Modern Family Review: A Tale of Three Cities (Season 8 Episode 1)
Modern Family Season 8 Episode 1, “A Tale of Three Cities” starts off shaky, gets slightly better in the middle, and then falls flat by the end. This is not a promising start to the new season.
The episode begins with the Dunphys in New York, the Tucker-Pritchetts in Missouri holding vigil for Cam’s grandmother, and the Pritchett-Delgados in Juarez, Mexico for a wedding. The settings should bring some zest to the aging Modern Family, but unfortunately, it doesn’t.
There are definitely funny moments with each family. Phil and Claire decide to ditch the closet convention in North Carolina to spend a few more days in New York City without the kids. Of course, Alex, Haley, and Luke extend their stay as well without telling their parents.
Seeing the Dunphy kids hang out together as adults is fun, although more could have been done with the New York City background. Instead, there are near-misses between the kids and parents in their hotel hallway and out on the street catching taxis. It’s all very choreographed.
The scenes in Missouri with Cam, Mitchell, and Lily are a wasted opportunity. It’s funny to see how quickly Lily adapts to life in Missouri, looking somber in a plain mourning dress and speaking with a southern accent.
Mitchell is blamed for the grandmother’s death and for being insensitive at the funeral. It’s deliberate and the whole dead grandmother storyline could have been avoided completely. It would have been funnier to see Lily and Mitchell adjust to life on the farm instead.
The best part of the grandmother dying is to see Claire’s creepy, smiling reaction to death when Mitchell tells her. Claire and Mitchell’s relationship is actually very funny and somewhat twisted. More of them, please!
Jay, Gloria, Manny, and Joe are barely in Juarez long enough to really count it as the third city, but we see a familiar face there—Sonia, Gloria’s vengeful sister. Sonia follows them back to Los Angeles, where she takes Manny hostage as revenge for Gloria stealing Sonia’s hot sauce dream.
Gloria: It’s just a kidnap. It’s normal in my family.
Manny is returned after some weird flirting with his aunt, just in time for the whole family to converge for Father’s Day. Jay is annoyed because Father’s Day isn’t treated like a big deal and doesn’t even have its own song. It turns out that Jay is a bit of a sausage connoisseur, but no one appreciates that.
And then “A Tale of Three Cities” comes to an end.
So, how does this episode of Modern Family measure up to the things we wanted from Season 8?
Well, there is a holiday in this episode, so check. The families are together in one place, another check. That’s about it from our wishlist. The comedy in “A Tale of Three Cities” is contrived and much of it falters.
There isn’t much heart either, although seeing Phil and Luke watch Criss Angel stuck in Jell-O in New York, wishing that they could see it together is pretty sweet.
Overall, this episode is unimpressive. There are a few laughs, but the potential is there for better storytelling. However, some scenes are so trite that it’s painful.
Modern Family deserves more than what it’s dishing out.
Last Bits:
- Why is Manny always flirting with members of his family?
- Little Joe is a klepto and so cute.
- The painting of Gloria and Sonia’s dad, who looks just like Jay, is amazing.
What did you think of this episode of Modern Family? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Modern Family airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on ABC.
Nora Williamson
Nora is pop-culture obsessed and has been since she was six years old-- writing stories about going to Hollywood premieres and dating Christian Slater. Her current favorite shows include House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, The Walking Dead and black-ish. She is a sucker for TV shows with forbidden love, bad boys and of course, a Big Bad. Nora may also be the only person on the planet who loves Fear the Walking Dead.