What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 2, Episode 6 “Halloween” (B+)

Put simply, there’s little funnier in the world than the image of Mitchell trapped in a bathroom stall wearing a Spider-Man costume, although the sight of him climbing down the side of his building in true arachnid style comes close. It’s a brilliant, perfectly relatable plotline of Mitchell being misled by a small minority of people to believe that his office workers dress up in costume for Halloween. I loved the way Cam gave Mitchell the idea to scale the building by asking him rhetorically who would be the just the right person to get stuck in this situation. It’s about time Gloria’s incomprehensible accent was addressed, and I’m glad that her attempts to mask it only lasted the length of this episode since she’s far less entertaining without her signature pronunciation of words. Claire’s enthusiasm for Halloween was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed how her master plan of greeting trick or treaters kept getting messed up by Jay’s inability to perform his functions, Gloria’s efforts to hide her accent, and especially Cam’s speeches about his traumatic experience every time the cover was lifted. And of course the show decided to go out on a wonderfully sentimental, dramatic note, with the family performing admirably after Claire’s big speech, and Claire telling a very concerned Phil that he’s stuck with her. There’s only one complaint I have, and it goes against something I’ve said about this show in the past: while it’s good that guest stars don’t dominate the episodes, I suspect there’s a much better way to use Justin Kirk’s time.