Grade: C+
“Five more years. Five more years”- Claire
Following such a high quality episode, I was hoping to see that comical energy continue in “Snip” but unfortunately it seemed to fall flat.
After Gloria and Jay’s little “accident,” Claire and Phil agreed that he was going to get a vasectomy so that they didn’t have any surprises themselves. They figured that in five years, Luke would graduate from high school and they would finally get the house to themselves again. Naturally Phil became incredibly nervous about the procedure in the waiting room, and was shaking uncontrollably, as well as muttering incoherent phrases. The fact that he was with Jay made it more interesting to watch, since unlike Phil he is generally a calm guy. When Phil ran away out of fear, it was satisfying to see Jay have a talk with him about the situation. It was also a nice touch when Jay took a picture of a clueless Phil on a bench ad that spelled out the words “Not a Real Man,” since Phil’s body covered up the rest of the letters.
Meanwhile, Gloria was having a difficult time accepting the fact that her clothes had become too small to accommodate her pregnant belly. One major issue I had with this storyline was that her pregnancy did not seem as far along as it was in the previous episode, making it hardly believable. The plot itself was amusing, particularly when Gloria’s outfit started to burst open, but the inconsistency mentioned above was quite distracting.
Finally, with Lilly in kindergarten, Cam found himself with a lot of free time. Mitchell was trying to convince him to go back to work, especially to prevent hobbies like making mermaid costumes for cats. I was slightly annoyed at Mitchell’s constant effort to get Cam a job, only because Cam didn’t seem all that interested. At least he was able to make the decision for himself at the end, and he has now replaced the music teacher at Manny’s school. I’m curious to see what comes out of this new situation in future episodes.
Other notable moments:
-Phil insisting on eating ice cream before his vasectomy.
-Gloria telling Manny that she took him out of school to play “hockey” instead of hooky.
-Claire accidently shaving a chunk of hair from the head of Alex’s new friend.
-Phil and Claire deciding not to have him get the vasectomy after all.
Overall, I would categorize this as a rather mediocre episode that often failed to hold my interest!
The Comedy Critic 