The Middle – Nobody better flag Brick for his endzone celebrations

This week’s episode of The Middle was a rather simple summation of the promise that this fast-rising young show holds; while the episode was clearly as Frankie sees things, the entire family was at the center of the plot, proving that the characters’ combined strengths are greater than anything each could do on their own.

And there was nothing grandiose or outlandish about the set-up, either. Frankie observed how another family interacted, and began to wonder why her kids couldn’t do the same. I think the answer is self-evident, for a number of reasons, but that’s all there was to it. And it was a great story.

Firstly, and I attribute my wife with this observation, Sue does hopefully pathetic perfectly. The look on her face when it was Axl’s turn to say something nice about her would have put a puppy dog to shame — she was panting in anticipation. And she does crestfallen just as effortlessly sincerely. After not being in her camp when the show premiered, I am definitely getting aboard the Sue train.

But don’t imagine that Brick is any less my far-and-away favorite. His looking in the mirror act? Are you kidding me? Amazing! “It usually copies me, but sometimes … it doesn’t.” And he keeps at it, like it’s a regular routine of his to catch his reflection either slacking or rebelling. I wonder if he does the same show with his shadow?

Mike, who I’ve always liked, seems to be fitting better and better into his role, even when I wouldn’t have guessed that he could do better. He and Frankie are just so great together, on the same page when they should be, and other times not following the other with perfect comedic timing. It’s often Mike who’s the one clueless as to what’s happening, but I wouldn’t say that he’s always the follower. And nice fake injury. Walk it off, buddy.

The family dinner scene, beginning to end, was absolutely hilarious. The repeated questions about the health of the TV; the assumption that Mike or Frankie was dying; Brick missing a chair, and the lawn chair he gets stuck with; Brick eating off his plate with no hands; their respective “high” and “low” of the day; and Mike yelling at the kids to love one another because their mother wanted them to. It was the most surreal, and intoxicatingly funny television scene that I’d watched in a long time. Really nice job.

It was also funny to imagine that football was supposed to unite them all. Granted it did, at least in the moment, but that’s because it was written that way. I imagined an Everybody Loves Raymond-title-sequence-like bloodbath, with Brick arising the victor, minus a few teeth. Maybe next time.

For a show that I went into having little expectations of, especially after viewing the pilot of Hank, The Middle is now one of my favorite shows of the week. Keep them coming!

My favorite exchange in the dinner sequence?

“Are you getting a divorce?” – Sue
“Let’s see how this goes.” – Mike

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 04, 2009 @ 13:13 EST5EDT