The rest of the episode does not achieve the same level of success unfortunately, although there are a few refreshing stories amidst the pack. An open house at the high school brings the parents (and gym teacher Cam) into the teens’ environment, while Manny and Luke decide to spend their day off from classes dating two new students – twins – who recently transferred to their school.
“Under Pressure” uses a typical family sitcom trope of letting the parents act like students, reliving the social pressure their kids are going through, while thrusting more mature issues – dating with Manny and Luke, Alex’s anxiety – on the young characters. Some bits have more bite than others, especially Gloria’s competitive rivalry with a mother of one of Manny’s peers (played by 30 Rock alum Jane Krakowski). Both mothers want to send their sons on a prestigious history trick and try sucking up to their kid’s professor… and it all ends in an aggressive game of dodgeball that Cam refs.
The storyline that works poorest is yet another cutthroat rivalry, between lawyer Mitchell and his environmental snob of a neighbour, Asher (played by Jesse Eisenberg). Eisenberg may be a stellar actor, but he is stuck in that perpetual gawkiness that mired his earlier pre-Social Network roles. He would have been more fitting if this episode aired five years ago, but to bring a good film actor and underuse him in a tired storyline is not just unfortunate, but distracting. (Also distracting: Jay and Phil sneak off to the Teacher’s Lounge to watch a big football game, but the footage is of the Canadian Football League. It is likely that getting the rights to American football is too much money for ABC to spare for such small placement in an episode, but having the Toronto Argonauts logo flash on the screen took me out of the scene for a few moments.)
Joke-wise, “Under Pressure” does not deliver the laugh quotient that Modern Family fans expect. Instead, the episode focuses on a dramatic development for Alex, one of the series’ least realized characters. And that’s perfectly fine, as the results of her character’s journey, when she takes a deep breath and navigates through a teenage crisis that many of us can relate to, is as honest as the show has ever been.
