Modern Family- Princess Party review

Call us crazy, but the last two weeks of Modern Family have been bad. The Valentine’s Day episode was disappointing, and this week’s episode was extremely repetitive. Does the show have any new material? There was a lot of potential. A competitive ex-boyfriend of Claire’s sounded promising but didn’t deliver.

DeDe, played by Shelley Long, returned and was less funny than her first appearance. Also returning was Shrill Claire, with DeDe bringing the bad side out of the character. Matt Dillon was also there as Claire’s old high school boyfriend, and to give the episode SOME credit, at least it didn’t totally revolve around his guest spot. Fizbo almost made an appearance. The jokes and the plot felt old. It was a lot like most Modern Family episodes. There wasn’t enough Phil and there wasn’t enough Luke. Luke’s attempt at cuteness wasn’t funny. We also didn’t like Gloria having a problem leaving an answering machine message. The episode just wasn’t as funny as we are used to from this show. It was all too big. By the time we saw a drunk, pilled-out Gloria falling down, we were yawning at the screen. Modern Family shouldn’t reach for over-the-top. Modern Family is a witty comedy. Usually.

What we liked: The British version of Fizbo, the court jester. Alex playing the jaws theme on her cello. Gloria’s bear voice and Jay’s response (“What kind of voice is that? A Bear? I was going to get a crucifix”). Also, this line by Gloria: “I want to be there for Alex’s graduation and ALL of Haley’s weddings.”

We still love the show, and we are hard on it because it is almost always good.

Episode grade: C-