For Frankie Heck (Patricia Heaton), life is ordinary. She has a husband and three kids. She has a house and a job. She balances work and home. The difference between her and everyone else is that Frankie’s kids are oddballs, her husband is overly honest, she is terrible at her job, her idea of dinner is a drive-thru and she lives in the middle of nowhere: Orson, Indiana. Welcome to The Middle- Season One, now available on DVD!
Patricia Heaton (Everybody loves Raymond) and Neil Flynn (Scrubs) star in The Middle. This new comedy on ABC is about a family that is as ordinary as any other Midwestern middle class family who is doing everything possible to stay there. The Middle is narrated by the mother, Frankie – the center of the family, the voice of reason and the cheerleader for them. She works at a car dealership and things are not going too well. Flynn plays Mike, a man that works at a quarry and honesty is his only policy. Both of them were born and raised in the fictional town of Orson, Indiana. It is where they still live and are raising their three kids, Axl (Charlie McDermott), Sue (Eden Sher) and Brick (Atticus Shaffer). Axl, a rebellious teen football player who lives in his boxer shorts, is like any other teenager that has no desire to do his chores. Sue is an awkward girl that wears braces and was not meant to have any luck in any kind of extracurricular activity, except maybe as a picture taker for student IDs. The youngest, Brick, is a socially challenged odd kid with a photographic memory whose best friend is a backpack (note: this is not a typo).
Each week this quirky family finds themselves in interesting situations. Highlights of episodes include "The Cheerleader", were Frankie cheers Sue to retake her class photo three times due to the fact that she is not photogenic and she has to bribe a kid to borrow a book from the library because she didn’t have the money to pay the library fine. "The Block Party" is another winner, where Mike finally learns the secret talent of Brick: photographic memory of manuals. Brick helps Mike fix his lawnmower so he can win the block party race.
The voiceover narration that Heaton does is hilarious. It makes you think you are watching a documentary of a family that sometimes hits too close to home. It’s a modern family comedy that is clean cut and extremely funny. Heaton’s acting has nothing to do to the previous roles she has played in primetime. While Flynn does have a similar vocabulary as his previous "Janitor" persona, he does a fabulous job to differentiate between them.
Special Features
-Raising a sitcom family: The series creators, Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, tell us the story of how this comedy came to life. It is a very traditional way of recounting a show creation.
-Sue’s Best Shots: The actual shots of Sue’s school pictures and the cast, Heaton, Flynn and others, telling memorable and funny stories about their own personal experiences with school photos.
-Unaired Scenes & gag reel. Your usual can’t-stop-laughing, “Am I suppose to say something?” moments and other unaired scenes that should be watched.
Overall
The Middle is an old school kind of comedy that can be enjoyed by the whole family. If Married…With Children and Malcom in the Middle had a sitcom lovechild, it would be The Middle. This is one of those shows that has been flying under the radar and has the potential for greatness. This show has great writing, great cast and good natured humor.
ComicsOnline gives The Middle – Season One 4 out of 5 corn cobs.
Get your copy of The Middle – Season One on DVD at Amazon.
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