Modern Family

Modern Family

Episode 5: Open House of Horrors

By: Carlos Uribe

Modern Family is a show about three branches of a family.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Cam lost some weight and he can't wait to put on some costume to show off his body. The problem is that they mixed up the sizes of Mitchell and Cam's costumes. Cam is forced to go through his party in a bull costume and he keeps flashing the guests. He decides to switch costumes only to find his thunder stolen by a friend who has lost a hundred pounds. While this is going on, Mitchell accidentally told Lily that her mother was a princess because he was tired. Lily took that literally and she didn't forget. She wanted to be a princess in Halloween for that reason. Mitchell and Cam are forced to tell Lily the truth earlier than expected: they have no idea who her mother is but she had given her up to a loving family because she didn't have the resources to raise Lily. This causes Lily to switch to a costume that compliments Cam's new costume. It's a good story but here's the thing about this episode: it's too busy. Cam and Mitchell essentially have two stories. It's good that they converge but when the episode packs in so many other stories, it simply makes the episode be busier and doesn't allow each plot to breathe. Having two plots for these two characters could have worked better if there wasn't so much happening at the same time. It doesn't help that Cam was too much of a shallow caricature to have his plot be any funny. The only time I laughed was whenever the focus shifted to Lily's story and because of Cam's story that wasn't as funny as it could have been.

The Gloria story was pretty funny. Gloria has always been an emotional woman who gets a bit excited. The hormones in her body from the pregnancy has turned her even crazier. She's set off by any tiny thing. She gets angry at two kids who couldn't even be bothered to put together costumes and she takes their candy when they think she's old. The two kids and their friends egg Gloria's door and she takes off after them. She isn't able to catch up to them and so she goes to Cam's party where she snaps at the othe guests. When the kids show up at Cam's house, she's able to throw a single egg at a slow kid. This would have been fine on it's own and it was surprisingly funny if predictable. The thing is the show felt the need to add more stories. Jay has a small story where he thinks that he's losing his moves when he's not able to get out of a ticket. He's able to feel better when he goes to a party and one of the guests hits on him. Gloria realizes that he needs this and ensures that she flirts with him. This could have easily fit in another episode and simply spent too much time away from the other plots. It was funny but it still didn't really belong. I would have much rather spent the time seeing a pregnant Gloria actually chase the teenagers rather than just hearing about it. It's not like the show needed to give something for Jay to do: he was already playing a supportive role in Gloria's story.

That's not all: Manny has his own story. He's sent to the principal's office when he accidentally sets off the fire alarm while practicing Gene Kelly dance moves. The principal thinks that he pulled the fire alarm on purpose in order to get out of a test. This action is also perceived as other students to be purposeful. The cool kids invite him to join them in their Halloween festivties. At this point, Luke and a friend give him advice. The friend thinks Manny should avoid them and not risk getting into any trouble. Luke thinks that Manny should hang out with them because they're cool. In a clever and subtle move, the show puts Luke in a devil's costume and the friend goes as a Angels basketball player. This makes it look like Manny has a devil and angel on one side, giving him advice. Manny ends up going with the cool kids but it turns out that he's the one kid whose egged by Gloria. I liked the Manny story and the visual gag made it worth it but it was also rushed to accommodate every other story in this episode.

It's really the Phil and Claire story that's the highlight of this episode. Claire reveals that the previous year she had frightened kids and a single adult when she went too far. That one adult had a heart attack it was so frightening. She's forced to have a family friendly Halloween. Considering how important this holiday is to her, you'd imagine that this would crush her. She doesn't seem to mind as she complies. When all the families avoid their house, she's disappointed. She's also not happy that Phil refuses to acknowledge that she was scary. She gets the idea to scare him at the open house he's having when Phil hears a scary noise while on the phone with her. She does have the decency to do her best to hide when there's actual costumers and she's eventually able to get Phil to admit that he was scared of her. This was the plot not only the best pacing but also the best jokes. It's true that there's technically two stories here but it manages to work better because they're related better than the Cam and Mitchell stories. They're related better because it's focused around the character of Claire. She wants to scare Phil and she wants families to go trick-or-treating at her house again.

This was an extremely busy episode. There were just too many things happening. This isn't exactly a bad thing. Cam's story was the only bust and Jay's might have been a waste of time, but the pace of the show ensures we don't spend too much time with either. This means they don't get to drag the whole episode down. On the other hand, it meant that almost every plot was rushed and it missed out on what could have been some funny jokes. Open House of Horrors was certainly open to a lot of plots and it should have stuck with only a few of them.