Modern Family,
It’s not you, it’s me. Well, no. Actually, it’s you.
We both knew this wasn’t going to last forever. But we had fun while it lasted, right? Almost eight years of quick-witted comedy and heartwarming familial relationships that I wouldn’t trade for the world.
At the beginning, there was no other show like you. You were a celebration of diversity. Over the years, you’ve had honest conversations about the ways families deal with sexuality, gender roles and intersectionality. You even featured television’s first transgender child actor.
But lately, you’ve just been getting distant. You’ve changed. Scripts and storylines that were once laugh-out-loud funny now fall flat, and characters that viewers used to identify with seem exhausted and stale.
We just lost that spark. The kids, who were once cute and comedic in their innocence, grew up to be monotonous and uninteresting. Was it not enough for Alex Dunphy, the smartest out of the whole Dunphy-Pritchett-Tucker clan, to forego the Ivy League experience for a school nearby in California that would let her still be part of the story? You had to make her sick enough to miss out on a whole semester? You can justify Haley and Luke not going to college, but it’s just unfair for the girl who is used almost exclusively as the butt of a joke about overachieving intelligence.
At this point, it just feels like we’re going through the motions. You don’t even seem happy anymore. Rumors have been swirling for years about behind-the-scenes paycheck drama. More recent contract disputes seemingly threaten continuation, though The Hollywood Reporter dubbed the ninth season “not-yet-ordered though all-but-inevitable.”
I’m too young to be tied down, anyway. Have you seen The Good Place? Or This is Us? I think it would be best if we see other shows.
We shouldn’t forget all the great times we’ve had, of course. Remember the time you shot an entire episode through interactions over a computer? That was cool. Or when Gloria meant to order a box of baby cheeses but her accent made it sound like she wanted a box of baby Jesuses? They’re moments I’ll look back on and remember fondly.
I’ll always love you. We can even still be friends. But maybe it’s best for the both of us if we end things now on good terms before things get ugly.
And hey, we’ll always have reruns.