Not this season, but the next, will be the final season of Modern Family. How will it end?
[Poll to follow]
I, for one, am surprised they haven’t gotten Haley pregnant already. Therefore, I went with “Alex/Haley gets married/pregnant.”
I haven’t followed it in a little while, but since it’s such an ensemble show, my inclination tends towards “More than one of the above.”
It was all a dream…
Over the last few seasons there’s been an arc of Haley becoming more mature (whether or not Phil and Claire realize it.) She’s earning money, she dumped Dylan in favor of Andy, she had enough sense to break up with Rainer Shine, and she and Alex have a much better relationship. One of Alex’s professors is interested in her.
Haley will end up being an adult.
Modern Family actually ended a couple of years ago. What’s left is the stale carcass of what used to be a great show. I can’t watch it anymore.
Alex or Haley will be pregnant. By Manny (I kid!! - I kid!!)
There will be a final scene where they all sing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” and someone reaches over to turn off the lights.
Actually I’m more interested in how The Middle ends. It seems more realistic to me, and those kids (Axl, Brick, and Sue) all need something better. But on that show, it’s not guaranteed.
I liked the professor for Haley, and I especially liked that she used his approach to land the ridiculously shallow and vapid job for herself. If he becomes her love interest it would be great, and would be nicely balanced if some stud Alex is tutoring becomes her love interest after he meets Haley. Haley could arrive early for a prearranged meeting with Alex at the school library and catch her helping the pretty boy. Both girls could assume he will be interested in H., but he will admit he has feelings for A.; that he dated girls like H in high school and is totally passed the type. The sisters will pursue the separate relationships over the course of this season and be helped by the other. Then next season when the relationships are firm, they will start double dating and they can tease that the two types “pretty” and “smart” are better suited for each other and might switch (perhaps because they get to speak in their ‘native’ tongue to their girlfriend’s sister). But then it will be revealed they are all happier across the board with the other type. Opposites do attract and the sister’s have each other to thank for being prepared to share a room with a version of the other.
Meanwhile, Manny finds a perfect match in a woman who is a version of his mother with a twist, and Luke finds a perfect match for himself who is a version of his father (the twist being she is a female). I suppose ideally Luke’s match should also be a competent woman who likes her wine and supports the family either by raising the kids while they are young or running a small empire when they are older, so she is a version of Clair too. But she needs to be a juggling, mediocre armature magician who studies and reveres circus skills and makes goofy movies with Luke. That way he can spend the rest of his life with his best friend “Phyllis”, and Phil can move to Florida to help his dad recover when he breaks a hip. (A minor sub- plot will be that Claire will find herself lonely and start making her friend Temporary keep her company. In a short period of time she realizes she has always admired his long, verbose ramblings and now that she is an empty nester whose husband refuses to leave Florida—she makes him her boy toy [well, her overweight, post-middle aged toy] and seduces him using excellent dinners and staring adoringly into his eyes by candle light while he drones on and on. To seal the deal, she will tell him how insightful and keen his observations are— but those details might have to remain off screen.)
That leaves Manny and Joe; Joe will become a Teen Beat cover boy acting and singing in TV and movies. They can ramp it up as the B or C story for the rest of this season with everyone excited at his opportunity. It will be a particularly interesting interaction with Cam as he considers that his turf. But everyone will end up mildly resenting him when he gets managers and agents and makes more money than all of them even though he is basically a clueless kid. It would be really funny to watch him breeze into Jay’s house and run a massive empire as he collects his birthday presents or childhood keepsakes while secretaries and agents travelling in his wake get him tables for business meetings at places booked up for months, and asking him if he wants to take a call from [someone impressive to the others]. His whole family can be both remarkably proud of him—and mildly jealous or resentful. The kid seems to be a good enough actor to pull off a Bieberesque character, at least to me.
I mentioned above how Manny needs a version of his mother with a twist. Perhaps instead of a busty Latina with street smarts and handgun skills . . . . we can pair him up with a beautiful, stylish Asian Doctor. Still an ethnic sexpot, but with a different focus and skill set. Forced by her upbringing to become a doctor, but she has a passion for opera and spoken word poetry and fedora hats (and pan flutes and all the other goofy stuff Manny loves). These passions have always made her an outsider, an odd ball like Manny, and like Manny she has been the treasure of a parent who didn’t quite understand her but always supported her. Being similar enough to share many interests and different enough to make it in fun and challenging they make each other better while fitting together like puzzle pieces.
Lily, being more mature than either of her fathers, exerts her leadership and becomes the de facto parent of an attorney and teacher/coach. She dates a string of guys about whom her fathers have endless opinions, and later she reveals she has had a steady relationship with a great guy for quite some time but she wisely keeps him away from her family. Mitch and Cam are particularly upset in late episodes that she has introduced him to Jay and Gloria, and Claire and Temporary- I mean Phil, but then they agree it was the smartest thing for her to do.
The previous generation are resolved to all be empty nesters, puttering around their own homes with their perfect mate and well established neurosis which would drive anyone else nuts (and does whenever the kids visit). Two of the storylines above will become spinoffs and feature guest appearances by the MF cast. One falters, barely gets the back nine in its first season and doesn’t get renewed for season two. The other goes three to five seasons but change the characters so much they have no resemblance to Modern Family characters. I guess that makes me a vote for ‘Some other thing!’
I wonder if the ending will make a nod to the barely-there ‘being filmed and sitting down to make little after-the-fact remarks to a cameraman’ aspect.
Any number of the options in the poll will occur, plus some others not mentioned. No matter what it is the audience will say “Thank God that’s over”.
It will recycle the final episode of another sitcom that ended decades ago.
You missed one of the best jokes in the history of sitcoms last week.
A FRIEND CRASHES ON MITCH AND CAM’S COUCH. IT’S THE NEXT MORNING.
FRIEND: Wow, crashing on your couch reminds me of my early days in L.A. Sleeping on a friend’s couch, a mean Asian lady down the hall…
CAM: Where is Lily, anyway?
Yeah, at the risk of thread-shitting I was going to say “They all go on another one of those family vacations and the plane goes down in flames. Preferably over open ocean.”
I quit watching a couple of years ago when each episode became a half hour long shout-fest. It’s like the entire cast forgot how to speak in a normal voice.
Phil & Claire finally have an empty nest just as Claire starts menopause. Except instead of being menopausal she’s turns out to be pregnant. With twins. Haley may or may not be pregnant too. Though Alex getting pregnant would be a much bigger surprise than Haley; especially if it’s after a one night stand. And maybe just for fun Luke experiments with a guy.
The show can end, but unless they kill everyone, there is a presumption that the story lives of each character go on. So, they can:
- just end it on a feel-good moment (some kind of family reunion everyone attends - a birthday, wedding, or baby shower would work well) where each character is on a positive trajectory
2)they attempt some kind of epilogue moment, comically like “Animal House” or …
3)…seriously like “Six Feet Under.”
I think #1 or #2 are most likely. But there will be one of those heartwarming voice-overs telling us how wonderful family is, for sure.
I hadn’t heard it was ending, but this is my guess. I could see the last season/half season setting up some sort of issue for one character/one family/all of them that they’ll pull through by the finale, but ultimately, it’s a feel good show and I think they’ll end it on a feel good note with Jay doing a sappy narration over the end, maybe with a twist (ie they each do one sentence of it).
I could see one or all of the Dunphy kids getting married or moving out/on but I really don’t expect anyone to be killed off or have an unexpected pregnancy or even discuss [no spoilers but I wouldn’t expect a Six Feet Under finale]. Hell, the show is generally feel good enough that not only do I not think Claire would run her business into the ground, I don’t even think she’ll destroy Closets Closets Closets Closets out of business, at least not as the finale. Merging maybe, but not ruining them.
So, yeah, it’ll end on a feel good not with a super sappy last 5 minutes. Maybe Gloria will murder everyone, but other than that.
I can’t see poll options on my tablet so I don’t know if this is on there but isn’t the concept of the show that someone is doing a documentary on these people? To explain the couch interviews and stuff?
The finale should be that documentary, immediately followed by a scene where the “filmmakers” say that all the footage is unusable because no one would ever believe I n these people.
They are going to end it on one of their especially horrific “groups vacation” episodes.
What other shows compare to MF in terms of began great, stumbled to the finish? Maybe Andy Griffith to Mayberry RFD? But that had major cast changes.
Realistically it’s going to end on an upbeat note. Seriously, the most/only serious story line they’ve done is when Cam & Mitch wanted to adopt another child and kept getting shot down, and finally decided not to. So either Haley gets married, Cam & Mitch do adopt another kid, Joe goes off to 1st grade, Phil opens a successful line of magic shops across the country, something like that.
It’s so hackneyed at this point that I completely forgot that the show’s conceit is a documentary. So instead I’ll vote for an “x years later” reunion episode.
I could see them killing off Jay and continuing the show.
Ed O’Neill is 71 and talking about retirement.
Why should the much younger cast stop?
Losing the family patriarch would open up a lot of stories for the writers. It’s a documentary about a Modern family? Right?
People get old and die. The family grieves, adjusts, and continues. Gloria would raise Manny on her own. The other characters would help too.
I’ve noticed Jay is often only on screen for a few minutes each show. Once in awhile a story focuses on him and he gets more screen time.
The show has enough strong characters to continue without him.
I like Jay and I wish Ed wanted to keep working. But he wants to retire and set around on his butt. He’s had a long career and doesn’t need the money.