She's definitely "book smart", but worldliness seems IMO more like an intangible (to Harvard or other top schools) that calls for someone to be more socially savvy, and that's where Alex has always had issues. I hope that doesn't end up being her downfall next season.

This was the one downer for me in this episode - for three months I've been wondering what effect Alex's meltdown/therapy would have on her down the line. For now, it appears that very little has changed - a trip to a far away country should be a vacation of a lifetime, and yet here Alex seemed more interested in…

It's a little bit damning with faint praise (because I've not liked the other episodes where they go away very much), but I thought this was the best travel episode they've done. I liked the fact they didn't go over the top with manic jokes like they did a couple ago in Las Vegas (except for Phil, of course). This…

One additional thought: When Jay said he had a friend who could make that soap sculpture disappear, did anybody else think Shorty was coming back from Costa Rica?

Hopefully I'm wrong and you're right.

I'm guessing the Australia episode won't be that good - I figured that episode to go second or third to last to get it into the sweeps.

I actually was impressed Phil managed to pull off the first part of the trick - he's not exactly David Copperfield (see "The Butler's Escape"). The second part with Gloria was a nice little semi-spontaneous extra.

He might have had 2 keys (when I stayed at Mohegan Sun's hotel by myself last year I had 2 keys).

I wouldn't say I was glad about it (the show is called "Modern Family" after all, not "Modern Adults"), but given that Vegas isn't exactly kid-friendly (in spite of their efforts over the last 20 years or so to make it otherwise) I understand perfectly why all the kids had the episode off (except arguably Haley, who…

Not to mention the fact that room keys aren't usually numbered, unless he still had the key sleeve or slip showing the room number.

I get the reasons why so many people love this episode - I'm just not one of them. While it had some laughs (Gloria's "doggie in the window" line was the best, and the payoff of Phil's magic trick was cute) to me the stories felt more chaotic than funny, especially the payoff scenes, leaving my head spinning at the…

That's a valid point - I was too busy trying to be clever to think about that.

I have little to no faith in the writers' ability to figure out what to do with Alex - we have 4+ seasons of evidence of that. One possible exception - Elaine Ko, the writer of "Under Pressure".

This episode was entertaining, if somewhat safe (that's not always been the case this season - they've played it safe and missed the entertainment mark before). I really don't buy the comparison to "Goodnight Gracie" and "Under Pressure" - those episodes took the risk of trying a more serious tone for at least part…

I went back to "Strangers.." and you're right - there was one slightly off-color joke about a realtor moving into a new "model" but not nearly as much as last night. Perhaps he was still bitter from losing that election last week?

A- seems about right - as poorly as last week's humor went this week's show was probably the funniest of the season (but not quite the best episode - the somewhat differently toned "Under Pressure" still holds that position, IMO).

I don't remember the jokes off the top of my head, but it worked well for him a few years ago (the aforementioned "Strangers On a Treadmill").

Which worked better than the Colombian moment from Gloria…

I totally did not buy the possum story - yes, people have their creature fears (e.g. Mitch and birds) but I just can't believe both girls would be so scared of a possum that they'd resort to hiding in Haley's room (actually, I would've thought Haley's reaction would be "aw…how cute").

Maybe because I wasn't in the best of moods going into last night, but I only found one line funny - Gil's line about "little buggers inside my head" at the end. Otherwise, this episode was meh at best, and at its worst a complete mess (e.g. the final scene in the basement). Also, I thought it was totally wrong for…