"I Believe I Can Fly" (First Impressions - "Basketball" - Season 8, Episode 16)

I was actually expecting no new episode for March 8th, so this press release for an episode to air on that date came as a surprise.

Unfortunately, it's not that happy a surprise, as there is no Alex story mentioned (on the bright side she is in one of the promo photos, so we will see her). 

Now I'm guessing there will be a lengthy break after that - there will only be six more episodes to go after this one airs and either 10 or 11 weeks to air them (depending on whether the season ends on May 17th or May 24th).

“(Like) A Sunday Morning, It Came Without A Warning” (“Heavy Is The Head” Recap)

A quick scheduling note: next week's episode “Finding Fizbo” will air 30 minutes earlier than usual, at 8:30. ABC is continuing an all-week mini-documentary series (“When We Rise”) that night at 9:00 and decided to move Modern Family up instead of pre-empting it (like they did with a mini-series last February sweeps). I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad sign about the future. If you're planning on recording you may want to double-check everything.

Anyway, back to tonight's episode that came out of nowhere with an actual Alex story:

“And There's A Little Green Man In My Head”

On the surface, tonight's “Heavy Is The Head” doesn't look all that interesting. Yes, Alex will be there but it doesn't appear she'll have a big role, unless somehow she gets involved with Ben again, and I don't think that's likely.

So what, exactly, am I worried about tonight?

"I Found Myself In Wonderland" (First Impressions - "Heavy Is The Head" - Season 8, Episode 14)

Another week, another almost last minute press release, another episode with no idea if Alex will even be in it big Alex story in it.

How far down the rabbit hole have we fallen?  Even seeing that Ben is in this episode doesn't seem to be a cause for optimism (I'm betting his appearance here will have nothing to with Alex - Claire is facing issues at her father's closet business) - in fact, my "glass half-empty" disposition right now has me thinking more and more that we've reached a dead end with that secret admirer story already.

And that may not be the last dead end.

[2/19 UPDATE: One piece of good news - Alex is in the promo commercial, so at least we're not getting back-to-back Alex-less episodes.  It's not a big enough deal for me to make a whole new post about it.]

“On The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”

What is it that people say about why one should never assume?

Well, I can't speak for you, but as for me, “Hee Haw!”

“So I'm Gonna Walk Right Down Your Street”

According to ABC's press site, it looks like “Finding Fizbo” has been moved back to March 1st. There's nothing official about what happens to next week, but my satellite box guide shows “Heavy Is The Head” airing then, but no plot information.

Now, what about tonight's “Do It Yourself”?

"Disappointment Haunted All My Dreams" (First Impressions - "Do It Yourself" - Season 8, Episode 13)

The press release finally came out for next week's episode.  Unfortunately, my hope against hope that a big Alex story was being hidden from us went unanswered, again.

Or any Alex story, for that matter - she's not even mentioned.  All that's left to hope for is that at least she appears and this doesn't turn into Alex-less Episode #18.  My gut feeling is she will, as there is a story about her family dining on Sundays.  More on that in the Wednesday pre-show, but barring a crazy promo I doubt I'll have much more to say then.

That was definitely not worth the wait.

“Noticing The Days Hurrying By. When You're In Love, My How They Fly.” (“Do You Believe In Magic” Recap)

I was looking for a lyric from a 1926 song for my title (the digits of that year combining their 2 ages – more on that in a moment) and I found one that may be fitting from a song written that year (“Blue Skies”) that's been covered many times and thus wasn't totally obscure (full disclosure though: I'd never heard of it).

OK, now that I've totally bored everyone...

“Secret, Secret, I've Got A Secret”

[Update: Sorry, but I had to make several strike-throughs.  I completely forgot that we've seen Ben before - he works at Jay's workplace as Claire's assistant ("I Don't Know How She Does It").  My bad for being so Alex-centric that I missed that salient point.  It still looks like tonight will be interesting, though.]

It's been almost a month since the last time we saw Alex in a new episode – finally, tonight, “Do You Believe In Magic” airs. And Alex might finally have something to do for the first time in ages, as for Valentine's Day she gets a secret admirer (including at least one passionate kiss).

But will everything be as it seems for Alex?

"Like You're Living In A Circus" (First Impressions - "Finding Fizbo" - Season 8, Episode 14*)

OK, this press release¹ is for the episode that airs on February 22th, not next week.  As far as I know, for now "Do It Yourself" is still scheduled for the 15th, at least according to my satellite box on-screen guide.  As soon as I hear/see anything about that one I'll post it.

Anyway, getting back to the episode we now know about:

"Every Night, Before The Dawn Meets The Light" (Second Quarter Recap, Sort Of)

Actually, there's not much to recap - Alex had a brief flirtation with Dwight, the high school football player staying at Cam's house during "Thanksgiving Jamboree", and started her barista job at the coffee shop, although we have little idea how that's going (she did appear there twice during the past quarter but did little), and was briefly at another music festival with Haley (which ended abruptly when they found out they accidentally brought $40,000 of Gloria's money with them).  And that's about it (one episode, "Snow Ball" was Alex-less episode #17).

I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for things to get interesting for Alex in the third quarter (she does have a secret admirer about which we'll hear on Wednesday), but after last night's big game (did those last 20 minutes really happen) there's always hope for a miracle, I guess.

One quick schedule note - my on-screen guide lists "Do It Yourself" for next Wednesday (15th), but no story information is yet available.

"One Foot On The Brake, And One On The Gas"

I still have no idea what the plan is for Modern Family on February 15th - while there are press releases out for all the other Wednesday comedies that night, there's nothing for MF.  And ABC's press site has no mention on even a rerun for that night.  I don't want to think about the implications yet if it's going to be a repeat (or worse, a preemption), but if either happens I'm not going to be happy.  I\ll keep you posted.   (Hopefully I just got some of that reverse psychology stuff going and I'll hear something today).

On the other hand, there is a promo commercial out for next week's "Do You Believe In Magic":