or have even heard any mention of Gloria’s mother and sister, so we have little reason to care about them. They’re barely developed as actual people, and so thus are merely meant to serve as plot devices. However, the episode can’t even decide what their function is within the plot: Jay has met his match in terms of stubbornness (?) … sort of, but not really. There’s not a through line for the conflict for it to matter or for it to go anywhere (i.e. “I can’t win her over” “Oh, dad you’re the new Phil” “Jeez, your right, let me do something about it” and then he proceeds to win her over. Sure, he attempts to do it, but the failure doesn’t matter because it’s undercut by Gloria’s sister freaking out). Similarly, the case goes for Gloria nominally confronting her past and how she screwed her sister over – She’s pretty much responsible for her sister never traveling or leaving Columbia or making any money. These are all terrible things and it’s never commented upon with any level of seriousness which it should have been.

Cam and Mitchell are trying to be better role models for Lily when she starts getting snarky. But they’re freed of all burden of guilt for her sass mouthing because it turns out Claire was responsible and not them. So there’s no lesson to be had or real relevance for why we’ve been told this story. The tough choice between fostering Lily’s snark to go to a party and being the better person to raise her right is lifted from them. All agency, all responsibility up in smoke. Gloria doesn’t have to feel bad about what she’s done. Jay doesn’t have to win over his mother-in-law. The kids never have to confront their own problems. No one contemplates what the point of it all is or whether they should act better or more rationally in the future. In fact, Modern Family’s typical, clichéd voiceover tying up the story with a nice thematic bow is not present at the end of the episode. 

There’s no narrative drive, there’s no real stakes, and there’s not enough jokes (and not enough funny ones at that) to justify how helter skelter and empty the underlying premise of the plot is. 

Grade: C+