MODERN FAMILY “Mother Tucker” Review

MODERN FAMILY “Mother Tucker” Season 2 Episode 9 - Cam’s mother Barb is too affectionate with Mitchell, Phil is too attached to Dylan, and Gloria is too dismissive in the “Mother Tucker” episode of MODERN FAMILY.

Holy inappropriate touching, Batman. Poor Mitchell and his force field–even Claire isn’t very sympathetic to his plight, leading him to desperate measures. “I want to know why, Mitchell, why you are presenting yourself to my mother like a baboon.” Ha! The entire doll sequence (“Show me where she squeezes and lingers”) is simply awesome and Celia Weston is perfectly cast as Barb. Love her. I couldn’t stop laughing when she was flopping her hand in the tub, completely oblivious to Mitchell’s distress. “Force field! Force field!” “I’m going to have to rethink my conduct,” but then they take a picture. Hee!

Phil + Dylan 4-Eva! “I rode in that car to the guitar store. It felt like I was flying.” Oh, Phil, I love you so, you odd, odd man. The Dylan-Haley was overdue and I’m thrilled that Dylan makes it stick. Haley needed a wake-up call about her behavior in the worst way. “What? We only do that when I get one right.” Julie Bowen always rocks the reaction shots, but she has some especially good ones tonight, especially when Claire finds out Phil is the other girl. Phil comforting Haley is a sweet, lovely scene, and it’s nice to see Haley show her true feelings. With all that depth, though, my favorite moment is Phil throwing away his sweatshirt. It’s just a perfectly set-up, perfectly executed scene.

Gloria relocates her shoulder and goes back to playing ping pong. Wow. That hurt ME. I love how Ed O’Neill plays Jay. He really is the straight man in the midst of insanity and he is such a good balance for Gloria. Plus he has such a way with words: “It’s like I’m being stabbed but also like I ate a bad scallop that’s stabbing me on the inside.” Of course even when Gloria realizes she was wrong, she still makes it all about her and is completely awesome doing so. Not many can pull that off. Thank goodness Manny’s crisis last week didn’t change our sweet old man too much. I love how he mimics adult behavior. Jay catches him in the middle of his round. Hee.

Favorite lines: “Like I’m going to tell any of you where I live,” “You know what happens when I shop angry,” “So dumb guys go for dumb girls & smart guys go for dumb girls. What do the smart girls get?”/ “Cats, mostly,” “Put your fingers all over my fanny–your magic fingers.,” “Why do I always almost kill my husbands,”

This is such a fun episode of Modern Family that I forgot to be disappointed they didn’t do a Thanksgiving theme with everyone together. As much as I love funny Phil, it’s nice to see him shine as a dad like he does with Haley here and I’m also thrilled that the spotlight is on Mitchell because as terrific as he is, it’s too easy to lose him in Cam’s shadow. Well done, show.

What were your favorite moments in the episode? Do you think Phil and Dylan will last?

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