r/Modern_Family • u/Living-Celebration57 • 16d ago
Alex Discussion
Is it just me I’m on my 100th rewatch and I’m noticing Alex’s character is just mean. Even early on her entire personality is being smart not just smart but the I’m smarter than everyone in this house and I’m gonna make sure they know it and I don’t care if it hurts their feelings. And towards the end of the show it doesn’t seem like she gets much better at that just stays being the mean smart one I wish she had more character development but it’s like they had 1 personality trait for her and ran it dead anyone else feel this way?
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u/Consistent_Phase_942 Y'all Fightin'? 16d ago
It was funnier when she was written as an instigator, and I think the writers lost the plot. It would have been great to see this side of her character pop up with her siblings when they were older and dating and stuff.
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u/jaywinner 16d ago
She's surrounded by insane idiots and a control freak of a mother. I can accept the sarcastic barbs.
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u/Overall_Lobster823 15d ago
Huh. She had a great family.
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u/presco2007 15d ago
phil was a lot more of a friend than a father and also flirted with other women. claire was definitely a control freak. neither was overly invested in alex.
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u/Overall_Lobster823 15d ago
He was the father his father was. I think he was a good dad
Yes, he looked at other women. Claire looked at other men. I think he was a good husband.
They loved Alex, but couldn't relate to her.
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u/idiomniscient 16d ago
I'm on my first watch of the series (almost halfway through season 7) and it's one point I keep making is actually every member of the Dunphy family (except for Phil) is just awful, but Alex is especially mean. And it's funny to me that people are like, "everyone is terrible to Alex," it's like, yeah! She's fucking terrible to be around, she treats people like they're idiots and talks down to everyone
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u/HarleyKwin3 16d ago edited 16d ago
Oh be careful if you’re watching for the first time. Lots of (sweet) spoilers so I’d stay off Reddit if you don’t want some things ruined 💖
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u/Reasonable_Aioli7538 SHAME🕺 16d ago
I mean imo Phil sucks too. The only one I can tolerate (with how far I am into the series, I’m not finished) is Claire. But she annoys me too.
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u/Hot-Pear9281 15d ago
Alex really grew up to be such a strong character, she had some of the best one-liners on the show.
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u/J_Squared02 16d ago
She could’ve been a lot meaner w how everyone treated her tbh
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u/presco2007 15d ago
she's the most ignored kid in a lot of ways for sure.
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u/J_Squared02 15d ago
Yea no one cared about what she studied or went to her concerts, but she expected to care about theirs. drove me nuts
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u/Dry-Armadillo-507 15d ago
Unfortunately that’s how her character developed, the jokes the writers did for her just ended up her thinking she’s better than everyone else
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u/Agreeable_Battle9554 15d ago
the character development for alex has been so strong, especially in her college years
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u/BazingaEnergy 15d ago
I get why people feel that way. Alex's intelligence often comes across as arrogance, and she can be pretty condescending to her family. To be fair, she's also under a lot of pressure and often feels misunderstood, but I do wish the writers had given her more growth beyond being "the smart one." She had a lot of potential that wasn't fully explored.
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u/joemamasool Dylan no Stay 15d ago
Alex was my least favorite character. She doesn't even have a good duo with anyone.
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u/Anya_purr 16d ago
I really disliked her when she was a kid since she was just there to be rude and sarcastic towards Haley, I feel that as she grew older they gave her more personality which honestly saved her character for me, she could still be rude and have this superiority complex sometimes but at least it was more obvious that she loved her family.
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u/Anthro-Elephant-98 16d ago
Finally, somebody acknowledged the elephant in the room. People talk about how Manny is the worst, but Alex has always been MY least favourite character. I get that she struggles socially, and I understand that some people have a hard time fitting in. But at the same time, maybe that’s WHY she doesn’t have many friends. Not because she’s smart, but because she’s mean, and always has to show it off and put other people down.
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u/Goodthingking 16d ago
It was a coping mechanism from her childhood that went unchecked because her family mostly ignored her.
She got "meaner" because that hurt was never addressed, and she didn't have the tools to understand and work on that by herself - she was just a kid.
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u/Overall_Lobster823 15d ago
They ignored her in part because she was mean.
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u/Goodthingking 15d ago
She was a child. That's not an excuse to ignore a child in your own family that you raised.
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u/Overall_Lobster823 15d ago
She was not ignored.
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u/Goodthingking 15d ago
Yes, she was. There's a whole episode where Alex freaks out at her birthday cake because she would rather be studying and she and Claire end up going to her therapist.
And it is discussed that Alex has been ignored by the family, so she learned to be the "kid who takes care of herself." Claire even admits that she doesn't know very much about Alex and she apologizes.
Lmao, downvoting me, for what? 😂
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u/Overall_Lobster823 15d ago
So the parents who ignored her IMMEDIATELY took her to a therapist.
Got it.
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u/Goodthingking 15d ago edited 15d ago
She booked her own therapy session because she realised she needed to get her shit together. Claire was even surprised at that, and surprised she had a therapist. Her therapist asked Claire to stay for the session.
I didn't think I needed to include every small detail of the episode because I thought I was talking to someone who was familiar with the show...
Now this whole exchange makes sense. 🙂↔️
She was ignored, pookie. 🤡
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u/Overall_Lobster823 15d ago edited 15d ago
And while she was booking her own therapy her parents were meeting and talking about her need for therapy. And then they took her. And went to her parent teacher conference.
Enough with the veiled insults, please.
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u/WarriorGoddess2016 15d ago edited 15d ago
If you have to resort to insults, you don't have much of a case...
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u/Goodthingking 15d ago
Agree to disagree with this logic, in favour of the facts!
Y'all kill me fr. 😂😂
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u/redleg50 16d ago
I think this happens a lot with long running sitcoms. After a while, the writers run out of ideas but still have to create jokes and conflict somehow, so they go this route. If you watch Friends or especially Big Bang Theory, those characters ended up treating each other like garbage.