Having already lost fully half its Moms in a tragic de-Faris-ing incident at the end of its 7th season, CBS sitcom mainstay Mom will now be ending its run at the end of its upcoming 8th. Variety reports the news, quoting creator Chuck Lorre, who praised star Allison Janney, and everyone else involved in the show’s production.
Mom gained early critical attention for its modern spin on the old tradition of the socially conscious blue-collar sitcom, taking hard looks at the struggles of a mother-daughter pairing (Janney and Anna Faris) attempting to reconcile while both recovering from years of alcohol and drug addiction. Although often comedic, the show didn’t shy away from harrowing truths about poverty, addiction, relapse, and more, and both Janney and Faris (whose absence in this year’s season was explained as her character getting a scholarship to study law at Georgetown) have been praised for their portrayals of Bonnie and Christy Plunkett, respectively, with Janney having won two Emmys for her role.
Mom is currently in the midst of airings its 8th season. The season (and now series) finale is slated to air on May 6.
34 Comments
Oh, come on. I’m sure Bonnie has another kid floating out there. Maybe, more than one. If there was ever a sitcom character to ever have a child show up from a teen pregnancy, it’s Bonnie Plunkett.
They don’t even need to do that. The daughter that was written out partway through – have her come back. She was an alcoholic, now she’s sober, and she joins the group.
They must be disappointed to get less than 10 seasons (and zero spinoffs) on CBS.
I am surprised to learn that Mom has been on the air for eight seasons (time truly isn’t real) and that it apparently often featured a clear-eyed focus on addiction and inter-generational trauma. My bad for seeing the interstitial ads on TV and writing it off as a lazy “My mom is so wacky — she says what’s on her mind and sometimes has sex!” sitcom.
Indeed, shame on you for jumping to to such a conclusion. And shame on me, because I believed that, too, for the longest time. I started watching the show last fall; I think I read somewhere that William Fichtner is a regular and, since I’ve had a bit of a thing for him since his days as “Ryan Sparks,” I decided to give it a go. Mom really is a very well-done, topical show. It has some low-brow humor like what you’d find on Two-and-a-Half Men, to which I’m partial (my emotional growth having been stunted at age 13), but it can also be quite serious and thought-provoking. Allison Janney’s Bonnie Plunkett-Janikowski is selfish, narcissistic, flakey, and emotionally needy one minute, and generous, loyal, and steadfast the next (which Ms. Janney plays to perfection). It might be worth your time looking in. Cheers!
Yeah, you wouldn’t guess it with Chuck Lorre’s name attached to the show, but the show has had some POWERFUL, unflinching looks at alcoholism, drug use, etc. that are stunningly blunt and honest for a studio sitcom. There’s black comedy to be mined from their situations but they still make sure to treat the characters’ problems and addictions with the right amount of gravity to drive home they are legitimate problems and addictions. And the whole cast — Janney, Faris, Jamie Pressly, etc. — have done great work on it.
I still think The Big Bang Theory was really good.
Yeah, I’m not a BBT hater, it’s just that that show, 2.5 Men etc., rarely if ever charted into the kind of dramatic waters “Mom” wades into often.
Blech
I assumed that from the ads, too, and apparently we’re not alone. At a certain point, this feels like CBS’s marketing department’s fault.
It’s both!
I usually dismiss anything that Chuck Lorre’s name is on because I hate Two and a Half Men, but this show resonates with me. I (an alcoholic) would find myself watching this at 3am with my recovering boyfriend during quarantine. I get a good laugh, but just feel shame that I don’t quit. I’m working on it.
Can Chuck Lorre please just retire now & enjoy rolling around in his stacks of cash?
If he could give us another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles style intro, I would be fine with him returning to the world of theme songs.
I wonder if Anna Farris still would have left the show if she knew that this was the last season.
Or is it the last season because Anna Faris left the show? Dun dun dun!
Its ratings are almost the same as they were last year so her leaving had no effect on them. Maybe other cast members deals were up after this year and it was an economic decision.
Or Allison Janney’s decided being the sole star is overrated, and Chuck Lorre was too cheap to bring Fitchner on as her co-star.
If she didn’t want to do it any more, he could have written her out and focused the show on any of the other characters. He has no problem doing that.
That’s true…. But he would be losing a beloved Academy- and Emmy-Award Winning Actress.
William Fitchner could carry the show on his own, but “MOM” would be a weird name for a series starring him…. Unless they renamed the show TOP GEAR AMERICA, Season 2, and it became about him and two other lads faffing about in cars?
I wasn’t happy that Faris left, but I’m still watching. It’s OK. It’s good that it’s wrapping up, though, as they’ve pretty much run out of plots. Maybe Christy can come back for the finale.
I think if she hadn’t left it *wouldn’t* have been the last season.
Originally I read that she and Janney signed contracts for two years, which would have taken the show into 9 seasons. That’s why her quitting out if nowhere shocked everyone. She’d just signed for two more years. And Lorre shows go on forever. Two and a Half Men ran for 12 seasons, including a ton after the main character left.
Decent show to throw on while I’m hungover AF and need something to force my nap.
That’s really unfair. You can also put it on when you’re feeling sick and need to force a nap.
Just don’t watch B Positive before you do, or you’ll have night terrors.
That’s only used to induce vomiting.
It’s actually a very good show.
Whenever Christy is not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, “Where’s Christy?”
I loved watching this show with my mom when I was in high school, and then whenever I was home from university, and now I enjoy watching it with her when I’m home from law school (one big reason I loved Christie’s journey on the show). I’ll miss it and I’m sad to see it go; I hope they manage a good finale. It’s funny, in the fall of 2013 I started watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mom, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. all from episode one and I would have lost money on all three of those shows ending 7-8ish years and however many seasons later. Maybe that’s something to smile about.
.
. .
…
Hasn’t been the same at all this season ,…without Faris its boring .