In the Middle of Things: What ABC's Sitcom Taught Us About life
With summer setting on the horizon, our routines will return to normal--and that means our favorite television shows resume!
Well, some will. Unfortunately, one of my darlings has run its course after nine years--ABC's The Middle. Were you a fan too?
Something unusual happened as the seasons, uh, seasoned. The clever writing remained strong and the Heck family blossomed as the kids matured.
Ironically, when the show debuted, I panned it, misjudging it by the title and premise both appearing too much like Malcolm in the Middle.
Later upon syndication, I caught it on another channel. I thought, "What the heck , I'll give it a try." And I was hooked! I couldn't have been more wrong about the show's name or the humorous family intricacies centering in a fictitious Midwestern town of Orson, Indiana, smack dab in the middle of the map.
I love how stoic patriarch Mike (Neil Flynn) cares for his family. He's tight with his sporty son and although he doesn't immediately see it, he does find common ground with the youngest. After all, they are more alike than he realizes.
As a quarry manager, his exterior is as a tough as rocks, but he's really a softy on the inside, especially when it comes to his middle child and only daughter, Sue. (Eden Sher)
In one of the first episodes I saw, Mike was stuck driving Sue and her best friend Carly to a movie along with newcomer Shannon. Not keen on overhearing the gab fest in the backseat, he learns more than he wants to know, especially when he discovers there may be boys meeting them there. Once settled in the theater, the girls' notice (to their horror) Mike is a stow away a few rows back.
Shannon is catty and convinces Sue to fix her braces in the bathroom and once out of earshot, invites Carly to a sleepover but doesn't want naive and geeky Sue to attend. Mike catches wind of this conniving plan and silently gets caught up in the angst of girl world, which is funny since he played Cady Heron's dad in Mean Girls.
To make matters worse, Shannon has the nerve to ask to borrow Sue's sleeping bag! While Sue is unaware of the snub, Mike relays his flabbergasted concern to wife Frankie and she breaks the news to him. Yes, girls are awful and there isn't anything he can do about it. She also offers up the secret to womanhood. "Now you see why we eat so much chocolate?"
But Mike does find a solution-- on the night of the sleepover, he lets Sue pick out a video and he endures the vampire romance of Bella and Edward. Now that's a dad!!
In another touching episode, man-of-few-words Mike gives a great toast at his brother Rusty's wedding-- an impromptu shindig his shady sibling (Norm MacDonald) springs on them in their own backyard. It's a heartwarming speech even if the point he makes involves a span of time engraved on tombstones.
The Hecks' other children include Sue's snarky older brother Axl (Charlie McDermott) who is as cool as his name, plays high school football, is in a garage band, and accidentally text-asks a weird girl to the prom but one way or another, goes with her two years in a row. He forbids Sue from associating with him in High school but for all his teasing and calling her a dork, he comes through every now and then with a sentimental act.
And then there's youngest brother Brick (Atticus Shaffer), an endearing misfit, genius, font expert and quirky bookworm who's often overlooked and misunderstood. He belongs to a special needs social group to learn how to make friends but really, he is content alone with his books or conversing with grownups. For the most part, he really doesn't mind the solitude. He shares a room with Axl where he learns a lot about life via osmosis and Sue dotes on him the most but every once in a while he finds amusing ways to remind his family he's still there.
Frazzled Frankie makes all us moms look like superheroes in comparison. Patricia Heaton does a great job as the lazy, cool mom who rarely cooks, is late for carpools and pigs out at PTA meetings. Despite her breezy, "let the cards fall where they may" attitude, she tries to make everything perfect and it usually all falls apart.
Good thing there's perfect neighbor Nancy Donahue (Jen Wray) to pick up the pieces! And on the other side of the fence, neighborhood terrors Rita Glossner (Brooke Shields) and her boys knock it all down again,
I didn't care for bitchy Debra on Everybody Loves Raymond but I love Heaton as the down-to-earth mom struggling to make ends meet, who hoards more doughnuts at the dealership than she sells cars, shops dent sales at the Frugal Hoosier, is gifted a dryer from a tornado, nabs a solo in the Christmas Eve choir, and secretly keeps her role in the community play without hurting Sue's fired feelings.
When Frankie later loses her job, she dusts off the doughnut crumbs and reinvents herself--once her secret stash of canned frosting is depleted. She studies her way through dental assisting school, even if Axl scribbles the answers on her arm when she falls asleep and she has to face the wrath of a tough teacher, played by Jane Kazmarek, aka Lois from Malcolm in the Middle, funnily enough.
The show is very relatable. I am such a "Sue Heck." I'm not a middle child and I didn't make glittery binders with lists for everything, nor I did try out for every team or club like she did but I am a klutzy geek and when I did give it a go, I never made the plays, powder puff football team, or cheerleading squad either.
I felt invisible, my name was often misspelled and a picture I managed to get in for the yearbook landed in the creases. (Yay, Latin Club!) Sue loves her youth group just as much as I did and values her guitar-strumming youth pastor, Reverend Tim Tom. Our church in Waukegan had a cool guitar dude named Dave!
The first few seasons may seem a little loud and squabbling as it often is with a houseful of kids. But as they grew, got jobs, fell in love multiple times and went off to college, the writers kept the kids in the script authentically and the quieter, more complicated side of young adulthood made the stories even better.
I don't know about you, but the teen angst of Sue and neighbor Sean Donahue's hit and miss romance made my face breakout just watching. Whew.
In fact, all the secondary characters were fun and often made reoccurring appearances with Brick's childhood social group being the biggest surprise return as high schoolers. I especially loved the continuity of Weird Ashley. I was so sure she'd show up Sue's dorm-mate. Darn!
The sitcom is wholesome yet handles issues lightly and with grace. I'm sad the series ended and it will be missed but as I digest the finale, I realize The Middle taught us a few things.
1. Don't give up; do your best. And if you get a false phone call that you made Pom Pom squad, don't go quietly. Confront the head cheerleaders and negotiate. You might as well get something out of it for all your trouble.
2. There's always a second act. (Or a third..or fourth. There's no limit, really.)
3. Life is no-cut.
4. Your oven can double as quilt storage! but remember to remove them if you bake 5 pans of brownies in the shape of Indiana.
5. A good time can be had by reading a book.
6. If your first boyfriend turns out to be gay, he'll be the best friend you'll ever have!
7. Make the most of your life between the dashes. (you know, those dates on a headstone)
8. Always return your library books on time or you might get held back a grade. Or wind up arrested!
9. The love of your life just might live across the street.
10. Rock out in your car like nobody's watching. And if your wife and kids catch the show at a stoplight, just own it, Mike.
11. If you get kicked out of your fraternity house, you can live in a Winnebago. it's also a lucrative place to make some dough when you sell grilled cheese sandwiches on campus.
12. Stand up to your neighborhood bully and reclaim the street. Then get to know her. You might have more in common than you think.
13. Relax; everything will fall into place.
14. Once a week, meet your elderly father in-law 100 miles away at a Stuckey's. Odds are he has some valuable stories to tell!
15. When a show ends, there are always reruns. Also DVDs, fan fiction, and possible spin-offs.
Well, some will. Unfortunately, one of my darlings has run its course after nine years--ABC's The Middle. Were you a fan too?
Something unusual happened as the seasons, uh, seasoned. The clever writing remained strong and the Heck family blossomed as the kids matured.
Ironically, when the show debuted, I panned it, misjudging it by the title and premise both appearing too much like Malcolm in the Middle.
Later upon syndication, I caught it on another channel. I thought, "What the heck , I'll give it a try." And I was hooked! I couldn't have been more wrong about the show's name or the humorous family intricacies centering in a fictitious Midwestern town of Orson, Indiana, smack dab in the middle of the map.
I love how stoic patriarch Mike (Neil Flynn) cares for his family. He's tight with his sporty son and although he doesn't immediately see it, he does find common ground with the youngest. After all, they are more alike than he realizes.
As a quarry manager, his exterior is as a tough as rocks, but he's really a softy on the inside, especially when it comes to his middle child and only daughter, Sue. (Eden Sher)
In one of the first episodes I saw, Mike was stuck driving Sue and her best friend Carly to a movie along with newcomer Shannon. Not keen on overhearing the gab fest in the backseat, he learns more than he wants to know, especially when he discovers there may be boys meeting them there. Once settled in the theater, the girls' notice (to their horror) Mike is a stow away a few rows back.
Shannon is catty and convinces Sue to fix her braces in the bathroom and once out of earshot, invites Carly to a sleepover but doesn't want naive and geeky Sue to attend. Mike catches wind of this conniving plan and silently gets caught up in the angst of girl world, which is funny since he played Cady Heron's dad in Mean Girls.
To make matters worse, Shannon has the nerve to ask to borrow Sue's sleeping bag! While Sue is unaware of the snub, Mike relays his flabbergasted concern to wife Frankie and she breaks the news to him. Yes, girls are awful and there isn't anything he can do about it. She also offers up the secret to womanhood. "Now you see why we eat so much chocolate?"
But Mike does find a solution-- on the night of the sleepover, he lets Sue pick out a video and he endures the vampire romance of Bella and Edward. Now that's a dad!!
In another touching episode, man-of-few-words Mike gives a great toast at his brother Rusty's wedding-- an impromptu shindig his shady sibling (Norm MacDonald) springs on them in their own backyard. It's a heartwarming speech even if the point he makes involves a span of time engraved on tombstones.
The Hecks' other children include Sue's snarky older brother Axl (Charlie McDermott) who is as cool as his name, plays high school football, is in a garage band, and accidentally text-asks a weird girl to the prom but one way or another, goes with her two years in a row. He forbids Sue from associating with him in High school but for all his teasing and calling her a dork, he comes through every now and then with a sentimental act.
And then there's youngest brother Brick (Atticus Shaffer), an endearing misfit, genius, font expert and quirky bookworm who's often overlooked and misunderstood. He belongs to a special needs social group to learn how to make friends but really, he is content alone with his books or conversing with grownups. For the most part, he really doesn't mind the solitude. He shares a room with Axl where he learns a lot about life via osmosis and Sue dotes on him the most but every once in a while he finds amusing ways to remind his family he's still there.
Frazzled Frankie makes all us moms look like superheroes in comparison. Patricia Heaton does a great job as the lazy, cool mom who rarely cooks, is late for carpools and pigs out at PTA meetings. Despite her breezy, "let the cards fall where they may" attitude, she tries to make everything perfect and it usually all falls apart.
Good thing there's perfect neighbor Nancy Donahue (Jen Wray) to pick up the pieces! And on the other side of the fence, neighborhood terrors Rita Glossner (Brooke Shields) and her boys knock it all down again,
I didn't care for bitchy Debra on Everybody Loves Raymond but I love Heaton as the down-to-earth mom struggling to make ends meet, who hoards more doughnuts at the dealership than she sells cars, shops dent sales at the Frugal Hoosier, is gifted a dryer from a tornado, nabs a solo in the Christmas Eve choir, and secretly keeps her role in the community play without hurting Sue's fired feelings.
When Frankie later loses her job, she dusts off the doughnut crumbs and reinvents herself--once her secret stash of canned frosting is depleted. She studies her way through dental assisting school, even if Axl scribbles the answers on her arm when she falls asleep and she has to face the wrath of a tough teacher, played by Jane Kazmarek, aka Lois from Malcolm in the Middle, funnily enough.
The show is very relatable. I am such a "Sue Heck." I'm not a middle child and I didn't make glittery binders with lists for everything, nor I did try out for every team or club like she did but I am a klutzy geek and when I did give it a go, I never made the plays, powder puff football team, or cheerleading squad either.
I felt invisible, my name was often misspelled and a picture I managed to get in for the yearbook landed in the creases. (Yay, Latin Club!) Sue loves her youth group just as much as I did and values her guitar-strumming youth pastor, Reverend Tim Tom. Our church in Waukegan had a cool guitar dude named Dave!
The first few seasons may seem a little loud and squabbling as it often is with a houseful of kids. But as they grew, got jobs, fell in love multiple times and went off to college, the writers kept the kids in the script authentically and the quieter, more complicated side of young adulthood made the stories even better.
I don't know about you, but the teen angst of Sue and neighbor Sean Donahue's hit and miss romance made my face breakout just watching. Whew.
In fact, all the secondary characters were fun and often made reoccurring appearances with Brick's childhood social group being the biggest surprise return as high schoolers. I especially loved the continuity of Weird Ashley. I was so sure she'd show up Sue's dorm-mate. Darn!
The sitcom is wholesome yet handles issues lightly and with grace. I'm sad the series ended and it will be missed but as I digest the finale, I realize The Middle taught us a few things.
1. Don't give up; do your best. And if you get a false phone call that you made Pom Pom squad, don't go quietly. Confront the head cheerleaders and negotiate. You might as well get something out of it for all your trouble.
2. There's always a second act. (Or a third..or fourth. There's no limit, really.)
3. Life is no-cut.
4. Your oven can double as quilt storage! but remember to remove them if you bake 5 pans of brownies in the shape of Indiana.
5. A good time can be had by reading a book.
6. If your first boyfriend turns out to be gay, he'll be the best friend you'll ever have!
7. Make the most of your life between the dashes. (you know, those dates on a headstone)
8. Always return your library books on time or you might get held back a grade. Or wind up arrested!
9. The love of your life just might live across the street.
10. Rock out in your car like nobody's watching. And if your wife and kids catch the show at a stoplight, just own it, Mike.
11. If you get kicked out of your fraternity house, you can live in a Winnebago. it's also a lucrative place to make some dough when you sell grilled cheese sandwiches on campus.
12. Stand up to your neighborhood bully and reclaim the street. Then get to know her. You might have more in common than you think.
13. Relax; everything will fall into place.
14. Once a week, meet your elderly father in-law 100 miles away at a Stuckey's. Odds are he has some valuable stories to tell!
15. When a show ends, there are always reruns. Also DVDs, fan fiction, and possible spin-offs.
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Lisa
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Sep 08, 2018 02:50PM
Ill miss that show!! We only watch about 4 shows. That was 1 of them. Nice rundown of the greatness that was The Middle and it sure was one Heck of a show.
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