The difference between her character's flaws and the rest of the cast's is that not only is there nothing endearing about her, she isn't trusted with the funny either. Her husband is a lecherous idiot who screws up constantly, but he's an undeniably lovable lecherous idiot, and he gets the best lines on the show. Her father is a bit backwards in his thinking, but he strives to evolve, has a dog butler, and the scene where he spared little Manny from knowing what a jerk his deadbeat dad was would forgive him almost any insensitive remark he could ever make. And Cam is an over-the-top gay stereotype who should probably offend more than he does, but c'mon, you can't not love that bleeding heart of an impromptu Lion King musical stager. But when pressed to come up with Claire's good points, I really can't come up with any. If she's not humorlessly yelling, nagging, fretting, or complaining, she's, well, off-screen.

So, what happened? Is she the genre normative put there so as not to freak out unadventurous viewers or something? Or is the insufferable high-strung wife such an ingrained archetype they didn't even consider messing with it? But feminist gut reactions aside, it's just irksome to have a whole ensemble of great characters to root for except one for seemingly no reason. The show could still work if Claire were more than a miserable porn-hating (for her husband anyway -- I understand not loving her 10-year-old possibly being into it), expensive entertainment system destroying (she can't understand universal remotes! She's just a woman!), unfunny shrew -- in fact, it would be better for it.

This show is so good that I'd still stick with it the way it is for years to come, but I remain hopeful that the writers will quickly realize that Julie Bowen is capable of more, and that the show would be better if all its characters were sympathetic and, above all, funny, as well as flawed. And, you know, that not all non-trophy wives are bitches. It would be nice.