The Middle – Ho, ho, huh?

Is it just me , or does Christmas keep on coming earlier and earlier on TV? While shows like Modern Family give a nod to the real world calendar by turning its Christmas offering into an in-on-the-joke early celebration (on an otherwise shaky episode), The Middle went all in by celebrating the big day during the first week of December. I guess that means no more new episodes in 2011?

Reverend TimTom (Paul Hipp) returned as Brick, having discovered that the Bible is a nice long book to read, began questioning all manner of the big faith leaps contained in Scripture. Funny that his questions kept coming in backwards chronological order … I’m sure that didn’t mean anything of note, but I felt like it would be very Brick to really not understand that the Bible is one continuous tale, instead reading it as if it were separate stories in a short story compilation.

But TimTom’s return was marred by an annoying Sue, who couldn’t accept the fact that Brick didn’t have blind faith. I wonder if her own faith includes an actual understanding of the Bible, or if it’s all good because TimTom says so. Either way, Brick’s story ended up being a Sue story, and I wasn’t so into how it played out.

Not that Axl was doing much better. By accidentally calling Bob “Bro” as they both worked selling trees, the adult Bob suddenly glommed onto Axl as if they were best friends. I understand Axl feeling bad for him, but can’t Bob (and Axl) get a better story than trying to be friends with a teenager some twenty plus years his junior?

And what were Momma and Papa Heck doing for Christmas? Frankie drunk-invited the entire neighborhood to a Christmas party, and she spent the whole episode trying to wear Mike down into buying them a new washing machine (I remember it breaking plenty of times, but when did they finally get rid of it?) Meanwhile Mike, a terrible gift selector, had already bought a brand new machine for Frankie. I expected Frankie to put her foot in her mouth, but the manner in which she berated him at the party, in front of their friends, was a good expression of how Frankie’s character is a bit off from where we all wish/hope she’d be. There are gradations, but Frankie Heck knows no such bounds.

The Middle has done better. Last season’s two week visit from Frankie’s parents? Brick lying under the tree back in season one? We know the Hecks can do better.

By the way, I know I dropped the ball on the Thanksgiving episode, aptly titled “Thanksgiving III.” Considering that we’re still closer to Thanksgiving than to Christmas, I figure I can still share some thoughts:

• I loved Brick playing librarian. Must have been a holiday schedule, what with him closing after only six hours!
• Mike being so desperate to get out of Frankie’s parents’ house that he’d jump at any reason to leave was great. As he told Axl, when asked what they were getting: “I just heard ‘who wants to leave’.”
• Mike laughing at Axl’s “game” with the girl behind the checkout counter, him looking like a pedophile when he tried to show Axl how it was done, and their ultimately getting courting tips from Grandpa Tag (Jerry Van Dyke). Awesome.
• I couldn’t stand the entire part with Frankie’s sister Janet (Molly Shannon), but Axl’s take on his cousin Lucy (Marlowe Peyton) to Frankie was awesome: “You know, for a miracle baby, she’s not too bright.”

Now on to celebrating Easter in January!

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Dec 08, 2011 @ 11:00 EST5EDT