Modern Family S8E2 Review

Despite seasons six and seven having premieres that weren't great, the eighth season started out on a really good note. Read on to see if I thought that continued through the second episode.


S8E2 "A Stereotypical Day"

Some members of the Dunphy family are facing issues, with Haley having lost her job, Alex with mono, and Phil had a traumatic experience where he was trapped in a closet. Haley has a great line about how keeping her job loss a secret is difficult with Alex around, and the flashback to Phil in the closet is hilarious. Jay faces a classic Modern Family situation, with his security cameras going up on the same day as a black family moving in across the street by coincidence.

There are a lot of things going on in act two of the episode, which is something that the show does well. From more fleshed out stories like Jay trying to prove he isn't a racist to smaller ones like Joe wanting to live outside, they are all entertaining. An especially funny moment in this act is when Mitch and Cam realize that they might be hypocritical and not as tolerant as they thought they were.

Jay introduces himself to the neighbor, and everything goes right until he accidentally thinks that when they neighbor says "by the way" he is saying an African last name, which was hilarious. The episode also brought back the painting of Mitch and Cam on Lily's wall from the pilot, and it came up with a great way to keep Alex more involved in the stories throughout the season, after a hilarious and classic Modern Family scene where Alex discovers why everyone wants her to stay, except Haley who wants her to leave.


After a couple of weaker seasons where it had seemed that Modern Family was rapidly going stale, the eighth season so far has bounced back in a tremendous way, going back to the types of stories and the set-up that made the show so popular at the start. This episode is the perfect example of that, actually being even better than the best earlier episodes. I never expected to say this about this show again, but this is my new favorite Modern Family episode.

Score: 10/10

What did you think of "A Stereotypical Day"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Share this

Related Posts

Previous
Next Post »