May Sweeps is winding down, so it’s time to say goodbye to The Middle and Modern Family for the season.

First, let’s focus on The Middle. It’s reliable in a comforting sort of way, kind of like macaroni and cheese. So when Frankie and Mike find out a week before Rusty’s wedding that the wedding is going to be at their house, I know to expect chaos for the first twenty minutes with a warm and fuzzy ending. The show delivers and it’s the stuff in between that makes the formula work. I didn’t anticipate seeing Frankie staple her wallpaper back to the wall and it was totally worth it. I may have expected a Sue Heck freak-out over wedding stress, but that didn’t make her screaming any less enjoyable to watch. The plot lines all converged nicely and Norm MacDonald’s appearance as Rusty is always welcome. You can count on The Middle for a good time and I’m grateful that the show is coming back in the fall.

Modern Family used to be reliable, but these days, it’s more on the sporadic side. The big news of the finale was that Cam and Mitchell got a call from their adoption agency with the news of a baby for them in Calexico. Things took a turn for the telenova when Gloria came along to translate. I’m not entirely sure what happened, but there was a sexy priest and a grandmother and a cowboy. The set-up (with Cam admitting that he’d been learning Spanish from watching daytime soaps) was a little much, especially considering that they didn’t get the baby in the end. At the Dunphy home, Alex and her date went to prom. (Alex’s comment about being his beard…pre-beard…stubble did make me laugh, as did her date’s jazz hands at Phil’s photo request of “This time with flash!”)

Hayley and Dylan made dinner for Claire and Phil to break the news that they were moving in together. But thanks to Luke’s mail-hoarding tendencies, Hayley did get into her safety school. Manny introduced Jay to charcuterie and the two of them went to Lily’s recital, leading to a very sweet moment with Lily and Jay on stage. Everyone had something to do, which made for a hectic, if hilarious, half-hour. Last but not least, Gloria found out that there was a little Latin baby on the way after all.

What did you think of the finales? And how do you think the Pritchett clan will react to Gloria’s news?

Tags: modern family, the middle