This week, Modern Family, gave us not one, not two, but three celebrity guest appearances. We had Nathan Lane, reprising his role as Pepper, Cam and Mitchell's uber-gay, wedding planner, Fred Willard, Phil's dad, returning to visit the family for a weekend, or three, and Adam Devine making his Modern Family debut as a new Manny--er manny, male nanny. Three times the famous, three times the fun. Let's see how they did.
Springtime for Pepper
A classic Lane performance--over the top, but funny. His histrionics about Cam and Mitchell's wedding choices lead to the archetypal affair scene, as Cam and Mitchell are seduced by Lane's young (attractive??? Ladies???) assistant's ideas for their wedding. Pepper's wedding ideas may be a flop, but Lane's performance makes those flops a smashing success.
Better Red than Fred
Perhaps this is a little harsh, but I thought Fred Willard's performance was merely mediocre--solid but not sexy. Sure, comparing him to James Spader's Raymond "Red" Reddington from The Blacklist [1] is patently wrong. But so is picking up a hooker. Or masturbating inside an adult movie theater. [2] All wrong. So, very, very wrong...
Work-out-aholic
And now we come to the third point of our celebrity triangle, Adam Devine. Devine first came to prominence (if that's the right word for it) as a writer and actor on Comedy Central's Workaholics. Adam plays a flat-out moron [3] in that show, and while he isn't playing a genius in this episode, he isn't playing a moron either. His peppy, slightly simple, fitness-focused male nnanny brought plenty of humor to what could have been just a very annoying character. And so I honor your impressive performance,sir, with a well-deserved:
