Posted in: ABC, Hulu, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: ABC, modern family, Sarah Hyland

Modern Family Wasted Some Serious Haley Dunphy Spinoff Possibilities

As much as we love ABC's Modern Family, the show wasted a number of chances at some great Haley Dunphy (Sarah Hyland) spinoff possibilities.

ABC's Modern Family is one of my comfort shows to stream in the background after work or while I do chores. It is one of those shows that never ceases to make me smile. From its first season to the sixth, that is – after that, you will have to suspend your beliefs of reality in order to laugh at the caricature it became toward its later seasons and, along with it, the characters as well. Especially the women. And I will die on this hill— the characters were not given the chance they deserved.

Do not @ me; I do not care: Modern Family did not do right by its characters toward the end. First, we have Claire (Julie Bowen), who turns the company to the ground at every chance she gets. I will just say two things about this: 1) the bad wood that had to be recalled and 2) the hacked mirrors. Did they really have to make her the one to mess up the company under her supervision? Then we had Gloria (Sofia Vergara) become a "Femme Fatale" who turns her back on Phil (Ty Burrell) after he teaches her about real estate – and what happened to all of that love for Manny (Rico Rodriguez)?

Then we move on to the younger generation, and we have Alex (Ariel Winter), who has been bullied throughout the entirety of the show even by her mom, and then they could not even give her a significant other that could be hers only… but I stray from my point. Today, we talk about another character who got the short end of the stick at every turning point: Haley (Sarah Hyland). It is as if they felt the need to make Haley repeat all of Claire's steps even though they made her a much more assertive character than her mom. There were several instances in which she was given a chance, and instead, she ended up being just a cookie-cutter copy of Claire – pandering to a viewing demo while throwing the character under the narrative bus.

During her second try in college, it was put into play that Haley was gifted in Photography. Heck, even one of her portraits was sold at her first exhibit with her classmates. I would have liked to see more of Haley's artistic side to balance Alex's. The character definitely would have done great as such, especially after knowing how successful her blog has become, though we know there are other factors to this success.

Then there was her brief run as an assistant to fashion designer Gavin Sinclair (Michael Urie) – who is a total d-bag. However, this job has so much potential, and it bothers me how it went nowhere. I love how this experience makes Haley much more outspoken and takes her to stand up for herself. Not that I think she had issues with that in her personal life, but professional life tends to be a little more intimidating. Especially after years of no one believing in you. I believe this led her way to being a Style Editor at NERP, which was another job I wish we would have seen more of.

Even Haley's promoting gig was yet another successful career that took her nowhere. We do know she was good at it and was making something out of it – and yet, nothing. They definitely should have focused more on her strengths. We see the same at the job Luke (Nolan Gould) gets her at the club, where she is hired by this rich lady who fires her in the same episode because Haley is too pretty. It feels as if they made her pay for being pretty and popular. Was this supposed to be a statement or some sort of symbolism? If so, it did not land and went way over my head. It felt like someone had a vendetta they needed to address – but in he process, they wasted what could have been some great spinoff possibilities.

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