The Middle: 5 Best Episodes of the ABC Comedy

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A warm but never schmaltzy, perfectly formed family sitcom with no weak links in its cast, here's why you should watch The Middle...

Family sitcoms aren’t exactly thin on the ground, so finding a new spin on the format is always going to take some work. Originally intended as a vehicle for Ricki Lake, The Middle is a case in point. After several years in development, it finally aired in autumn 2009 with a new lead: Patricia Heaton, one of the stars of hugely popular show Everybody Loves Raymond. Writers Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline had previously been responsible for Roseanne, so the track records of all involved boded well for the series’ prospects. Six seasons later – with a seventh confirmed in May – expectations have well and truly been proved correct.

The Middle is a warm, beautifully performed and acutely observed portrait of a family struggling to cope with the demands of everyday life in an economic downturn. Mom Frankie (Heaton) keeps domestic life running more or less smoothly as her family – laconic dad Mike (Neil Flynn), layabout eldest son Axl (Charlie McDermott), sweet odd-one-out Sue (Eden Sher) and gifted baby of the family Brick (Atticus Shaffer) – find their own unique ways to throw a spanner in the works. Extended family, the annual demands of holiday celebrations, youthful romance and classroom tribulations all play their part as the Hecks muddle their way through small-town life.

What really distinguishes The Middle from other shows of its kind is its faultless cast. Heaton’s Frankie is a wholly believable creation, with her Herculean efforts to pull the many strands of family life together in the face of work pressures and filial strife. Her partner in this is Mike, whose combination of patient stoicism and frequently infuriating detachment is given vivid life by the reliably superb Flynn. As for the Heck kids, you’ll struggle to find three finer young actors. Shaffer plays Brick’s quirks to perfection, skilfully conveying the difficulties of life for a boy whose high intellect and trouble socialising will always set him apart. Sher works wonders as Sue Sue Heck, so good they named her twice. (Actually, the elder Hecks made a mistake when registering her birth, but the point still stands.) A perennial optimist whose ability to see the good in every crushing social snub is often heartbreaking, Sue’s awfully hard not to love. Rounding out the trio is McDermott’s Axl, a handsome would-be jock whose fundamental devotion to his siblings is often put in jeopardy by his desperate attempts to avoid losing cool points by association. McDermott’s talent for physical comedy brings many of the show’s biggest laughs, while more recent seasons have seen Axl gain in depth as high school recedes into the past.

There may not be a weak link in The Middle’s main cast, but they’re also given sterling support by its many fine guest stars. Spotting all the Saturday Night Live alumni is one of the show’s incidental pleasures. Chris Kattan appears frequently in the first three seasons as Bob, Frankie’s hapless work colleague at the car showroom run by plausibly dreadful Don Ehlert (Brian Doyle-Murray). Mike’s brother, the permanently confused and thoroughly likeable Rusty, is played by the brilliant Norm Macdonald. Though Mike’s relationship with his brother and equally unfathomable father Big Mike (John Cullum) is often hilarious, it also makes for touching moments as the straightforward younger Mike comes to understand that his awkward relationship with his son Brick in many ways mirrors that with his other emotionally distant male relatives. This is typical of The Middle, a show that mines its central relationships for comedy while never forgetting the humanity of the characters at its heart. Though devoid of schmaltz, there is an endearingly soft centre to the show that doesn’t hold it back from taking sharp jabs at the more ridiculous aspects of modern family life.

The Middle is both a classic family comedy and a well-judged commentary on a specific time and place. A dark shadow’s cast over its first season by Mike’s temporary unemployment when the quarry he works at is closed due to the discovery of dinosaur bones. The post-recession setting provides an ominous backdrop to the Hecks’ financial struggles, while Frankie’s constantly confronted by two images of possible success and failure in the shape of seemingly perfect neighbours the Donahues and, in stark contrast, the troubled home life of Rita Glossner (Brooke Shields) and her three tearaway sons.

Despite all this, the show is ultimately about community. Sue’s bond with rebellious guidance counsellor Jane Marsh (a sublime Whoopi Goldberg) develops as both trade stories of their relative isolation, while the many dreaded social events the Hecks suffer through often come with a silver lining attached, even if it is just a shared laugh over the absurdity of it all. The Hecks and their kindly, live-and-let-live working-class values provide a pleasing alternative to sneering depictions of the so-called ‘flyover states’. Long may their bickering continue.