LGBTPDA

Last night's episode of Modern Family was weaker on comedy than the show usually is, but I found the storyline of 13-year-old Alex struggling with whether or not to have her first kiss to be so sweet that I liked the episode anyway.  Kissing was the thread that united all three family units, with Claire and Haley overseeing Alex's impending first kiss, Gloria trying to help Jay overcome his dearth of affectionate displays to his family, and Mitchell and Cam disagreeing on when and where kissing is appropriate.  This last plot point has been one in the works for months now, but I'll explain in a minute why it was so inconsequential to me.

There had been a lot of criticisms of the fact that only the show's gay partnership had not had an onscreen kiss, and when last night there was an acknowledgment of the fact that Mitchell is generally an uptight guy, I noticed that as a cute way for the writers to say, "We're not trying to make a statement here; this character just isn't into PDA."  This tack is bolstered when it's shown how reticent Jay is to show affection, and how it resulted in a son who acts the same, and a daughter who acted out.  So when Cam and Mitchell did have an onscreen kiss last night, in the background of a scene with the whole family - I totally missed it.  I honestly didn't realize it had happened until I read about it online today.  I am personally really pleased that the show downplayed the kiss, because it made it as much of a non-issue as a kiss between Phil and Claire would be.

There was much more drama given to the expectations placed on Alex having not been kissed at 13.  Her mother wants to know what's going on in her younger daughter's burgeoning love life, so she asks teenage Haley to investigate.  Haley's response is, of course, to tease Alex for being such an "old maid," by being two years behind her sister in the kissing game.  For those keeping score at home, I was 15 and a high school junior when I had my first kiss, and I kinda did feel a little embarrassed to hear that the fictional characters Haley and Claire were 11 and 10 when they first snogged/pashed/smooched a boy.  Alex bravely tells the boy she's been texting with that she wants him to be her first kiss, and is totally mortified when the conversation is overheard.  But when he later tells her that he likes her too, she sweetly says that she'd rather they get to know each other a little more before kissing, and the boy is adorably relieved.  The part of me that misses reading CosmoGirl! and Girl's Life and YM really loved how cute this interchange was.

So, a slower episode than usual, but here's hoping for way more Phil in next week's.

Modern Family, Wednesdays at 9pm on ABC