Modern Family: ‘Open House of Horrors’

Last week I had begun to write a review for the new episode of Modern Family, but after the episode was over I realized I had almost nothing positive to say about it and instead decided to skip over the episode instead of criticizing all of its faults. But given that this is the second straight atrocity, and that ‘Open House of Horrors’ is a Halloween episode, usually one the easier and most fun episodes for a sitcom to make in a season, I have to point out the major fallacies.

Although there might have been a salvageable story here if they had gotten some of bugs out, there were three moments that were too cringe inducing for me to get on board with anything else that happened as the episode progressed.

1. The very first joke of the episode, Luke mistakes the giant Halloween decorations  in their front lawn for real lollipops and asks: “Why do they taste like cardboard?” Now I understand that this is a television show and it’s often times humorous to have a character who isn’t all-together there, but this joke crosses the line from oblivious to someone who may have a medical problem. Absolutely no one in their right mind over the age of 5 would make that mistake and it’s simply cheap and lazy writing on the part of the writers.
2. This one also happens in the very beginning of the episode as this has to be the 20^th time the cold open ends with Phil saying something slightly offensive to or about Claire and she gives her “classic” dismissive look at the camera as they roll into the credits. While Phil’s general misunderstanding of what comes out of his mouth is still funny at times, this format has become so formulaic that when it’s presented in this manner we all know that it’s coming and without the surprise it just lacks humor.
3. Speaking of things we've seen way too many times, Gloria gets to be “all Colombian” all over the place in this one. Why can’t the show just let Sofia Vergara be funny with clever jokes and scenes? Why do we have to see her time and time again mispronounce words and get mad at people for not understanding her? Why do we have to see her constantly get upset from being an immigrant and joking about her culture? The writers seem dead-set on keeping this character exactly the same from now until the end of time which is shame because I know there is more there for her.

I’d say that maybe Modern Family has just told all the stories it can tell, similar to The Office, and it’s just time to hang it up. But they haven’t told that many stories, they just keep using the same ones over and over again. On the plus side that means there’s still plenty of potential going forward for a show I once really liked, but with the constant Emmys and good ratings it’s hard to blame the writers much for not trying to fix something that is broken.

What does everyone else think? Am I just being too harsh? Comments are always welcome.