Be it the running gag that highlighted Jay’s penchant for making t-shirts to celebrate special occasions (see above), Dunphey daughter Alex’s hilarious habit of making her siblings look stupid (Note to self: Cell phone battery cannot be charged via static electricity) or Cameron ending the episode off, no doubt much to Mitchell’s chagrin, in a bright yellow t-shirt, MODERN FAMILY is the only series we’ve started watching twice for fear of missing the little things.
There’s a reason we’ve already put in our order for one of Jay’s “Who Da Manny?” t-shirts (or would have, had somebody on cafepress got their act together!) His pint-sized portrayer Rico Rodriguez can do no wrong. From his momentary retirement from fencing, “defeating a woman will be a mark on my honour” to his championship defeat of a poor girl who unbeknownst to him turned out to be a diabetic orphan whose cheering section included her nurse and a gaggle of patients in wheelchairs, Rodriguez, with apologizes to THE MIDDLE’s Atticus Shaffer continues to raise the bar for child actors on the small screen.
From his opening reaction of approval to wife Claire and Gloria’s exceedingly excited celebration during Manny’s fencing competition, to his somewhat futile effort to turn son Luke (“I saw a Ghost!”) into a real estate tycoon, Ty Burrell deserves a serious pat-on-the-back (Although not from Jay, because clearly that hurts) for not just teaching us the literal ABC’s of real estate (“Always be closing don’t ever forget great home ideas just keep lurking mostly near by often people question realtors sincerity take umbrage violators will be….”), but for managing to keep us rooting for a somewhat cartoonish character that on almost any other show we’d have already tired of.
Filmmaking abilities aside, (“Any monkey can shoot a home movie, I pride myself on shooting films.”) Cameron gets a shout-out for his uncanny ability to deliver a one-liner. Case in point, upon Mitchell’s explanation as to hwo his figure skating career was cut short after Claire quit the team (“My Sister and I were called Fire and Nice, I was fire for the red hair and Claire was nice because it was ironic, and she wasn’t.”) just before the 13-and-under regional championships (Or, as Mitchell explains it, “Just, the Emerald City at the end of my Yellow Brick Road.”) Cameron remarked, “WOW you did it. You made figure skating sound even gayer.”
Since Jay’s voiceovers as of late seem to have become a bone of contention with numerous TV critics who enjoy nitpicking over the little things, this TV Addict thought we’d take the opportunity to come out in defence of them. Over-sentimental, perhaps! Predictable, possibly! But say what you will, there’s no denying one thing: Having each episode wrapped up with a nice little lesson reminiscent of FULL HOUSE makes a large segment of the audience (including us) happy. And you know what, anything that ends this gem of a show on a positive note, particularly one that keeps audiences coming back for more, we’re all for. 
