The Middle – Do they add preservatives to blue chalk to make it tastier?

If I’m being totally honest with you, I have to admit that I drifted at some point during last night’s episode of The Middle. I think it was somewhere between the “Frankie learns a lesson” and “Sue gets mad at Mike” sequences.

Which makes me kind of sad. Not that the episode was bad, per say, but it definitely didn’t pop. Certainly a malady that places The Middle miles ahead of most lesser sitcoms, but something that makes an outing less than one could have hoped for. Oh well. As always though, the show did manage to make me smile. A lot.

I enjoyed the return of Brad (Brock Ciarlelli), Sue’s ex-boyfriend who didn’t work for her because he … smoked. Fortunately, Brad’s parents shipped him off to a religious camp, where he was rid of all his evil smoking temptations and urges. Does that mean he knows he’s gay, or at least that he’s been “cured” of it?

Brick’s family interviews were cute, although I wish his story had been mined for more comedy. I did enjoy the report that he gave in class summarizing a kid’s perception of all that had taken place during the episode, but I felt like it might have been a bit too concise. It was almost as if the story had been strung together just to give Atticus Shaffer some face time in the episode, little better than the way that Terry O’Quinn popped up for all of a moment in Tuesday night’s episode of Lost. Brick (and whatever you want to call O’Quinn now) deserves better than that.

Seeing Mike as Mr. Mom was cute, but the Heck home turning into the titular “fun” house was a little weird. Mostly because we hadn’t been made aware that such a house existed on their block where the kids hung out. I know, I know, sitcoms have insular plots like that. I just didn’t realize that Axl spent all of his time hanging out at someone’s house — I assumed he was either out with his clique, with a girl, or at practice for one sport or another most of the time.

But I did seriously enjoy the real Mike that we got to see, albeit briefly, as a result of the chaos in the house. His talk with Frankie in the car proved that Neil Flynn is more than just a lunatic funnyman, and that he and Patricia Heaton are very well matched on this show. And I got all of that in just the brief moment they shared together in the car.

Which is also where Frankie is at her best (home, not in the car). I know why she has a job, and the balance is necessary for Heaton to play the role, but the goings-on at the car dealership are a little bit of a mess for me. That whole motivational consultant thing was just plain weird. And while I realize that that’s why we’re supposed to enjoy Mr. Ehlert (Brian Doyle-Murray), and I do most times, I think he can also be a little too kooky. And I’m not sure what Frankie — and we — was meant to learn from her heart-to-heart with Abby (Amy Sedaris). She creeped me out.

And not in the good way that Brick preferring blue pool stick chalk to white blackboard chalk did. Because that was awesome.

“Whoa! I can’t believe how awesome you guys are.” – Axl to his parents, upon seeing the new pool table in the basement
“Well, it’s the shock in your voice that makes it all worthwhile.” – Mike

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 25, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT