The Middle – Sue and Brick should coordinate costumes every year

It was Halloween on The Middle (in the middle?) last night, and boy was everybody having fun. There’s just something so gooey and delicious about this show — as my wife said during a fast forwarding break (known to some as commercials), The Middle is so much more grounded in reality than most other sitcoms that are on TV right now. Comedy really connects when it’s relatable.

Frankie and Mike got invited to a party, and Mike wasn’t buying into the whole costume thing. Who hasn’t been there before? Right? Costumes are stupid and no one wants to be pegged as the oddball at a gathering of people (see: Mitchell, on Modern Family).

I don’t exactly see Mike’s stopping the “trickers” with the bag full of toilet paper rolls as being in the same league as his “party pooper” attitude regarding the party. And what a brilliant way to get them to drop the sack. I loved that Frankie scooped up the bagful of three-ply.

And I totally related to their conversation on the dance floor, as well as their TP’ing of their neighbor’s house. Not that I’ve ever done that, but there’s a lot of truth in the level of childishness we sometimes revel in with our spouses. That’s a genuine type of release, one that adults usually only have one person that they can share with. And great “bobbing for swine flu” line, Mike.

Axl’s hunt for the haunted house was boring, but acceptable given all the others things going on during the episode. Brick dressed up as a Catholic schoolgirl … um, Groundskeeper Willie … I mean, Miley Cyrus … sorry, Sgt. Charles Stuart MacKenzie, Scottish World War I hero was great. Never heard of him? Right … Brick was awesome.

I even enjoyed Sue last night. I thought for sure she’d dress up as a cross country star (instead she went as a pink crayon), but her getting preemptively dumped by the guy who didn’t actually like her was priceless. And her entire trajectory from there was great.

I loved the flash to the church group’s 8PM New Year’s countdown. And who thought we’d ever see Reverend TimTom (Paul Hipp) again? Hilarious that Sue couldn’t even figure out how to play the tambourine.

I do wonder what TimTom was doing during the hayride … was he really down with the fact that “you remembered my name” Sue Heck had her first kiss right there in the hay? Isn’t he more a proponent of expressing ones love through song?

As I generally do, I watched Modern Family immediately after watching The Middle. I love the opportunity to laugh for an hour straight. But doing so also puts the differences between the two series into sharp contrast — while Mitchell was scaling down the side of a building in a Spiderman costume, Brick was going unrecognized in the neighborhood. While Phil and Claire were putting together a haunted house, Mike and Frankie were throwing toilet paper rolls into their neighbor’s trees.

Both are great shows, and both are full of laughs. But when you want to check in with what life is really like for people, drop by Indiana for a spell. It’s definitely worth your time.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 28, 2010 @ 16:30 EST5EDT