The Middle

The Middle

Episode 14: Hecking it Up

By: Carlos Uribe

The Middle is a show about a family in Indiana.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a neighbor or friend gets something nice and cool, asks the main character to put it away safely, and the main character instead uses it until the neighbor or friend announces he needs it or is coming back and the main character has to do the best job to get it back to it's unused condition. That's basically the plot of tonight's The Middle. The Donahues are going to the Superbowl, so they ask Frankie to put away their car. Instead of putting the car away, Frankie decides to drive it until they get back. In no time the rest of the family starts to use the car. When the Donahues have to come back earlier than expected, the family has to rush to clean up the car. They would have been able to pull it off except there's a scratch on the car. The Hecks confess and the Donahues are completely cool about it. It was a predictable story. It had some funny moments, but it also felt really familiar.

The funny moments were largely based on the characters. For instance, Sue going into the car to study for the test and then accidentally having to drive it was hilarious. Brick using the trunk to fill it with books was a nice touch, or where Brick tried getting the GPS to show him directions to the eiffel tower. The scene where Axl lets Brick listen into the phone conversation instead of making Brick cover his ears was sweet. The parts that weren't so funny was when the family learns the Donahues are coming and Mike slams the brakes. The car stops and the food and the drinks splash all over the windshield. That was expected. The family setting up a schedule to use the car was also something that was predictable, as was their turning into the Donahues. While it did get some laughs, the story would have been helped if the show had tried some new perspective on this formulaic plot. It would have at least made it seem more fresh.

That wasn't all that happened this episode. The Super Bowl is apparently going to be in Indiana this year. At least it is in the universe of the Middle, not so sure if that's also true in the real world. Frankie decides to volunteer because she wants the world's eye on her. She's frustrated that she's made a car attendant of a parking spot that's 100 miles away from the stadium. When she gets the new car, she gets some confidence. She uses this car to promote herself into getting a job at the stadium. The job turns out to be directing people to which toilets to use. She finds the assignment to be happy because even though she may not be in the arena, she still feels like the world has her eyes on her. The story wasn't that funny, and I'm surprised the show didn't have her send a man into the wrong bathroom stall. That's a joke most shows would have gone for.

The other thing that happened with this episode involved Sue. After having driven the car, she thinks she may have died. Just to be clear, she was in no danger from dying. She was in no danger of even getting a minor injury. It's simply in her personality to make her accidental drive bigger than it actually was. Thinking she may have died, she decides to tell her current boyfriend that she loves him. She does this, by ambushing him at a stairwell. This leaves him surprised so he doesn't tell her back. This causes Sue to think he doesn't love her but he does. He eventually manages to tell her and “becomes” a part of the family by helping them clean the car before the Donahues arrive. This would have worked better if I was feeling Matt's character. He simply isn't a good character at this point, with the way he talks actually annoying me.

Overall, this was an average episode of the Middle. It had it's moments, many of them that could only happen on this show. There were also a lot of things that simply didn't work. A lot of the jokes fell flat and Matt simply doesn't work. He can still be fixed in a future episode to work, but at this moment I'm doubtful. Here's hoping that their relationship soon ends, even though it will cause Sue a lot of heartache. She deserves someone better.