What I’m Watching: Modern Family

Modern Family: Season 6, Episode 6 “Halloween 3: AwesomeLand” (C+)

I can’t say I remember too much about this show’s previous attempts at capturing the spirit of Halloween, but this episode ranks for me as the first Halloween-themed installment of any series that I’ve seen this year. I almost didn’t realize that the holiday was here, and I don’t think that it necessarily produces the best special episodes of any show. I do recall that Claire got very into the idea of scaring people, whereas Phil is more into being clever and creative, even if it’s not scary in a traditional manner. I guess we are stuck with the new barbaric neighbors, who showed up to challenge Claire and Phil to design a fearsome Halloween house of horrors and then tricked them into giving it all up when they realized that the insane asylum was better than what they had created. I don’t think there was much effective comedy to be milked from it, and again we’re back to the familiar conclusion that Phil just likes his family and his ideas are rarely supported by them at first. Cam’s inability to find Waldo was somewhat amusing but nothing else from that whole plotline took off particularly memorably. Jay has done plenty of reflecting over the years on getting old, and reminiscing about the days of having hair is a logical part of that process. It’s nice to see Gloria acknowledge Jay for his positive qualities, and I think everyone can agree that a fake head of hair was a more regrettable offense than, say, a dog butler.