Modern Family’s Characters Become Jerks and Lose Me

I have  a terrible feeling that one of my favorite TV shows has jumped the shark.  That can happen when characters that people really like turn out to be jackasses who annoy you, instead of make you laugh. Tonight’s episode of “Modern Family” tipped right over into sharkville, when both Cam and skinny mom were totally obnoxious.

Cam accompanies his partner Mitchell to the home of an ultra-wealthy businessman who is interested in hiring Mitchell as an environmental attorney.  While the man is making his pitch to Mitch, Cam is sucking loudly on a drink, and then banging around into furniture, bringing on a cringeworthy moment.  You just wanted to yell at him through the TV, “shut the hell up, Cam, you’re blowing it for your partner to get this new job.”  They seal the deal by accidently smashing up the rich guy’s Ferrari on a turntable in the driveway.

Then the mom goes through her own ”I’ll be a jerk too’ moment. Her daughter’s at the age where she can’t stand the mom’s meddling, or even being associated with her in public. It’s how kids are at a certain age, and skinny mom is sad about it.  But the young daughter admits, in a tender moment, that she’s still mom’s little girl, and thanks her for understanding that she was embarrassed to be seen with her.  Mom let’s the moment come, then goes on to mortify the daughter by talking about training bras in front of her friends.  What a jerk!

I think we tolerate jerks to some degree, look at George Constanza on Seinfeld, who we all loved to hate. But when people either won’t shut up when they should, or are just plain nasty to their kids, well, they lose me.