“Closing Walls And Ticking Clocks” (“Brushes With Celebrity” Recap)

Actually, I'm not sure I can call it a recap, since it was a one-and-done night for Alex¹. And, just like “Ten Years Later”, she had almost nothing to do (except for a couple of words in a shared private scene with Claire)².

I suppose it could have been worse – we could have had a story where Claire brought Alex to that snooty book club to take the other members down a peg or two, only to have Alex either 1) blow it completely (maybe misusing “sanguine” herself), or 2) end up on the other members side.

No, wait, scratch that – even if that made Alex look bad (and the writers already seem to have been working overtime on trying to do that this season), I'd rather see that.

Alex's Line Of The Night: (concerning Claire's use of the word “sanguine”) ”You're not using it right.” Of course, I could say something similar about how the show uses Alex, but I don't want the local SPCA on my back, even if that horse is long since dead.

Oh, and I know I used a second lyric from Coldplay's “Clocks” for a post title tonight – usually I try to avoid using the same song more than once but it was just too fitting to pass up – not that I should be surprised but after only eight episodes this season is really starting to look like a lost cause for Alex already.
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¹ And, if you had watched Ariel's appearance on Steve Harvey's show today, you would have already seen most of that scene. Sadly, that was about the only thing of note about her appearance – no hints at all about what the show might do with Alex later this season. And, since I have to watch my sugar intake, even in the extremely unlikely chance I ever meet Ariel I'll never get to find out how good a baker of pies she is.

² And that wasn't the last of this episode's problems by any means – even beyond that this was probably the worst episode of the season, with only a couple of funny moments.

“Everything You Want's A Dream Away”

Once upon a time, there was a Modern Family episode which was heavily promoted because of several special guest stars, although truth be told, at the time I had hardly heard of any of them. But it didn't matter in the end, because they were all eclipsed by one story about Alex that got very little pre-show attention. You may vaguely remember it.

"Bah-Bah-Bah-Bah-Bah Humbug(?)" (First Impressions - "No Small Feet" - Season 9, Episode 10)

So much for a Christmas episode this season, apparently - while the other ABC shows on December 13th have holiday-themed episodes, it appears that Modern Family won't, based off what I see (and don't) in the press release for that night's episode.  (There is a potential spoiler in an Alex story in this episode that might portend something that might happen next week, and it might at least indirectly involve Alex so click the above link or "Read more" below at your own risk).  There is not one mention of any holiday stories or theme in it.

All is not lost though - as I said at least Alex has a story:

"I've Got A Feeling That's It's Gonna Be Alright" (Promo Commercial For "Brushes With Celebrity")

Well, I finally found a little something to be thankful for today.

"I Don't See You Every Day" (First Impressions - "Tough Love" - Season 9, Episode 9)

When I saw the title before reading the press release, I thought maybe this could be interesting for Alex.

Nope.

“But You Pretend Like I Don't Know” (“Winner Winner Turkey Dinner” Recap)

So Alex actually got away with one, tonight. I guess being the afterthought on the show does have its perks once in a blue moon.

“Everyone's Watching To See What You Will Do”

Chicken Turkey time folks, and with that comes this year's Thanksgiving episode, “Winner Winner Chicken Turkey Dinner”. As we know, the story tonight is about “everyone” having success during the holiday season (according to Jay, anyway), but not really.

But, as I noted a couple of weeks ago, just what is meant by “everyone” - does it include Alex, and if so, what might be her false success?

"When I Grow Up I Wanna Be Famous" (First Impressions - "Brushes With Celebrity" - Season 9, Episode 8)

The press release for this episode (airing on the 29th) is here.  Next week is a re-run of last years "Thanksgiving Jubilee" (where Alex had a brief fling with Dwight, the star football player on Uncle Cam's team).

No mention of Alex in this one, so it look like it's another underwhelming one.

“Life Is Too Short So Why Waste Precious Time” (“Ten Years Later” Recap, I Guess)

Begin recap.

Alex watched Phil and Claire rehearse his magic trick. She was not impressed.

We saw Alex in the background at the party a couple of times. She didn't even get to say anything.

End recap.

Seriously, that's all I've got. Even by my low expectations for tonight this was disappointing.

Alex's (Only) Line Of The Week: ”Just get on with it.” This is based on what the closed captioning said – I could barely hear her.

Or, as it turned out for the rest of the episode, barely see her.

Maybe we would've been better off with a repeat after all (the other two major networks did switch out new programming to avoid the big game so my question this morning wasn't that far off the mark).

“Here's A Toast To All Those Who Hear Me All Too Well”

Ho and Hum, meet tonight's episode, “Ten Years Later”.

Anticipation Level: Very Low. With not much for Alex (at least she'll be there) in the cards, I'm not really that excited about tonight (get ready for me to repeat that quite a lot in the next few weeks or longer - now that Ben's out of the picture it may be quite some time before Alex has another big story, unless something crazy happens in two weeks).

Emotional Moment Potential: Very Low. Like Mitch and Cam's wedding almost four years ago, the ceremony itself could have some emotion, but it almost certainly won't have anything to do with Alex.

Game Changing Potential: Almost None.

Are There Any Other Questions? With the World Series going to a Game 7 tonight, will ABC pull the plug on tonight's episode (and the rest of tonight's lineup) and air a re-run instead? It's possible (and if I hear anything I'll post ASAP – I even have a clever [non-lyrical] post title in mind) – some of the networks made switches last year rather than face last year's 7th Game (Modern Family and the rest of last season's ABC Wednesday lineup weren't affected – they were already pre-empted by that music awards show).

And ABC does have a history of shying away from big sporting events – even though it's in the middle of February sweeps they stay away from airing new episodes while NBC has the Winter Olympics (I'm expecting that to happen again this February).

So we'll just have to wait and see what happens (or doesn't).