So I was a bit of a slacker on these, sorry about that. We had a couple of fun shows tonight,
starting with…
The Middle
This episode was kind of the standard ‘we’re poor’ story
line, but it worked for me.
The main arc of this episode involved Mike and his brother Rusty(played by Norm MacDonald), and furniture
that was less than legally acquired.
Mike agreed to help him move out some furniture from Rusty’s old place,
but when they get it back to the Heck’s garage, since Rusty didn’t actually
have room for it in his new place, it turns out the furniture was ‘won’ in a
bet, according to Rusty, but not anyone else.
Axl spends the
majority of the episode arranging the furniture in the garage to make himself a
bachelor pad while Mike attempts to get Rusty to move it out,
unsuccessfully. He finally gets so
frustrated that Mike disinvites Rusty to Christmas, and gets a couple of guys
to help him move the furniture back.
Frankie, on the
other hand, has a plan to pay for all the Christmas presents: she got a job at
JJ Mackies, a Target/Walmart-type clone.
All the gifts they would normall get are there anyway, and she gets a
30% discount! As she’s getting rung up
after her first shift, thought, she learns a little unfortunate truth: the
discount doesn’t kick in for 20 days, due to people taking the job for one day
just for the discount. She spends the next three weeks hiding away
Christmas presents in the store so other people won’t buy them, only to be
thwarted by a coworker finding every single last one of them.
In the end, she give the kids pictures of what they are
going to get, and they buy it all the day after Christmas, when everything is
on sale anyway, so it’s a win-win for everyone.
Lastly, Brick and Sue
are at a youth group meeting, and Pastor Tim-tom asks Brick to be in the
Christmas play. Brick, oddly enough,
agrees, and Sue even gets in on the action by becoming the concession stand
operator. Brick is actually rather enthusiastic
about his part in the play, and even gets an upgrade to Wise man numbers 2 AND
3, because wise man 3 couldn’t figure out his line.
But, as usual, Brick completely fails in the end, when he
gets utterly distracted on stage, and doesn’t even say his one line. BUT! It makes the rest of the family get to
be in a better mood, laughing at Brick’s antics, and getting back into the holiday
spirit. It helps Mike remember that
Brick is the weird brother of Axl and Sue, and that he wouldn’t want them to
ever get angry at each other like he did to Rusty, and so he calls and makes it
up. This is also where Frankie gets her
present idea, and Sue has fun giving away her 1200 cookies.
I really liked this episode for the religious elements. Not that there was a whole lot of actual
theology or anything, but moreso in the fact that the Hecks to church things,
and they are not weird because of it.
They are weird for other reasons, yes, but the fact that they go to
church, even on non-Sundays, it’s treated as though they should be mocked or
ashamed because of it. It reminds me of
Boy Meets World in that way, to be honest.
I did get a couple of funny lines, as well:
Sue and Brick, to
their parents regarding the card they both have: “Oh, it’s the invitation to
Axl’s Christmas party, didn’t you get one?” “Hmm, awkward.”
Mike, after
Frankie starts to talk about her new job: “Why do people say guess who? I already know it’s you.”
Suburgatory
This was such a funny episode, and it had some really cute
moments as well.
George sends
Tessa to Manhattan to spend the holiday with her mom, who is apparently still
around. Tessa is super excited, and
meets up with her mom to start right away.
Unfortunately, it is super awkward, and they have literally nothing to
talk about. Tessa gets all homesick for
Chatswin, amazingly enough, and heads back to surprise George, and everyone’s happy,
and blah blah blah cutecakes.
On the funny side of the spectrum, Ryan is picking up the Shay’s Christmas picture, and the clerk
tells him he’s adopted. This leads to
the shallowest existential crisis eva.
He kicks a light post and a parking meter after terrorizing the rest of
the Shays waiting for him in the car outside the store. Turns out Lisa accidentally spilled the beans during the shoot, and the clerk
was a real jagoff about the whole thing.
The next we see of this plot, Malik and family are, when Malik spots Ryan on a boulder on the side
of the road. Malik has his dad pull
over, and he lures a basically wild Ryan into the trunk of the car, where he
seems very content. When they get home,
Ryan goes more into his existential crisis, and Malik tries to help him through
it. In the end, Lisa asks Tessa to fetch
Ryan from Malik’s, since it’s still awkward for her to see him.
Tessa is initially hesitant, but Lisa convinces her by
telling her how Ryan has been crushing on Tessa since basically the beginning,
and Tessa realizes she may be crushing on him too. She talks to him, and they kiss and it is
super cute, yet again.
Lastly, firmly in the funny category, Noah’s wife Jill is back from her book tour, and she’s a right
bitch to Carmen, who does not take
too well to being talked down to.
Dalia, on the
other hand, is still mourning the loss of Carmen, and has taken to making the
only item on her wish list Carmen. She
even goes so far as to make the greatest music video of all time. George sends the video to Carmen, and Carmen
gets all verklempt over it. On Christmas morning, Dalia is sad that none
of the packages under the tree are big enough to hold Carmen, but George points
out the conspicuously large one in the hallway.
Dalia opens it up, and it’s Carmen, aww!
This was a fun episode with so much GIFable content it
verges on ridiculous. From Ryan freaking
out to Dalia’s music video, this episode really needs to be seen to be
believed.
I did get a couple of funny lines, too.
Ryan, while
talking to Malik “I’m not Ryan, I’m the opposite of Ryan, I’m…I’m Eugene. I’m not a Shay, I’m the opposite of Shay, I’m
Goldfarb. I’m Eugene Goldfarb.”
Dallas, when
Dalia asks of Carmen is in any of the small boxes under the tree: “No Dalia,
sadly I was unable to chop up Carmen for the holidays.”
Lisa, after Tessa
asked her which one to tell that Lisa loves him: “You know which one I’m
talking about…I’m talking about the white one.”
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