I’ll admit it: I’m a sucker for theme episodes. Even if they’re contrived; even if they’re dumb. I love holiday episodes because they always give us a chance to see the characters in a different way from the rest of the year. So, obviously, I was predisposed to kind of love the Modern Family Halloween episode. It had corpse brides, inappropriate teenage costumes, and an amazing cold open with Claire, Phil, and a severed hand, but the most frightening part of this episode by far was Gloria. Dear Jesus, I don’t ever want her to speak without an accent again.
It’s not as though she was bad at it — it’s that she wasn’t. It was kind of good, but so, so wrong. Hearing Gloria speak in an American accent was like seeing a dog in a bowtie or Lady Gaga in pants: not bad, just kind of unsettling. Luckily not only did it not last long, but we got to hear a cute story about how Gloria and Jay met.
Also cute was Andy Botwin returning as Mitchell’s boss. I kind of forgot about him, so I hope that his return appearance means he’ll be a recurring character. Also, I think it would be fun to see more of Mitchell’s office. If it’s a place where two dudes who are lawyers think that it’s okay to come to work in full costume year after year, despite the fact that no one else shows any acknowledgment that it’s even Halloween, then I’d like to see more, please.
My only complaint is that there wasn’t much going on with Manny and Luke in this episode. When Luke said that they were planning something together, I was expecting a little more than just Frankenstein costumes. Those kids couldn’t be more different (from each other and just … in general), so when they team up, it’s kind of gold.
What did you guys think? Should the Halloween episode be a Modern Family tradition, or are you excited to see things get back to normal?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Oct 27, 2010 @ 23:19 EST5EDT
I’m not sure if it was my mood, but I seriously laughed so hard in places I brought myself to tears. Mitchell’s whole Spider-Man fiasco was brilliant from start to finish (from the “guns” comments to literally scaling down the side of his building). They really did a great job with this episode. I’m not sure if I’d want it to be an annual thing, though, because they told the family’s Halloween tale, so the next episode would just be contrived.
Great episode
I love this show.
Unfortunately being Australian, I’d seen the baby cheeses joke before. In fact it’s one of the most quoted classics from the original (australian) Kate and Kim which was very popular here and in the UK.
But hey, it was just one joke that wasn’t as effective for us.