The fifth season of the American television sitcomModern Family aired on ABC from September 25, 2013 to May 21, 2014. This season was ordered on May 10, 2013.[1][2]
After the legalization of gay marriage in California, Mitch and Cam plan their perfect proposals, not realizing that the other has something planned. Cam calls for the help of Jay and Gloria and Mitch rallies Claire and Phil to help make their evening perfect. Phil and Claire try to get a kid-free week for themselves during the holidays by strategizing an overlap of the kids’ summer activities.
It's Manny and Luke's first day at high school and both Phil and Gloria don't want to let their sons go. Confiding in each other, Phil and Gloria end up as extras in a commercial. Elsewhere, Claire joins Jay's company and Cam subs as Alex's history teacher, who both have issues in their new positions. Claire tries to win the employees’ friendship, and pushes Jay away.
Cam and Mitch start planning their wedding; Lily is worried about her cat, Larry, who hasn't come home for days; Phil has a new target group of clients in the form of newly divorced women; and Gloria is worried about little Joe being evil after some things he did. Jay and Manny argue over Jay’s temperamental behaviour.
Cam's sister Pam (guest star by Dana Powell) comes for a visit and Cam and Mitch struggle on how to tell her they are getting married while she holds the secret of her own engagement to Cam’s former crush; Claire convinces Phil to skip Luke's soccer game while Gloria refuses to admit that she needs reading glasses. Claire ends up going to the soccer game and Luke gives his best performance so far, which makes her feel guilty about making Phil not attend.
Jay has made reservations for the whole family at a new restaurant that he has waited to go to for months. However, everyone seems to be running late: Gloria takes forever to get ready, Claire becomes paranoid about letting Luke stay home alone and Cam and Mitch fight after they both wear the same outfit. Elsewhere, Alex babysits Lily; and Haley spends the night with Manny and Joe.
Gloria tries to find a new nanny for little Joe and ends up hiring a male nanny — something that Jay and Manny don't like; Phil's dad, Frank, stays with the Dunphys for a while after his break-up; Cam and Mitch ask their friend Pepper to plan their wedding.
The family (save Haley) heads to the school fair where everyone finds something to do. Haley stays back home to enjoy Jay and Gloria's pool and the sun but is interrupted by the presence of Andy.
Claire and Jay attend a Closet Convention where Claire’s misconception of Jay having an affair ends up in her learning a past secret; Phil discovers what Jay is hiding in his secret closet; Mitch and Cam visit Cam's hometown. Alex and Haley fight over the local pizza delivery boy but soon become tangled in an even much bigger mess.
Cam gets ready to coach an important football game that could break a record, but his intensity blocks out the fact that the other team is at a disadvantage. Mitchell tries to quit his job, Phil desperately tries to sell a house, and Claire doesn't want her father's help at work. Haley tries to fix the fact that Alex is ignored amongst her fellow students.
Jay takes Manny out to cut down their own Christmas tree, and Gloria is on edge with her mom in town, but changes her tune when she sees her bonding with Claire. Elsewhere, Mitchell is forced to do last minute shopping when they didn't get Lily the right gift, and Cameron takes Lily to a charity event where they experience the true meaning of Christmas.
Phil tricks Luke into taking a dance class, but the joke's on him when the white lie indirectly lands him in the slammer. Meanwhile, Jay and Gloria are throwing birthday parties for both Manny and Joe and are concerned Manny might be going for girls out of his league; Mitch and Cam get a rude awakening in the cutthroat world of booking a wedding venue. Haley takes Alex for a driving lesson.
Claire suffers from pressure during Alex’s high school open house, while Jay teaches Phil how to play hooky. Gloria butts heads with a fellow mom (Jane Krakowski), Luke and Manny date twins, Mitch meets his new environmentally-conscious neighbor (Jesse Eisenberg) and Alex goes to see a therapist on her birthday after a mental breakdown.
Phil and Claire take Haley out to dinner to discuss her future, but she manages to turn the tables. Jay's friend Shorty and wife Darlene are back visiting, and they have some news that does not sit well with Jay. Mitch and Cam decide to have a nice romantic dinner date, where they don’t talk about the wedding or about Lily, leading to a lot of awkward silence; they end up making friends with the people on the table next to theirs.
Claire and Phil try to spy on Luke to see where he is going as they suspect that he’s smoking pot, while they ask Alex to spy on Haley, where they learn about the photograph exhibition Haley is taking part in. Mitch tries to hide a piece of gossip from Cam with little success and Gloria thinks that Jay was dreaming about another woman in his sleep.
Jay, Phil, and Luke find out unfavourable men in each of their lives are more connected than previously thought as they arrive at Luke's wrestling match. Claire catches lice from Lily after Mitch and Cam fail to warn her in order to get Lily picked up from school as a favour. Haley and Alex battle with a possum. Manny is ashamed of Gloria's presence at a museum class trip.
Much to her chagrin, Haley has to accompany Phil at a realtor's banquet. Cam feels excluded when a popular Spanish teacher returns and has to call Claire for help. Luke and Alex have dates. Mitch misinterprets his new boss's signs. Gloria and Jay babysit Lily.
Jay decides to initiate Luke into woodworking. Meanwhile, Claire and Gloria help Lily choose a flower girl dress for her fathers' wedding. Cam, Mitch, Alex, and Manny take a cultural day at the museum. Phil decides to help Andy create an elaborate video to celebrate his anniversary with his girlfriend.
The adults take a trip to Vegas in which Jay tries to obtain the best room. Claire rekindles her gambling addiction while Cam attends Mitch's ex's bachelor party. Gloria tries to hide a female version of the dog Butler. Phil presents his case to enter a secret yet prestigious magic society. Patton Oswalt, Stephen Merchant, and Fred Armisen guest star.
Mitch struggles to hide his genuine feelings about an unflattering wedding topper Cam's father made; Phil tries to help Gloria sell the apartment she had before Jay but they get sidetracked at a salon; Jay wants to host a nice family evening.
The family travels to Australia as Phil tries to fulfill his mother's wish for him to visit the country where he was conceived. Unfortunately, Phil's attempts to embrace his native land are met by a lot of rejection, while Jay and Claire let work eat into vacation time, and Mitch and Cam get reacquainted with an old friend (Rhys Darby).
Phil fails at his one task to stay home and wait for the repairman, forcing him to tell an elaborate lie to hide the truth from Claire, but the stress is more than he can physically handle. Meanwhile, Gloria is obsessing over the family portrait she is responsible for organizing this year. Claire accuses Cam of being too snobby to use her girls' hand-me-downs, and Jay secretly enters Stella in a dog show.
Jay, Gloria and Manny challenge each other to step through their comfort zone. Mitch and Cam's wedding is getting too big and costly so they resort to selling a couple of their prized possessions, and the kids play a joke on Phil and Claire.
Cam and Mitchell's wedding arrives, but their big day gets questioned when things go wrong. Gloria and Jay give relationship advice's to Cam's parents, and things take a turn for the unexpected. Phil and Claire get to know the kids better and Haley puts herself in the middle of a relationship breakup.
When Cam and Mitchell's wedding day goes awry the plans fall to Pepper as he finds a nice place to relocate the wedding and everyone there. Jay and Gloria convince Cam's parents not to split up.
Reception
Reviews
The fifth season of Modern Family received positive 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.[28][29]
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.[30] 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."[31] 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".[32] 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".[33]
Ratings
Viewership and ratings per episode of Modern Family season 5
