The Infidel

With all the talk about Ariel's boobs, I'm surprised more doesn't get said about Sarah's. Goodness gracious, those are nice.

That is all.

Coral

I don't really get why she needed to take the semester off (other than it keeping her around on the show). If they wanted to keep her around more, why didn't they just have her live at home and commute to the college instead of living on campus?

As I mentioned last season, they probably could've gotten more story lines by having Phil use his inside track of being a realtor and buying a small house in the neighbourhood and renting it out to Haley and Alex. It's like the writers are set on keeping the 3 families split across only 3 houses.

collven

She mentioned that it was impossible to catch up on her school work after missing a couple of weeks.

Coral

Yea, I got that... but missing 2+ weeks doesn't seem impossible to get caught up - especially for someone as smart and dedicated as Alex is.

JimRochester

I went to a school with 10 week tri-mesters. You miss 2 weeks, you missed 20% of the class. But I'm stretching it here. I agree she was probably at sophomore college level when she graduated high school.

Finisher

It would be hard but, yeah, a character as studious and obsessed with school would never miss a semester.

MLBFan24

Yea, I was really getting annoyed with Phil's storyline.

And something about Gloria and the remote. Apparently having trouble with the remote passes as comedy these days.

Quatermass

I came here looking for an animated Gif of Sofia Vergara's "shoulder shimmy" but I'm sadly disappointed.

Inhumans99

MLBFan24, I agree that humor about someone not being able to work a remote control is a bit hoary. The funny thing is that I never did glom onto being able use a much praised universal remote like the Harmony series, but yeah...they might as well have had a joke about Gloria not being able to program the VCR. This weeks Phil/Haley storyline was actually okay.

Joe Schmoe

Her shimmy followed by Bowen's deadpan look into the camera made me LOL.

The Infidel

You know, they could do a great deal with Alex and Haley, by way of their futures, depending on how long they plan on continuing the show. It's seemed like Alex was going to be successful because of her grades and general intellect, and Haley was going to end up flipping burgers or something of that nature. But, they could easily turn that around and have Haley be extremely successful at the things she knows best by her own experiences, and Alex could genuinely struggle because of various obstacles and wind up not being as successful at all. In fact, while taking off this semester from school, I could even see her flipping burgers, while simmering in her frustration from Haley's success.

MLBFan24

Watched half of the October 5th episode. Can't stand it anymore.

Dropped the show for good.

Hey look, it's a Modern Family episode about a misunderstanding between the characters.

Paff

I've mentioned this before, but I think it would be a good story arc to have Alex flame out of college. It's not unprecedented (trust me); Work that earns straight As in high school is merely C work at best in a good college. Alex could easily succumb to "small fish in big pond" syndrome that happens to a lot of overachievers. Then as she returns home, having failed at the one thing she was good at (academics), she'd finally have a real bond with Haley who had a similar collegiate experience (although Haley's downfall was excessive partying). After that they can can explore Coral's "The Dunphy Sisters" storyline (I smell a spinoff!)

Speaking of Haley and Alex, I got the most laughs from this previous episode with Alex being hamstrung by having to write down her sarcastic barbs rather than speak them out immediately. Loved Phil's reaction to the "Hookah" comment ("You're not making sense, sweetheart, you should go lie down"), followed by Haley coming up with the same joke as Alex about Luke's college meeting but finally being able to beat Alex to the punch due to the delay.

edited to add: I think they should explore the fact that Dunphys are fuck-ups, and Alex is indeed a Dunphy. Haley and Luke are total screw-ups, and Phil has managed to fail upwards his entire career. The only Dunphys that do things right are Claire and Alex, and Claire is a Pritchett by birth. They really need to show Alex actually being a Dunphy.

Count Dooku

I'm not sure why people think the show will be better if they can figure out ways to get Haley and Alex more involved.

Probably the best episode of the last few seasons was the one where all the adults went to Las Vegas, and none of the kids appeared.

There have been numerous episodes where Phil and Claire dealt with Haley dealing with her future. I don't recall any of those being so great. I always thought the best thing about Haley was that she was a reason for Dylan to be around. He was hilarious.

Alex is fine for delivering sarcastic one-liners, but she's a nothing character for comedy. Remember the episode where she went to the psychiatrist. That seemed like fruitful ground for the show to include some more serious themes but they dropped that. Why should she end up flipping burgers when her mother runs a business?

Count Dooku

I liked that idea the first time I saw it as "Lisa the Simpson"

JimRochester

When the kids were little and cute, that stuff worked. Now that they are young adults the bloom is off the rose. Phil has been the only reason to watch that show for several years. Claire isn't as goofy as Phil but she's a fuck-up in her own right. He's at least soft and cuddly in his ignorance. She can be a bit abrasive. I don't like many of her comments about her wild younger days. They are "in your face" with how wild she was and they obviously bother Phil. Dylan was a good character but he was too much of a one note character to stick around.

Still watch for the wife but I don't care if I miss it and haven't for a few seasons.

Paff

Yeah, what the hell was I thinking? MF would never borrow the plot of that Simpsons episode....

JimRochester

Last night's was poor. The kids really have nothing to do. Haley with Nathan Fillion creeped me out. Phil was the savior again.

Joe Schmoe

I agree Haley with Fillion was creepy, but I think Phil's fixation with Fillion was creepy too... not to mention all the makeup.

Quatermass

Wholeheartedly agree. Not a good episode. Alex acting arrogant and gloating was so bad it was just embarrassing. I loved Jay's video for Manny though.

Michael Corvin

The most recent episode, "Blindsided" was one of the rare episodes where all the storylines were firing. I think maybe 1 in 8 or 10 is the batting record for Cam & Mitchell for me but I liked this one.

I loved Alex's one liners on paper but they kinda dropped it/her after the opening. "Is that why you're dressed as a Hookah?"

One of the best sight/reaction gags was when Gloria was shaking her funbags in Luke's bedroom. Claire's reaction was fucking hilarious. The fact that it kept rolling and wasn't a stop and laugh moment is what sold it.

Doug Heffernan

The fact that Cam's Batman costume had the wrong cowl really irritated me.

Count Dooku

An Uber driver wanted to look at Alex's feet. What the fuck was he smokin'!?

majorjoe23

We needed more of Sofia Vergara as Wonder Woman.

Paff

And I'd have loved to see Sarah Hyland wearing the Yvonne Craig-era Batgirl outfit instead of Lily.