The Funny Stuff: ABC Wednesday night(9/26)

We only have one show to start with on this night, but another will be added next month.

Tonight, though, we have The Middle, but we do get a full hour.

The Middle

Frankie and Mike have decided to make it an awesome summer for their family, and to do so, they try to get the kids to do the things they found fun when they were kids: being outside, hitting a tennis ball against a wall, and go to drive in movies.

While at the drive-in, Mike tells the kids that Axel is his favorite, so Sue spends the rest of the summer trying to make herself the favorite.  She makes up activities for her and Mike, and since she is such a sad sack all the time they are pretty lame.  To give you an idea: one of the activites was making a collage about collages.

Brick spends most of the summer nursing a sickly tomato plant, and manages to grow a hugemongous tomato.  Axl, on the other hand, has managed to fail 11^th grade English, and has to take summer school so he can stay in the running for the scholarships at two(!) separate schools that have expressed interest.

The summer goes on, and basically everyone fails at making it a summer to remember.  The 4^th of july fireworks get ruined by poor park choice, Sue incessantly nags Mike to like her better, and Brick grows that tomato.

Finally, Sue realizes that Axl gets all the attention due to the fact that he’s a troublemaker, and negative attention is attention, so she tries to be bad…and fails miserably at that too.  The worst she can do is not wear her head gear as her dentist recommended, that rebel.  The family then goes to a county fair to have Brick’s huge tomato.  Axl enters a demolition derby, mostly by accident, and his car is ruined, and his final paper for summer school took a ride to the dump…without him.

The whole family, sans Sue, who has decided to be a rebel again by ‘disappearing,’ tries to get the paper back, and fail miserably, again.  They reacquire Sue, who disappeared by going to the lost and found, and get into a massive argument.  It is finally quelched by the fireworks show, which they lucked into good seat for.  And that was that.

I really enjoy this show.  It reminds me of Roseanne with a bit less vitriol.  The family dynamic is believable, and   the situations they end up in are not so far out of left field that it doesn’t make sense, like some sitcoms I know.  It’s a bit of inoffensive humor to lighten the day, and in the end, everyone needs a little of that.