Lily’s a year old! Now that she’s reached her first birthday, is she old enough to officially be declared a mute? Can we start getting worried now? I know how important it must be to have a well-behaved set of twins when you’re playing a baby on a TV show, but come on. I’m pretty sure Lily is animatronic. Because of this, we only see her in passing at her birthday party. The focus instead is on the older members of her family making complete asses of themselves.
Shelley Long returns as the former matriarch of the Pritchett family, and really ramps up the cringe-worthiness of the episode. As someone whose parents are big fans of her high school boyfriend, I just about died imagining my mom going after him. At that point, it’s not about jealousy, it’s strictly about being the most disgusting thing in the world.
Matt Dillon playing Claire’s boyfriend was an interesting choice, because I’m not exactly sure how we’re supposed to look at it. Was it supposed to be, “Hey, look! Movie star Matt Dillon is guest-starring on Modern Family!” or was it more like, “Hey, guess who needs a job? Matt Dillon!” because the way his hair was, I could barely tell it was him.
Despite the fact that it had two guest stars and Fizbo the Clown made an appearance, this episode didn’t exactly blow me away. I really enjoyed Jay, Manny and Gloria sitting down to record the story for Lily, especially the tag at the end where we get to hear the finished version. Cam yelling at the princess was also a major highlight (“flammable confetti!”), but as a whole, it wasn’t their strongest showing.
The Matt Dillon guest appearance fell a little flat for me; we’ve already been over the fact that Claire was a little more like Haley than Alex when she was in high school, so the whole “embarrassing” dinner scene just seemed a little re-hashed. What do you guys think? Was it more hilarious than I’m giving it credit for?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Feb 17, 2011 @ 17:13 EST5EDT
I was in a bizarre mood last night, but Gloria’s bear voice and the crucifix comment had me in tears, I was laughing so hard. Just struck a funny note! I didn’t need Long or Dillon either, but the party was funny for me.
I think Lily is 2, so does that make her more mute? ;-)
*POST AUTHOR*
Ha. She probably is 2, and that definitely makes it worse. I just can’t tell because SHE NEVER LOOKS ANY DIFFERENT.
I am freaked out by Lily too! Not sure if you watched Six Feet Under, but I felt the same way about Nate’s daughter Maya … Does she speak? But at least Maya smiled sometimes.
Now I don’t think we should pick on poor Lily. Maybe she is just a very observant child and looks around at all the crazies that surround her and then she thinks that keeping quiet and laying low is her best bet for survival!