The Middle

The Middle

Episode 4: Bunny Therapy

By: Carlos Uribe

The Middle is a show about the Heck family, an average family in Indiana.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Brick is a very quirky character. He likes to read books rather than to socialize and he whispers key words right after he says them. When his whispering tick has stopped for three weeks, it seems like he's finally improving. In comedy, a character will never get rid of what makes them quirky. The Middle is no exception. He might not be whispering words anymore but he is doing whoops. This is a new tick that he has started doing for some odd reason. His family doesn't even notice it, mistaking his whoops for their smoke alarm and cell phones. It isn't until the social skills teacher brings it to their attention that they know that he's just as quirky as ever. The teacher actually brings in the school therapist who states that Brick might have an attachment disorder. The two believe that the best way to overcome this disorder is to get him a pet. At first, Frankie and Mike try their best to solve the problem their own way. When this fails, Frankie gets Brick a bunny. She had tried to get something smaller but they were out of gerbils. This bunny ends up backfiring when it turns out to be a living version of Bunnicula. The family ends up being scared of the bunny. It's a silly and even cartoonish plot but it does lead to some seriously funny scenes between the Heck family.

When Mike wants to give away the bunny, Frankie resists because she believes she's acting to give Brick what he really wants. Mike disagrees with her and he defends his son. The two do share the anti-social trait that the series rarely comments on. Mike brings up that Frankie can't possibly be doing what Brick wants because she hasn't asked him. When the two try to sort out the root of his problems by discussing it with him, he blames their terrible parenting skills. They also discover that he has yet a third tick. That tick being that Brick has to recite the pledge of allegiance twenty times before he goes to sleep. A constant theme running throughout the show is that Mike and Frankie don't really know their son very well and this is an episode that's a perfect example of that. It does lead to an extremely sweet ending when Mike and Frankie decide to whoop with their son in the middle of a football game when a man criticizes Brick for whooping. I don't know if this whooping is going to become a recurring gag or if it's going to go away. Considering that the Middle loves to callback to previous episodes, I wouldn't be surprised if Brick whoops in the future. Whatever the case, the Middle presents a nice Brick story.

It might have been nice, but it wasn't as great as Sue's plot. When she begins the episode announcing that she's not going to try out for anything, it came as good news to the Heck household. They won't have to deal with her constant disappointment. This changes when the kid whose school mascot gets sick and they need a replacement. Sue decides to go for it and she practices by wearing a box on her head. There's some great visual comedy with this. It seems like she gets the spot when she's the only one to try out. This doesn't stop the series from having them extend the deadline to audition for an entire day before they're forced to accept Sue as their new mascot. This excites Sue and she does a great job. This is a great story not because it's funny but because it's always so nice to see Sue succeed at something. People might not know her because of the costume but this is one of the few times where she's actually appreciated by the entire student body. The cheerleaders might not know who she is but she did steal their thunder.

Axl had his own plot as well and it was of the romantic kind. When he starts dating a cheerleader, he can never be alone with her. The best friend is always coming along. It becomes so confusing to tell who he is dating that he forgets which cheerleader is his girlfriend. He thinks he asked one girl out but the entire school thinks he's dating the other. He turns out to be right at the end of the episode but not before kissing the other. It was a silly and basic sit-com plot but it managed to become funny due to Charlie McDermott's perfomance. He might not have a girlfriend for the homecoming dance but that doesn't stop him from having the winning touchdown at the game. With Sue's cheer-leading performance, his winning touchdown, and Brick's parents supporting him I would say this was one of the best executed sweet endings of the Middle.

The Middle may have strayed a bit farther from reality than usual in this week's episode but that didn't make it any less funny. It stayed true to it's characters even as it went with basic sit-com plots and stretched the believability in some jokes. This was a silly episode of the Middle and it had a lot of fun. Considering that last week's episode dealt with the all-too-real economic situation, it makes sense that the show did an episode that concentrated on the kids rather than the parents. The Middle presented a great episode that was funny, sweet, and it made me happy.

Other Notes:

Bunnicula is a children's series about a titular bunny vampire that sucks the juice out of vegetables.

The CGI scene where the bunny bares out it's fangs looked really fake. It's better when this series doesn't try to do anything with special effects.

Atticus Shafer's voice was better this weak.