Synopsis: Phil tries to thwart Claire's horrifying Halloween plans by setting up "AwesomeLand," a less scary and perhaps more lame Halloween alternative. However, Claire's competitive drive causes her to take Halloween back to scary when their new next door neighbors put a wager on who can have the scariest house. Cam struggles to come through for Lily's school Halloween parade because of his coaching job keeping him busy and Mitch encounters difficulty working his court case when a stenographer dressed as a spider distracts the jury. Jay dawns a prince charming outfit with a full head of hair and he feels nostalgia for the old days when his glorious mane made him feel invincible.
Review: Sure enough, the Dunphy's new weed dealing neighbors, the Lafontaines, made for some fresh fun. This time, conflict arose with the families' mutual passion for Halloween decorating. Claire tore down Phil's playful AwesomeLand theme to make an insane asylum that would beat their neighbors in the competition for the scariest house. However, the Lafontaines are not above playing dirty, as Amber tells the lie that she was formerly a patient at a psychiatric ward to make the Dunphy's disassemble the scary. Many of the Dunphy's story arcs involve taking them somewhere and I think that the Lafontaines can provide for several episodes of content. We still haven't even begun to explore the relationships between the children of the families and I think that will add dimensions to this neighbor relationship. And, if nothing else, the Lafontaines provide laughs with marijuana puns such as "the best house wins the pot."
In Jay and Gloria's world, we learn the seemingly out of character trait that Jay used to be a man who depended on a fashionable hairstyle for his looks. Opting out of Gloria's suggestion to be Shrek, he sticks a wig on to make himself feel young again and then Gloria tells him that she likes him just the way he-...wait a minute, this seems oddly familiar. I challenge the writers to induce a Jay and Gloria conflict that does not have something to do with their ages.
In this episode we learn that Cam has a hilariously hard time finding Waldo in the books, and, when Lily dresses as Waldo for Halloween, Cam loses track of her at her schools Halloween party. Combine that with his football schedule, and Cam ultimately doesn't come through for accompanying Lily on her Halloween party. Mitch has a courtroom story squeezed in, but it really was not given the necessary time for it to be interesting. This stems from my continuing complaint that Modern Family episodes often have too much story squeezed into a 22 minute space. Mitch's attorney stories get this treatment a lot because it would seem unfair to give one character a third of the episode. I think the writers should try possibly integrating Cam and Lily in Mitch's work life somehow. That could be fun.
My Grade: B
Nielsen Rating: 3.5 (9.92 Million Viewers)
Reviewer's Quotes: "There is a sense of momentum in this episode, a product of an appearance from Ronnie and Amber, who pop back up so quickly it’s as if they never left...I’m hoping there’s a plan to add some depth to the Lafontaines though, seeing as I’ve already had my fill of trailer-trash humor." -Joshua Alston (avclub.com)
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