DUNPHY TOWERS IS FALLING DOWN: We haven't talked about Modern Family in a while, but I wanted to talk a little bit about this season. There's been a lot of funny stuff, but it seems like the writing staff hasn't learned from Season 1 what really makes the show take off--and that's either getting the whole extended family together (as in "Fizbo" or the airport episode) or mixing the family units to give characters a chance to collide off one another who might not otherwise (e.g., Cameron and Jay go to the gym, Gloria and Cameron go out for Latin food, Manny and Claire discuss parenting).
Last night's, like most of the episodes this season, kept the family units largely separate--indeed, the only intersection of the three plots was Mitchell's seeking Claire's counsel about schools. Admittedly, there's some funny stuff within the family units (the "Haley teaches Alex how to be cool" plotline was both funnier and truer than most of the teenage shenanigans over on Glee, for instance), but the show needs to get back to what it does best.
