Television’s best comedy returned last night in true form, and it brought with it a special surprise: Ray Romano!
I’m sure I wasn’t alone in expecting this to happen eventually. And especially now that Ray’s schedule appears wide open — although I do hope he’s busy pitching Men of a Certain Age to every cable network imaginable — it was inevitable. Now only Brad Garrett has yet to appear as a guest on The Middle (unless someone’s thinking of bringing in a Sweeten kid)!
So how did Ray do as Nicky? I would have said just okay up until the tent scene toward the end of the hour … his line to Frankie as Nicky was exiting through the flap — “You know, in an alternate universe you and I could have been very happy together” — was an awesome wink to the years they spent playing Debra and Ray Barone. And I loved that the writers decided to make Nicky’s connection to Mike instead of to Frankie. Seriously, Ray needs to be creating new entertainment for our enjoyment indefinitely.
It probably would have been a lot of fun spending some time with the Hecks over their summer vacation. I’m still trying to figure out how Frankie and Mike only saw their kids a handful of times — some of them had to come home for dinner, no? — but it would have been great to have had an episode watching the Ax Man lifeguard, Brick apparently intern at the public library, and Sue … well, Sue’s story wasn’t so funny, but two out of three is still pretty good.
How can Axl only be a junior in high school? That means that in the first season he was a freshman … wasn’t he already on the football team and the basketball team as the show premiered? Wouldn’t that not have been possible if he was just starting school and hadn’t even had the chance to try out? But I loved how nervous Sue was, and I do hope that Carly (Blaine Saunders) doesn’t leave her behind in the dust. Can you even imagine?
Unfortunately Sue’s moving to high school might mean that cross-country is over … I don’t know if she has another sport in her. But there’s bound to be a ton of uproariously painful moments with her and Axl in the same school. She bought that eraser thing? Yikes!
Although we’ve seen the family traveling together in a car numerous times before, the setting never fails to disappoint for fresh material. I loved Axl’s whistle blowing, and Brick’s sightseeing through his books was a great extension of his addiction to reading (you’ve got to wonder how he managed to find books about all the local things they were seeing).
Brick and Mike fishing together was a nice moment, even if it did take everything Mike had not to throw Brick’s book into the lake. And that ridiculous version of Monopoly was awesome … I have to guess that they were ad libbing a lot of that stuff as they went. Axl’s ending it all with a Clue reference was perfect.
Was anyone else taken back to Steve Carell in Anchorman when Frankie started talking about Sue’s period attracting the bear? The Middle usually doesn’t go that silly, but I think because of how infrequently it does, it actually worked. And I enjoyed how it brought the family together — for all of two minutes — in the end.
Looks like another awesome season of The Middle lies ahead of us. Can’t wait!
“You’re dragging us into the woods against our will; that’s kidnapping.” – Axl
“If we were going to kidnap some kids, you’d be far down the list.” – Mike
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Sep 22, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
