Country of origin United States Original network ABC | No. of episodes 24 | |
Starring Ed O'Neill
Sofía Vergara
Julie Bowen
Ty Burrell
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Eric Stonestreet
Sarah Hyland
Ariel Winter
Nolan Gould
Rico Rodriguez
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons Original release September 25, 2013 (2013-09-25) – May 21, 2014 (2014-05-21) | ||
On May 10, 2013, Modern Family was renewed for a fifth season. The season premiered on September 23, 2013, and ended on May 21, 2014, with a total of 24 episodes.
Contents
Cast
Modern Family employs an ensemble cast. The series focuses on Jay Pritchett (Ed O'Neill), his daughter Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen), and his son Mitchell Pritchett (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) who live in Los Angeles. Claire is a homemaker mom married to Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell); they have three children, Haley (Sarah Hyland), the typical teenager, Alex (Ariel Winter), the smart middle child and Luke (Nolan Gould), the offbeat only son. Jay is married to a much younger Colombian woman, Gloria (Sofía Vergara), and is helping her raise her pre-teen son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez). Mitchell and his partner Cameron Tucker (Eric Stonestreet) have adopted a Vietnamese baby, Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons). The kids are only required to appear in 22 episodes.
Production
The first episode, "Suddenly Last Summer", which premiered on September 25, 2013, on ABC, made reference to the newly legalized same-sex marriage in California. The writers said that a wedding for Mitch and Cam was a "real possibility". In January 2014, it was announced that Modern Family's vacation episode would take place in Australia this season. The season was produced by 20th Century Fox Television, Steven Levitan Prods., and Picador Productions, with creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd as showrunners.
Episodes
Reviews
The fifth season of Modern Family received mixed reviews from television critics. While episodes like "Larry's Wife", "Australia" and "Sleeper" were negatively received, others like "The Old Man & the Tree," "Las Vegas," and "Message Received" premiered to high acclaim, with the latter two frequently cited among the show's best episodes.
Reviewing the season's first eight episodes, Matthew Wolfson of Slant Magazine wrote that the show "appear[ed] to have finally arrived at the depressing and predictable low point toward which it [had] been trending for the past two years." He also went on to say that the show had "turned into a shrill pastiche of stereotypical characterizations and superficial banter lacking both feeling and wit", assigning it a rating of 1.5/4 stars. Different writers for The A.V. Club rated, in total, a majority of the former-half episodes with a "B-" grade or less. One writer for the magazine, Joshua Alston, gave "ClosetCon '13" a "C+" and remarked that "Modern Family becomes a high-wire act when it separates its characters into three storylines with no overlap between them." The second half was more warmly received, with three episodes rated an "A-" or higher.
Despite the somewhat mixed reception for the season, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons's performance as Lily received positive reviews. In his review of "The Help", Joe Reid, writing for The A.V. Club, called Lily a "veritable one-liner machine". Reviewing the same episode, Leigh Raines of TV Fanatic said that the funniest part of the half-hour was "Lily at the end rolling her eyes and banging her head on the table listening to Cam, Mitchell and Pepper arguing over wedding plans".
Primetime Emmy Awards
The fifth season received ten nominations at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in total, including its fifth consecutive nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. The ceremony for the Primetime Awards aired on August 25, 2013 on NBC while the Primetime Creative Arts Awards took place on August 16, 2013.