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The second season of Modern Family always had a lot to live up to. Season 1 of the family sitcom was a real hit, both critically-acclaimed and having wide appeal with audiences. At this point last year the show had some of its strongest episodes, all concluding with ‘Family Portrait’, a heartfelt and hilarious finale. This finale, then, had a lot to accomplish if it was to be anything like as good as last year. Thankfully, it played to its strengths, focussed on character and sentimentality and provided a fitting conclusion to the second season.
Modern Family works best when it uses all of its characters and tells stories about what it means to be part of a family. That’s not to say that it doesn’t work when it doesn’t do these things but it’s certainly less effective when it leaves the characters separate and tells less resonant episodic plots. The second season may not have been quite as consistent as the first but it has certainly had its moments. Last week’s ‘See You Next Fall’, which focussed on Alex’s graduation and Claire’s inability to deal with her children growing up quickly, was probably a stronger episode than the finale, with both proving a climactic way to end the year.
The plot of Season 2’s actual final episode, ‘The One That Got Away’, centred around Jay’s birthday, and relied heavily on Ed O’Neill’s character, who is infrequently a main focus for the show (he’s usually a foil for others, like Manny and Gloria). The finale echoed the themes of last year’s ‘Airport 2010’ (and ‘Hawaii’) by putting Jay in a position where he is trying to enjoy himself on his birthday whilst the rest of the family try to give him what they think is a really special birthday.
The other character’s stories in this episode (Phil attempting to outdo a college rival, Claire and Mitchell getting trapped in their childhood home, etc.) don’t work nearly as well as Jay’s, but Jay’s is so good that it really makes the finale. There were still a number of highlights throughout the episode, including Alex and Haley’s video of family members talking about Jay, Phil’s close-up magic and Claire’s superb dynamic with Mitchell (something that the show should definitely exploit more often).
All in all, this finale served as an above average (if not quite as good as the previous episode) conclusion to the second season of Modern Family. The season as a whole has been inconsistent but not in a way that I have found to be overly disappointing. The way I see things, Modern Family is still an incredibly funny series and it has been reliably amusing throughout its second year. I very much look forward to having it back on my screen in a few short months.
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