Modern Family S9E14 Review

One problem that the Olympics cause for shows is that they can't air Valentine's Day episodes close to the holiday. Modern Family ends up airing one this year anyway, just two weeks after the day.


S9E14 "Written in the Stars"

At the start of the episode, Jay is about to put his Valentine's Day into action, but it's lame so Claire and Phil stop him. He ends up taking a page out of their book, and the two have a roleplaying evening. Gloria is very over-the-top as she explains her background to a bartender, and it is very funny. The two run into an issue when someone who works at the hotel thinks that Gloria is a prostitute, which leads to a funny scene where Jay and Gloria prove that they are married.

Phil and Claire's Valentine's Day leads them to watching Joe for Jay and Gloria, which leads to some creepy moments, as Joe wants Claire to be his Valentine. While I did not like the idea for this story, especially considering how Manny has also been quite creepy before, the young actor Jeremy Maguire was actually funny. He has really gotten a lot better this season, with many enjoyable moments. The way that Phil convinced him to not go after Claire was a really sweet scene though, so this story wasn't as bad as I was dreading it would be.

Mitch and Cam unintentionally end up ruining Luke's Valentine's Day, as the badmouth him in front of his date. It's enjoyable as Mitch and Cam express how they don't want to spend their Valentine's Day around Luke, and then realize what they did. The best part, however, is when they take Luke to convince the girl to give him a chance, and their intensity ends up scaring him off. This story felt a little bit typical for a Modern Family story, but it was still really enjoyable.

The weakest parts of the episode dealt with Haley's date for Valentine's. The date goes to the obvious places, as the professor realizes they might not be right for each other considering their differences, and she realizes how much more he has done with his life than she has with hers. However, these things end up not really mattering to them in the end. I'm sure they will at some point in the (hopefully very) near future, but not today. Meanwhile, Alex interprets a phone call from her professor as him asking her to come, and is disappointed when she sees that Haley returned to him. That layer to the story seems unnecessary, and is just sad for Alex.


Two of the stories tonight were really good, and not just season 9 level, but actually very enjoyable and funny. While creepy Joe and the Dunphy daughters weren't as good, at least the former story had its moments, and the latter wasn't awful. All together, I would say this is one of the better season 9 episodes, and I actually enjoyed it.

Score: 7/10

What did you think of "Written in the Stars"? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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