Modern Family Review: Do It Yourself (Season 8 Episode 13)

Modern Family Season 8 Episode 13 “Do It Yourself” starts off in familiar territory but provides some laughs along the way. The four plotlines deal with either believing in yourself or the fear of being replaced, whether it’s by another person or by technology.

The episode features two guest stars: Victor Garber as a famous chef and Peyton Manning as Coach Gary. Garber is good in his role and is able to hurtle some insults at Claire convincingly, but unfortunately, as much as Peyton Manning seems like a nice guy, he’s not exactly an actor.

The episode begins with Phil telling a repairman that he can fix his dryer. As he’s taking apart the dryer and naming the parts in a ridiculous fashion, it is seen a mile away that Phil is going to knock everything over.

And he does.

Remarkably though, Phil manages to fix the dryer, and apparently Phil’s newfound stereotypical masculinity turns Claire on.

Luke: You have ruined sex for me.

Phil is on his dryer-fixing high and tells Claire he’s going to build “Dunphy Tower.” Phil takes Jay to the site of where he wants to commercially develop a strip mall with hopefully Jay’s investment. As Phil tells Jay of his dryer triumph, it is just so predictably clear that the dryer is going to break down.

And it does.

Meanwhile, Jay is feeling like he is being replaced by Coach Gary, who is teaching Joe how to throw a baseball and is fixing up stuff around the house. Supposedly though, Coach Gary is looking for Jay to be a mentor as he wants to start a gazebo (and shed) business.

Cue eye rolling.

We have never seen Coach Gary before, so why would he want Jay to mentor him? It’s completely out of the blue. It’s plausible, for TV’s sake, but the whole “mentor” thing seems forced.

It’s like, someone at Modern Family wanted Peyton Manning to have a guest spot, and they made him a coach so he could talk a few times about winning a championship. It’s all very wink, wink, and therefore, Coach Gary’s confession to Jay didn’t land.

Jay’s concerns about being replaced are valid, especially since he has a much younger wife and a very young son. There are a few funny one-liners; however, the storyline fails to connect perhaps because Coach Gary is played by Peyton Manning and not a regular actor.

It’s just distracting.

The other two plots in this episode revolve around Claire and the Tucker-Pritchetts. Neither are particularly funny, but they are better than the Jay plot.

Claire’s obsessed with Chef Dumont and thinks that she can cook as brilliantly as him. Haley brings her to one of his cooking classes where he tells her she doesn’t.

This is a bit random. Has anything ever been said on Modern Family indicating that Claire can’t cook? Can she just not cook “gourmet” food? It is hilarious though to see Claire with a glass of wine, calling it “cooking juice.”

Over at the Tucker-Pritchetts, Cam and Mitchell try to set an example for Lily after she hires a woman to clean her room from an app. Cam and Mitch have apps for everything too, but they realize they have to get their hands dirty and that laziness is not an option.

Their plot is probably the funniest with help from Cam’s over-the-top reactions and Lily’s lines.

Lily: Sometimes my friends don’t believe my stories.

Overall, “Do It Yourself,” is a decent episode of Modern Family. The predictability of Phil’s plot drags the episode down as does Jay’s. There are definitely funny parts of the episode, though and that really is important.

There have been episodes of Modern Family in the past where watching it has felt like a laugh-less chore. “Do It Yourself” is not one of those episodes.

Quick Bits:

• I laughed out loud at Cam’s reaction to seeing the Asian woman at his door: “I always knew this day would come.”
• I knew that Gil Thorpe was trying to psych out Phil–another predictable action.
• Only Cam would wear a spacesuit to get rid of wasps.
• Where do I download the Log Buddy app?

What did you think of this episode of Modern Family? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Modern Family airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on ABC.

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