S11.E10: The Prescott

[JTMacc99]

Quote

Alex's company puts her up at a new luxury apartment building with a number of high-profile residents that the family is eager to take advantage of; Phil is on a mission to review the restaurant's famous sliders for his food blog.

 

[mtlchick]

God bless Stephen Merchant, that adorable giant. 

I would have liked this a lot more if this wasn't all based on the entire family taking advantage of Alex's place after she told them not to mess this up for her.  At the first ad break I said "what a horrible family." 

[jmonique]

If this family were real, I'd lobby for every last one of them to be sterilized.

What a horrible, selfish group. There's no reasonable rationale for them having stretched this out another year.

[tennisgurl]

What a pack of assholes, like holy crap. I can almost appreciate the farcical wackiness they were going for, but everyone had to act like such assholes for us to get there, taking advantage of one of the few times that Alex is allowed to have nice things. I mean, Claire blowing Alex off when she was clearly stressed and needing someone to talk to so she could use her password to get her hair dyed wasnt funny, it was just uncomfortably mean. And have Cam and Mitch ever been honest with each other ever? They lie to each other even over the stupidest things, its ridiculous. 

 Stephen Merchant was a delight at least. I would totally read his autobiography. 

[justduckey]

This show should have ended two season ago (at least). This was beyond not funny. 

[Traveller519]

Look, I'll always appreciate a Christopher Lloyd farce. Nothing is ever going to top the Ski Lodge episode of Frasier, but many of the Modern Family farces have been great, and the show has been at its best when it goes that route.

But I have to agree that the whole premise felt icky with the family taking advantage of Alex. And really the only reason for it was the Robot Butler gag. They could have still gone on the "adventures" if they were able to wander the building on their own.

 

Great heavy lifting by Stephen Merchant though. "Let me just slide back into my shorts" got me

[AnimeMania]

Not funny at all, I don't know why I wished they had named Alex's fancy apartment complex "The Aristocrat".

[foxfreakinmulder]

19 hours ago, mtlchick said:

God bless Stephen Merchant, that adorable giant. 

He was the only thing that made this episode watchable!

Alex, has a job now with a company?

Edited January 9, 2020 by foxfreakinmulder

[rhys]

Snerk. I loved it. I'm easily amused.

[Robert Lynch]

What's going on with this show?

[Ottis]

“I know I am but a lowly stable boy...” 

Stephen Merchant was wonderful. The family was horrid. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

What kind of hair dye was used on Claire?  The ink from a washable marker?

[SoMuchTV]

11 minutes ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

What kind of hair dye was used on Claire?  The ink from a washable marker?

I know! I thought maybe I missed something, like they put in a temporary rinse and she didn’t realize it. 

[Ottis]

Just now, SoMuchTV said:

I know! I thought maybe I missed something, like they put in a temporary rinse and she didn’t realize it. 

The only thing I could figure was that Gloria was right.... Vincent the hair dresser was a hack. But if he was that much of a hack, seems like people would have noticed before Claire.

[ljenkins782]

21 hours ago, Traveller519 said:

Look, I'll always appreciate a Christopher Lloyd farce. Nothing is ever going to top the Ski Lodge episode of Frasier, but many of the Modern Family farces have been great, and the show has been at its best when it goes that route.

But I have to agree that the whole premise felt icky with the family taking advantage of Alex. And really the only reason for it was the Robot Butler gag. They could have still gone on the "adventures" if they were able to wander the building on their own.

Great heavy lifting by Stephen Merchant though. "Let me just slide back into my shorts" got me

I was also a little grossed out by the slider double entendre as it related to Gloria. The “procure me that woman I saw and bring her to a private cabana” seemed like a joke out of time. Stephen Merchant sold it, but the premise was gross.

I thought one of the funnier throwaway scenes was Manny being the pretentious little douche he is during Lawrence of Arabia. His smug “I would have used a tracking shot there” is so typical of a college kid who’s recently learned new things.

It seemed a bit far-fetched that manny and Luke didn’t know who Courteney Cox or David Beckham were.

Did Claire ever figure out that her hair dye had washed out? 

[ams1001]

Stephen Merchant was the only good thing about this mess.

 

[LekoBoy]

The best thing about this episode was Lilly and Joe.

[Ottis]

7 hours ago, LekoBoy said:

The best thing about this episode was Lilly and Joe.

And Stella.

I really shouldn't think about this show afterward, but the more I thought about Beckham and Cox being on this episode, the more inexplicable the whole thing was. First, why choose them? A couple of 90s A-list stars? If the point was that they were no longer celebrities, it wasn't made well aside from some members of the family not knowing at all who they were.

And speaking of that, why do most of the characters not recognize who they are, or, if they do know who Beckham is, focus only on Beckham's wife? My 14yo daughter watches Friends on netflix. She would have identified Cox right away. The whole interaction made no sense. Credit to Beckham and Cox for being game, and getting in the hot tub. No fault with their work. I wonder what they were paid?

[biakbiak]

6 hours ago, Ottis said:

No fault with their work. I

I say this as someone who loved Courtney on CougarTown I thought she was awful here, with stiff and stifled line readings. I mean she has never been the greatest actor but this was bad.

Edited January 10, 2020 by biakbiak

[Artsda]

I liked Phil pointing out he remembered Stephen's character from somewhere. Not pretending like he wasn't their butler in Vegas in earlier season.

 

[Gummo]

So the theme of this season is chopping up old episodes and throwing them in a blender to produce a flavorless mush that barely resembles classic Modern Family? Wow, that's some ambition.

Always wonderful to see Stephen Merchant. Otherwise, the entire extended family has devolved into cruel, selfish douches. Now that's character development for ya. And to make these labored plots work, everyone has to be incredibly stupid. Like, Alex, supposedly the smartest one, doesn't know her family well enough to not use her code while they're around? 

Also, if you're going to do a classic just-barely-missing-each-other in-and-out-of-rooms style farce, it has to move a lot faster and tighter than this lackadaisical mess. 

And what a weird waste of Beckham and Cox.

The whole thing was just odd. And not in a good way.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Gummo

[OutOfTheQuestion]

19 hours ago, Ottis said:

I really shouldn't think about this show afterward, but the more I thought about Beckham and Cox being on this episode, the more inexplicable the whole thing was. First, why choose them? A couple of 90s A-list stars? If the point was that they were no longer celebrities, it wasn't made well aside from some members of the family not knowing at all who they were.

And speaking of that, why do most of the characters not recognize who they are, or, if they do know who Beckham is, focus only on Beckham's wife? My 14yo daughter watches Friends on netflix. She would have identified Cox right away. The whole interaction made no sense. Credit to Beckham and Cox for being game, and getting in the hot tub. No fault with their work. I wonder what they were paid?

This had the feel of it being originally written as David and Victoria Beckham, but Posh declined to appear.  Cox (of all people) was the replacement.  Maybe some kind of gesture of one long-running hit sitcom acknowledging another in Friends?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

17 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I say this as someone who loved Courtney on CougarTown I thought she was awful here, with stiff and stifled line readings face.

Fixed that for you!

15 hours ago, Gummo said:

And to make these labored plots work, everyone has to be incredibly stupid. Like, Alex, supposedly the smartest one, doesn't know her family well enough to not use her code while they're around?

Or to just call the front desk/management to change her code when she got multiple notifications that her code was being used all over the place? If I lived there, I definitely wouldn't want to get kicked out because my idiot family members stole my code.

[Gummo]

4 hours ago, OutOfTheQuestion said:

This had the feel of it being originally written as David and Victoria Beckham, but Posh declined to appear. 

That make so much more sense.

[For Cereals]

It’s so time to end this...I would’ve been fine with the XMas episode being the last kind of leaving the future open (not for a reboot).

[biakbiak]

8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Fixed that for you!

I thought she looked great, so no. I was simply referring to her acting.

[readster]

10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Fixed that for you!

Or to just call the front desk/management to change her code when she got multiple notifications that her code was being used all over the place? If I lived there, I definitely wouldn't want to get kicked out because my idiot family members stole my code.

Not only that, but what everyone was using the code for. I get Jay and as for both Mitch and Cam, how self absorbed they are. As for what hell you want to talk about Manny and Luke. Especially Luke, where the hell this: "I want woman who are over 35." coming from? A few episodes ago, Luke wanted Manny's ex who is THERE AGE! The show is just so, so bad, I really am glad the final episode is in April so we aren't strung along until May. 

[seacliffsal]

I didn't think the apartment building looked that plush (Alex's apartment did but not the overall building).  And the "cabanas" with all the fabric separating them did not look exclusive, more kind of bothersome.  I know they wanted the missed interactions and the hilarity that ensues, but I agree with an above poster that the timing was just off and I think it was because instead of opening/closing doors, they had to pull open and shut fabric curtains which is a whole different timing move.

Also, the reason Gloria couldn't make it down the slide?  Water wasn't running down it-they kept it dry for the purpose of the scene which totally ruined the intent/scene in my opinion.

I guess that the bottom line for me is that this family is fabulously wealthy-so why so over the moon with this apartment building?

I felt for Alex, but didn't enjoy the episode very much.

[SnarkySheep]

On 1/9/2020 at 4:48 PM, foxfreakinmulder said:

Alex, has a job now with a company?

Last we saw, she was sending out resumes. Now she not only has a job, but one so prestigious they are housing her among gazillionaires and celebrities? How on earth is she THAT valuable an employee?

Then, we are supposed to believe that Phil all of a sudden started blogging about food - when we've never before heard a single thing about his interest in such things - just so happened to gain tons of followers, and one of them is Jay?? I doubt Jay cares what random foodies say, and we've already established he isn't much for being online or technology in general.

Finally, where the heck where Joe and Lily??

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 1/11/2020 at 10:46 AM, biakbiak said:

I thought she looked great, so no. I was simply referring to her acting.

I liked her on Friends and Cougartown but she has been hitting the botox too hard. She used to have such a natural fresh faced beauty and now her face looks like a frozen mask. I usually don't like to comment on actresses' looks, but to me this is a perfect example of why you shouldn't mess with natural beauty. She looked so beautiful before. I wish she had let herself age naturally.

I kept expecting Posh to pop up and casually walk by, just missing Mitch and Cam by a few seconds. When the elevator door opened in one scene, I thought she was going to strut out.

[Robert Lynch]

That's why I like Schitt's Creek so much better. What suffers in most shows like The Goldbergs, Fresh Off The Boat, and Modern Family is that they make the character or characters pretty unsympathetic that it becomes a choir to watch all of a sudden. It is not that all shows are like that, but there is a trend when characters argue over stupid things and gets away it because of a plot device. It is so annoying. 

Edited January 13, 2020 by Robert Lynch

[Ottis]

9 hours ago, Robert Lynch said:

That's why I like Schitt's Creek so much better. What suffers in most shows like The Goldbergs, Fresh Off The Boat, and Modern Family is that they make the character or characters pretty unsympathetic that it becomes a choir to watch all of a sudden. It is not that all shows are like that, but there is a trend when characters argue over stupid things and gets away it because of a plot device. It is so annoying. 

It *is* annoying, and it doesn't have to be that way. When Modern Family is at its best, it isn't that way, and it can be very funny and also very clever. Even this bad episodes have some clever lines. The thing that is puzzling about MF is why they made the family so awful at the end, and why they seem to have thrown any character development out the window. Do they have no pride?

As for Schitt's Creek, this isn't that thread so I'll be brief ... I tried to watch it, and the humor is very broad and bland, and not very clever. Couldn't get past that. 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Ottis

[Robert Lynch]

8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I liked her on Friends and Cougartown but she has been hitting the botox too hard. She used to have such a natural fresh faced beauty and now her face looks like a frozen mask. I usually don't like to comment on actresses' looks, but to me this is a perfect example of why you shouldn't mess with natural beauty. She looked so beautiful before. I wish she had let herself age naturally.

I kept expecting Posh to pop up and casually walk by, just missing Mitch and Cam by a few seconds. When the elevator door opened in one scene, I thought she was going to strut out.

She was so pretty in the 80s and 90s. When she has done to her face is so sad.

[Artsda]

22 hours ago, SnarkySheep said:

Finally, where the heck where Joe and Lily??

With Haley & Dylan?

I thought it was silly everyone drove individually including the ones that are married and all live in the same house. I know it went with the plot of all of them sneaking in on their own, but still definition of issues with LA traffic.

[RealityCreator]

Well, Stephen Merchant was funny.  

[Robert Lynch]

Let's hope next episode is better than this.