The Filmgoer's Diary 2018/19

Modern Family Season 10: Going Crazy Together

*Spoiler for Modern Family season 10 + some other seasons*

Truth be told, I never really expected to be writing this review. To me, Modern Family was always a pretty good show. It was never too emotional or self-serious. It's perfect for casual watch – something to play in the background while finishing off some work. I don't think too much about the show. Hence, there has never been any internal push to review the series. Until now.

There is a moment in the 12th episode of Modern Family Season 10 – the midpoint of the season – that instilled in me the urge to review this season. The setup for the scene is simple – Claire and Phil sitting at a bar. They just went through a particularly rather rough day dealing with Haley's pregnancy. After lamenting how difficult this new challenge is, and in spite of it, they decided to cancel their planned holiday, just to be with Haley. It was nothing short of a perfect moment.

It's well-written, sure. But that's what I expected. Burrell and Bowen are pitch perfect, sure. That's what I expected. It manages to slide in subtle humor in the midst of somber drama, sure! We have always expected those kind of things from this show. But what is so perfect about this moment is that it came right when the audience needed it. It came when the characters needed it.

Up to that point, this season had been... flawed to say the least.

It still has the charm one would expect from the Modern Family cast but some of its writing is disappointingly trite. I get a sense that they don't know what to do with the characters. Alex doesn't have a lot of things to do, which is disappointing considering they could've done more to deal with her leaving college. Manny was straight-up missing in a few episodes. However, Mitch and Cam are the most egregious victims here. When the season began, there was a lot of attempts to create a storyline based on them raising Cal. This backfired. Cal did not bring anything new or interesting to the family and the storyline was ended soon after. Before the writer finally realized the better might've been to explore Lily's adolescence, Mitch and Cam spent an entire episode dealing with a pet chicken. The dry spell was awful. They even recycled a situation from the season 3 episode, Caught in the Act.

Over at Jay's household, the lack of a presence by Joe is a massive mis-opportunity. He was a star in the past few seasons, bringing the younger-child dynamic that was lacking as Lily, Luke and Manny were growing into adolescence. It's true that the show might be trying to create that dynamic through the introduction of Cal, but it felt like trading a Ferrari for a run-down truck. They gave Manny a girlfriend. But didn't do much with it. They had what seemed like a subtle mother and daughter-in-law rivalry, but this never went anywhere. The girlfriend on her own was rather annoying and we weren't really satisfied with her till the last episode.

Haley and Dylan's relationship was also given a rather sudden CPR. Dylan simply did not seem like a good path for Haley. The last time we saw them as a couple, it was symbolic of Haley moving back into the past as opposed to moving forward with Andy. Andy and Haley also shared an incredible chemistry that simply wasn't there with Dylan. Arvin was given a horrendously un-ceremonial exit. His character became villainous in a single episode. This was the only way they could make it sensible for Haley to drop him.

So it seemed like I really dislike this season. Actually, I still enjoyed a lot of it. As I said, the charm was still there. Plus, things got a lot better after the 5th episode, which featured the death of DeDe. The writer gave every character a moment to deal with this. The dynamic of a family dealing with the loss of a member is illustrated with all the comedy and emotional impact one would expect from this show. DeDe's death was one of the most impactful event to occur in this show in a long time. And we felt it. This was an end of an era.