'Modern Family' Season 5 Premiere Review: Cam And Mitch Get Engaged And Claire Has A New Job

As a new fan of the mockumentary Modern Family, I was pleased to find the plot of the season five premiere opening with the defeat of Proposition 8 in California. Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) celebrate and stress about who will propose to who. Manny (Rico Rodriguez) is leaving for Colombia for a month but can’t find his birth certificate, so Jay (Ed O’Neill) takes him down to the courthouse where he confuses his fellow patrons into thinking he and Manny are also getting their marriage license.

Later the ah-ha moment comes when—spoiler—Mitch and Cam propose to one another in a moment of sheer poignancy.

Now, keeping in mind that I am a newer fan of the show, I have a few points I noticed when watching. The humor is fast-paced and sometimes awkward, like Michael Cera movies —which I love. That said, this ideal of the “modern family” that concerns me. The adult characters particularly come off as cartoony and heightened versions of themselves, meaning they are more one-dimensional than not. It also looks like the show is breaking the normative by having a gay couple and ethnic diversity, but Cam and Mitch very much fit the ideology of what a modern gay couple is supposed to look like: white, middle class, frilly but not over the top. Furthermore, we come to love Gloria (Sofia Vergara) for her quirks and unassuming humor, but I wonder why she represents the “modern family” idea of a Latina woman in America.

In the second half of the premiere, Claire (Julie Bowen) gets a new job at Jay’s company but makes a horrible first impression, leading her to believe she is about to be fired. Cam shows up to Alex’s (Ariel Winter) history class, subbing for a teacher “who came down with a sudden case of rehab,” but fumbles when it comes to teaching i.e., “yes the Indians! A friendly magical people!” He is then offered a position as the gym teacher by the principal on the condition that he coaches the football team.

Overall, the start to season five of Modern Family is a success. The jokes are relevant and on point. The drama is authentic and relatable. At some points the story is a little slow, but in the end it all intertwines and each plot point supports another. Claire doesn’t get fired, Gloria and Phil (Ty Burrell) reconnect with their children and Cam embraces his new football coach persona.