Modern Family: Halloween 3: AwesomeLand (6x06)

One of my all-time favorite Modern Family episodes was a Halloween episode. It's sort of hard to top the incident of Gloria and the "baby Jesus/baby cheeses," isn't it? But this episode was really excellent, anyway. I was sort of disappointed that we didn't get an all-family episode, where everyone comes together, but I think it still worked alright. Let's just look at each plot separately.

First, there's the Dunphys. Since Claire has to work, Phil is in charge of Halloween this year. Instead of doing anything scary, he decides to do "AwesomeLand," which is just a fun, silly land of anything Phil happens to find awesome. Claire tries to keep out of it, but when the new neighbors tell her about a contest for the scariest house in the neighborhood, Claire's competitive streak comes out and she creates a spooky insane asylum. Then, the neighbors are horrified, because apparently the wife used to be in a metal hospital. The Dunphys undo the scary design and go back to AwesomeLand. Turns out, of course, the neighbors were just kidding so that they could win!

The "twist," if you can call it that, was that the neighbors were lying about the wife being in a mental hospital. Not only is that an offensive thing to lie about, but it was also super obvious! I was annoyed at Phil and Claire for not seeing through the trick. But besides that, I think this was a fun twist to the "scary" Halloweens always put on by the Dunphys. Why shouldn't Phil get what he wants for once? My favorite jokes were when the kids predicted exactly what Phil would say when he saw the changed decorations, and when Haley acted like a total snob when refuting the claim that she's a snob.

Gloria dresses up as Fiona from Shrek, but Jay doesn't want to be Shrek. Instead, he decides he wants to be Prince Charming. He gets a costume and even gets a wig. Gloria is charmed by Jay's enthusiasm, and the two of them have some grownup time together, if you know what I mean. Jay thinks that Gloria was turned on by his hair, but Gloria says she just liked seeing him so involved and having such a good time with Halloween, getting costumes and participating in the family event.

This plot was okay, but there really weren't that many funny jokes. Manny didn't have much to do, and Jay's obsession with his hair wasn't that interesting. However, I was actually touched by Gloria's happiness as she watched her husband get so involved, and I absolutely cracked up when Jay starts asking for advice about hair plugs from someone dressed up as a doctor. The other great moment was when Jay says that Prince Charming wasn't bald, and Gloria says that there's no way to know that for sure: "Maybe he had to be charming because he was bald!"

Then, you've got my favorite of the three threads: Cam, Mitch and Lily. Mitch is getting ready for the closing arguments on an important case, while Cam gets ready to enter a costume contest with Lily. When they arrive at the school, Cam realizes that his costume and Lily's are supposed to be themed together, so he has to go find something to go with Lily's "Where's Waldo?" outfit. When he gets back, he learns that the costume contest isn't until later, after school. He realizes that he can't make it because of football practice. Lily is really upset. Mitch, at his court case, finds he can't get the jury to concentrate because the stenographer is dressed up as a giant spider, causing a spectacle. When Mitch requests that she take off the silly costume, the jury all thinks he's being really lame. Mitch loses the case. However, he later gets a chance to win a "case" with his family. Lily is mad at Cam for never having time for her anymore, but Mitch says that Cam put a lot of effort into Halloween, and that part of the blame lays with Lily, for never showing Cam the flyer with all the information about the costume contest. Lily and Cam make up.

This plot thread was full of great jokes. I loved the spider costume. I loved the recurring joke about Cam being unable to find Waldo. Since Lily was dressed as Waldo, Cam lost her in a crowd at school and had to video call Mitch to find her. The best joke was when Cam learns that he'll be dressing up as "white beard," and says that he hasn't had one of those since he took his cousin to the prom. As he walks away from one of the moms from Lily's school, he throws this over the shoulder: "Lily, explain Daddy's joke." That really cracked me up!

Also, I liked the fight between Lily and Cam. I could see Lily's point - she misses her dad and feels like he's not around as much anymore. At the same time, Cam is still putting in a ton of time, and he can't be blamed for needing to work sometimes. It was a great balance, and nice to see a bit of conflict here, since usually Cam and Lily get along so well. It was also nice to see Mitch be the one to step in and diffuse a family spat, since it seems like he usually just makes them worse.

I really liked this episode, even if it can't beat my favorite Modern Family Halloween.

8/10