BY CHRISTINA ANGER
For the Daily
Published October 4, 2009
The dysfunctional family is the backbone of many a TV series, and rightfully so, as it’s all too easy to relate to. ABC’s “The Middle” looks at a somewhat average family, attempting to highlight the poignant intricacies of daily life — awkward and lazy kids, dead-end jobs and that lovingly parental feeling of “where did my life go?” In an effort to create a show somewhere between dysfunctional and highly situational, “The Middle” lands dryly and appropriately in the middle. And, for the record, the show is not even as clever as that last observation. Sad.
'The Middle'
Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m.
ABC
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Patricia Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is Frankie, a mother of three who is slowly realizing her outlook on life is lackluster and jaded. As a used car saleswoman who hasn’t yet sold a car, the unoriginal pathetic vibe resonates from Heaton through the entire pilot episode. There isn’t one strong character who stands out from the rest — they are all quite run-of-the-mill. Frankie’s husband Mike Heck (Neil Flynn, “Scrubs”) is the ditzy dad who hasn’t a clue, and even Chris Kattan (“Saturday Night Live”) plays a shallowly aloof role as one of Frankie’s friends. With these actors, there is plenty of opportunity to display life’s real pitiable moments, but it’s going to take something more substantial than Frankie and Mike forgetting to pick up the kids or the fact that their only daughter Sue (Eden Sher, “Sons and Daughters”) is awkward and awful at anything she tries. It’s really more depressing than funny.
The show makes use of “Malcolm in The Middle”-style directing with quick cuts and clumsy angles, and scenes are full of blaring vibrant colors. From Frankie’s repulsion at her new driver's license picture to her perplexity at her youngest son’s best friend also being his backpack, each familiar scene bleeds blurrily into the next. Unlike “Malcolm,” there isn’t a sense of hopelessness easily mended by in-your-face personalities. Instead, Frankie comes to a cutesy moral at the end of the first episode: Her family is uncanny, but she loves them all the same. TV shows quick to push morals that tie pretty bows around issues like the monotony of life never have as much depth as they should, and "The Middle" is no different.
Heaton’s role as narrator and overwhelmed hapless mom pales when compared to her strong, kick-ass personality beside the Raymond everybody loved. She used to spit sarcastic fire and managed to juggle three kids, life and a raging mother-in-law. In “The Middle,” she has some shining moments that accurately depict an overworked mom, but the overworked moms of the world don’t necessarily want to watch a self-portrayal. “The Middle” offers no escape for its demographic nor for its main character.
The show needs to decide what it’s trying to do — hail to its moral and magnify the beauty in day-to-day family life (please, no) or kick its cast into gear and try to scratch decent. Hopefully the writers can use the show's title as an irony of sorts and dig deeper into the faults of the average family, rising above that dangerous median line. Making something average enthralling isn’t an easy job, but that doesn't excuse "The Middle" for not doing it.
