I've had to sort of mute all of the hate I've been hearing about Modern Family lately. A lot of people seem to hate the show because it constantly follows the same format, but that's just about every sitcom on television. The difference between Modern Family and other shows is that although Modern Family follows the same format all the time, it's a well-written and hilarious show with a great cast. That being said, this episode was on the lesser side of the show's output. The first two episodes of the season were stellar, but this one was a comedown.
The episode gets its name from a challenge that Phil gives himself. After watching what I assume was the movie Man on Wire with Luke, Phil gets the urge to take all of his cheerleader practice and motivation of the movie and walk on a tightrope himself. For me, it was a bit strange to see Phil randomly go about doing this. Sometimes, Phil seems to just be a goofy dad and other times, he's literally a kid. Tonight, he was leaning a little bit more towards the kid side.
On Jay and Gloria's side, Gloria begins growing tired of Jay's obsession with their dog. For the most part, the episode doesn't go anywhere at first. There's a great sight gag (one of the best so far) where Gloria puts Jay's shoe in her mouth and shakes it around, tempting the dog to eat it. It's a great moment for Sofia Vergara. Later, Cam gets involved after Gloria loses the dog and they go out to find it.
As for Cam and Mitch, I can agree with critics and fans when they say that they get the more boring plots. It's as if the writers seem unable to come up with anything original for them to do on a week to week basis. But boy, Jesse Tyler Ferguson knocked it out of the park tonight. His reaction to the juice fast was perfect and gave him a chance to really act out.
I'd say that the episode wasn't terrible or anything.. it was just one of those lesser episodes of the show. Every show has them!
