The reviews are uniformly warm. Most critics single out the ensemble and the writing: three households, cut between briskly, with the asides to camera giving each joke a second layer. Several call it the best new comedy of its season. Phil Dunphy, the try-hard father with the gadgets and the pratfalls, is named again and again as the character who carries the show, and the gay couple is praised for being written as people rather than as a talking point.
The spread is narrow; nobody dislikes it. What reservations there are concern familiarity. Den of Geek finds it sentimental in places and close to other sitcoms in its bones, and The AV Club admits the premise is well worn before allowing that the execution overcomes it. Reviews written years later, covering the later runs and the finale, find the jokes still landing, which suggests the early enthusiasm is not simply novelty.