Modern Family – Halloween
Watching this episode made me wish I enjoyed Halloween more. I loved that it is Claire’s favorite holiday, it was very unexpected. This is not the holiday I would have expected her to enjoy.
I also found it funny that Cam hates Halloween, again unexpected. Poor thing had a bad time of it one year when he was young. Mitchell, on the other hand likes Halloween well enough to dress up for work, but finds out that only 2 guys at work dress up, and everyone else consider them tools.
Jay tells Gloria that sometimes people don’t understand her, because of her accent. She then adopts a more American accent, and spends part of the episode speaking that way. Her feelings were hurt, and I actually felt badly for her. She was also really funny when she was talking with the Americanized accent, but finally Jay made her realize she is loved with the accent, and the first time he heard her, before he even saw her, he had fallen in love with her because her accent projected her exuberance.
Another Halloween episode of a new show, and I also really enjoyed this one. Jules’ father came to visit, and she spent the whole episode trying to connect with him. He spent the episode trying to avoid it, and Jules couldn’t figure out why. She actually ended up kicking him out of her house, because she felt if he didn’t want to connect with her, there wasn’t really any need for him to be there.
Laurie scared Travis three times, and he scared her once. It’s hard to describe, but it was awesome.
Grayson said he was going to “throw on (his) Prince costume and be handsome.” Jules, who hates Halloween and wasn’t going to dress up, decides to go as a princess because Grayson’s her prince. She got to the party and discovered he didn’t mean A prince, but THE Prince, circa 1985. It was excellent.
Laurie dressed up as Ellie, Ellie dressed up as Laurie, Andy dressed as Burt Reynolds, Bobby as “windy guy” (he looked great, and I really like the idea if I could do it). Jules’ dad texted her to say he went home, but he was actually at the pub the whole time, dressed as a bear, so no one knew it was him. Barb (YEAH!! Barb was back!!) was dressed as a haystack (“Hey fellas, who wants a roll in the hay”) in front, but the back was open and she was dressed very provocatively. Eventually Travis even got into the spirit and dressed as Andy. As you can probably guess, I really enjoyed the costumes here, they were all excellent, and while professionally done they actually looked like things these people could pull off in their own homes. They had a very real life look and feel to them, instead of some shows where there is just no way your average person could pull them off.
Eventually, Jules’ dad explained that the reason he has a hard time talking to her is that she reminds him so much of her mother when she was young that it’s hard for him, because he misses her. Then he tells her the thing he is most proud of in his life is her, and she is his princess (while she is wearing her princess costume).
The Whole Truth – When Cougars Attack
The defendant of the week is a woman who is accused of killing her much younger lover. The press called her a “killer cougar” because of the age difference, and also because the woman was accused, prosecuted, and acquitted of the murder of another much younger boyfriend a couple of years before. Jimmy was her defense attorney on the previous trial, and Kathryn’s boss Edge was the prosecutor. The defendant, Madeline, also had a brief affair with Jimmy right after he defended her.
Madeline’s son went on the stand and told the court that he heard her threaten the victim at the party they were holding, just before he died. Madeline went on the stand and tried to mitigate the damage, but to me she didn’t come off as very likeable or sympathetic.
Before Madeline got on the stand, Kathryn walked into the defense attorney’s office in the evening, and found Madeline and Jimmy making out, with her sitting on Jimmy’s lap. It was a pretty serious indiscretion on Jimmy’s part, and he was VERY lucky Katie didn’t tell Edge about it, because Edge could have used it when Madeline was on the stand. She was still convicted.
In the end, we found out the jury was right, and Madeline was guilty. We also saw more of the chemistry that exists between Jimmy and Katie. I know they have known each other for years, went to college together I believe, but there was a spark between them that seemed brighter this episode.
This show is going to continue airing until the 13 episode order has been fulfilled and aired, but ABC has already announced that they are not ordering the back nine. I actually think it’s a shame, because it’s really just starting to find its groove, and I think this could have been a good show if given the chance.
