Christmas in the heartland is everything that you’d expect. Your daughter’s gay boyfriend won’t kiss her, your son dresses like seamen for work, your other son spends his time lying under the tree. And you? You hate your husband for covering for you with ease.
Actually, it’s that last part that really stuck with me. For the first time on The Middle, I could not stand Patricia Heaton. Frankie complaining about all the work that Mike was doing without complaining just rubbed me the wrong way. Which actually kind of upset me because of how much I do like her. But then Brick started to malfunction in the car on the way back from church, and all was right with the world again.
I couldn’t help but think about the Everybody Loves Raymond Christmas letter that Marie and Debra attempted to write together that one year. Frankie should have done for Sue what Marie did for Frank — burping the alphabet became a love of letters, or something like that. She could have turned that loser into a winner. Was anyone else surprised, though, by Axl’s and Sue’s ages? Maybe we knew this already, but he’s 15 and she’s 13? I was sure they were each two years older than that. Does that even make sense with everything that we know?
Brick was losing it, whispering to himself more often as a result of his questioning the meaning of Christmas. Why was he questioning it? The loss of his Santa Pez dispenser led him to think about how we all die someday. That kid is nuts. But I loved how it meant more of his brand of crazy. He even bummed out a mall Santa, which I would imagine is pretty damn near impossible.
Mike crossed the line when he tried to end the whispering. Not cool man. And you see what happened as a result … Brick malfunctioned in the car and went totally haywire. I mean, I’m thankful for the extra Brick as a result of the entire thing, but not cool, Mike.
What I did enjoy about Frankie last night was her solo scheming (telling the family not to pray for the soloist who was sick), and her telling Mike not to do something in preparation for Christmas if it had a song (chestnuts roasting no, gift shopping yes). But I really disliked how upset she got with him, just because he covered for her and she couldn’t complain about having to do everything herself. It’s not the Frankie I want in the new year.
But Brick definitely picked up the slack. And Mike does great work either complementing Frankie, or at times carrying the family by himself. Corralling the kids, the gifts, and Axl’s pants into the car and racing to the church led to a great entrance at the back of the church by the Heck family, right in the middle of Frankie’s solo (she sounded as bad as most of the singers on a certain current FOX show). And what the hell was that coat that Brick was wearing? He looked like a midget pimp. It was a moment to applaud.
I’m guessing the Heck family might be MIA for a little while now. Happy New Year to you folks — looking forward to lots more laughs with you in 2010!
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 10, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
