"Fulgencio" had lots of fun twists at the end -- the only problem was getting there. The first two acts of the episode dragged on in the same way the entirety of last week's "Party Crasher" did, but in the third, we got the Godfather homage, the reveal that Claire was feeding Lily her snarky lines and the conceit of the plot about Gloria stealing her sister's life -- all the type of gags that reminded me of why I used to consider Modern Family mandatory viewing material. After so harshly (though I think fairly) slamming the show last time, tonight let's look the best moments of the episode... and you'll notice that none of them include the unsettling jokes made at the expense of the unseen lesbian neighbor Lee or Jay's weirdly homophobic rant at his son in front of his entire family at church, nor the quips about how impoverished Colombia is:

We're big fans of Jason Mantzoukas here at TWoP, in no small part because of his character Rafi on The League, Dennis Feinstein on Parks and Recreation and his musings on the How Did This Get Made? podcast. When we first learned he'd be playing Haley Dunphy's boyfriend in "Party Crasher," it was the most we've looked forward to an episode of Modern Family in a long time. It should come as no surprise, then, that after watching this mess, we're a bit more disappointed than usual.

Ah yes, the holiday episode that airs over a week after the holiday itself -- one of the reasons why "New Year's Eve" fell flat for me (and why we're kind of dreading Community this season). Much as I liked the pairings and some of the dialogue, this is just another contrived episode of Modern Family we can cite when we talk later about how a different show should have won the 2013 Emmy for Best Comedy.

"Diamond in the Rough" isn't what I'd call "funny" or "very good at all," but it did involve a fun storyline that we haven't seen before (at least as far as I can tell) in the dangers of group texting. I also like that the show addressed the fact that Mitchell is stuck being the scapegoat for basically everything, gave much-needed props to Claire (who we just named one of TV's Most Valuable Performers) and handed four of our main players a nice big project for the rest of the season with this house-flipping business. Other than that, we've got Jay and Gloria fighting about how bad Gloria's voice is (wasn't there an episode like this with pretty much the same conceit where she did karaoke?) and Luke and Manny exchanging awkward-but-sometimes-amusing lines to one another. I honestly don't think this episodes deserves much more of a breakdown beyond a few funny lines, so here they are, presented with minimal commentary.

"When a Tree Falls" was Modern Family at its most mediocre. The jokes didn't hit and the storylines were predictable, and even the highlights of the episode -- some of the interpersonal moments between the characters and the presence of guest star Paul Scheer -- weren't enough to make this an installment worth watching. I'm really hoping that Gloria has her baby next time so that we can finally have a new dynamic on the show to play with, because lord knows the writers aren't trying to come up with anything fresh. Actually, that's not true: there's obviously a little bit of playfulness coming from cut-away gags (like in this episode, Haley's mugshots), but they don't jibe when the rest of the show is exactly the same. At this point, Modern Family sometimes reminds me of the part of the E! True Hollywood Story about Full House when John Stamos said "I wanted some of the stuff to be a little more organic and not about, you know, poop jokes and let's bring a pig on and we'll have five laughs on that," only instead of a pig, we got a cat suit and an inflatable boxing ring.

If you don't factor in any plotline except for the boys' night with Phil and Dave (a.k.a guest star Matthew Broderick, who plays a gay man quite convincingly), "Mistery Date" would definitely be one of the best Modern Family episodes in a while. Sure, the show has done a handful of plots chock full of dramatic irony where we know one character is gay or straight, but one of the Dunphys definitely doesn't, or, like Phil's encounter in this episode, an outsider thinks a Dunphy is interested in them when we know they don't play for the same team. Just off the top of my head: Claire had a night out with Cam and Mitch's friend who turned out to be straight; Manny's pal who he met online revealed at the end of an episode that she thought Cam could be "the one"; the whole Is Shorty Gay? saga -- so yeah, it's been done. But what made this plotline so funny was Ty Burrell, and how his interactions with Dave were actually kind of Phil-lite in terms of what we sometimes see from his character. I'm shocked at how well he downplayed his accidental come-ons and innuendos. I seriously cracked up every scene he was in.

"Arrested" premiered just hours after TMZ reported some very personal and heartbreaking news about Ariel Winter (Alex Dunphy), so to say I didn't watch this episode without bias would just be a lie. Even then, aside from what actually must be the ten millionth storyline about Mitchell and Cameron bickering with each other, I really enjoyed everything that happened. Let's get right to the highlights:

I've been writing about Modern Family for long enough that I just don't have it in me to keep talking about all of the things that I wish the show would improve upon. "Yard Sale" had that irksome privileged perspective, lack of subtlety and the same repetitive bits of Jay being crotchety/Gloria being fiery and hot, Claire being uptight/Phil being kooky and Cam being sensitive/Mitch being a unlikable jerk that I always talk about. In this episode, even the kids barely had anything to do but read a few lines without making the script feel forced... and I'd argue that a few of them, especially Manny, failed. Fortunately, there were a few salvageable lines that saved "Yard Sale" from being a complete waste:

One third of "Open House of Horrors" was a lot of fun -- and, of course, it was the parts that featured Phil and Claire. Ty Burell and Julie Bowen have mastered Modern Family's physical comedy, and when they weren't doing the same shtick where Phil accidentally gives Claire a backhanded compliment (we get it, show) they were on fire.

"The Butler's Escape" was one of the episodes of Modern Family that could have greatly benefited with a little bit of subtlety. Instead, every joke and reveal seemed to be hammered in our faces, stopping ever so short of attaching a laugh track. There's nothing wrong with humor in plain sight or anything, but it's one of the reasons I'll always prefer to re-watch Arrested Development for the umpteenth time over Modern Family -- there are no hidden little gems. Compare last week's bench gag to the one Arrested Development did much more delicately, not to mention, first. I don't think "The Butler's Escape," nor any episode of Modern Family is hiding these fun Easter eggs that make some great sitcoms like AD so compulsively re-watchable. Instead, the writers make an extended effort to make sure we catch all of the jokes right away. It doesn't make those gags less funny the first time or anything, but their longevity... isn't really on the radar.