'Modern Family' Review/Recap: "Halloween 3: AwesomeLand"

Evan Slead ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Happy Halloween to all! This week’s episode of Modern Family took the holiday for all that it’s worth, much like they do every year, and created an episode with the theme of identity. The Dunphy’s have to decide if following the competitive new neighbors or showing compassion is the right course of action. To debrief, Jay (Ed O’Neill) recaptures his youth after pleasing Gloria (Sofia Vergara) by dressing up as Prince Charming for Halloween. Cam (Eric Stonestreet) breaks himself in two trying to please his daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons), and Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) puts every effort into winning his next court case after a string of losses.
Claire (Julie Bowen) is known as the best Halloween spirited mom on the block. It’s been shown over the years that she takes the holiday very seriously, getting the entire family involved and finding every way to terrify trick-or-treaters. This year, Phil (Ty Burrell) decides to take the reigns of decorating so he can make his not so scary, but very awesome “Awesomeland.” The new neighbors, however, taunt Claire into turning the decorations into her horror expertise.
Now, the writers of Modern Family have loved to show the control issues that Claire has with her family. Bowen is a fantastic actress that always conveys the strength and stubbornness that Claire possesses. These Halloween episodes give her a great chance to play more with the subtleties of Claire, like her love for horror. Alex (Ariel Winter) makes an interesting point that her mom, Claire, enjoys making her love for Halloween known as an identity mechanism. She wants to appear tough and edgy in her love for all things spooky. For a sitcom that doesn’t always offer a big change in character arcs, this was a nice change of pace for Claire. Being such a strong willed character, it was nice to see her lower her defenses and examine herself.

It seems that Claire doesn’t fall too far from the tree, as Jay has his own moment of change as well. Gloria loves Halloween for the senses of family unity and playing up imagination. Jay is not as agreeable on those points. However, this year he decides to play along and dress up as Prince Charming to go with Gloria’s Princess Fiona costume. His outfit comes fitted with a beautiful blonde wig which Jay quickly takes a liking to. Reminding him of his strong youth, he follows his nostalgia trip by showing his joy in a more than usual manner. Sadly he loses his wig and is forced to realize how much he misses not only his youth, but the happiness it brought him.
Like Bowen, O’Neill always masterfully plays the snarky and sarcastic character of Jay with a sense of humility. In the moments where Jay is forced to look at himself and who he is now, O’Neill gets the chance to pull those character arcs out and remind viewers of the heart that the show has.
The most enjoyable section of the episode went to Cam and Mitch’s story with Lily. Cam dresses up Lily as Waldo and accompanies her to the school costume parade. Meanwhile, Mitch is stressing over how to win this new case that seems to put everyone to sleep. Of course, when he’s in court, the stenographer shows up in a spider costume which distracts the jury from listening to his closing arguments. It was a fun mix of a section because all of the characters played off of one another very well.

The fact that the episode has the theme of identity running through is heavily prevalent in the humor here as well. Lily dressed as Waldo is utilized several times, as she runs off into a crowd for Mitch or Cam to have to search for her. It’s the kind of humor that everyone can enjoy and relate to because when people are in their element or around those they truly love, the wit comes through. Watching Mitch and Cam play off of one another reminds viewers of the best comedic and witty moments with loved ones.
The writers are continually building the humor around the characters, instead of the other way around. Many shows fall into the trap of turning their characters into stereotypes at some point, but Modern Family maintains its strength by giving the characters an ever changing persona.
Modern Family airs at 9/8c on ABC.
Overall Episode Grade: A