HALLOWEEN II

The Middle

Season 3 (2011)

Debra...I mean Francie waves hello

As with so many shows, I’ve only ever watched snippets of The Middle at the gym; this was my first full-length episode.  I’ve always loved Patricia Heaton’s portrayal of beleaguered Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond (while doing my best to ignore her Christian, right-wing politics in real life) and she’s clearly the best thing this show’s got going for it.  The show itself feels like they swept up bits and pieces of other sitcoms and compressed it into a sort of sitcom muddle.  It’s the corkboard of sitcoms.

They look about as excited as I felt watching this episode

There are three storylines that play out over the course of a Halloween night.  In the first mom Francie (Heaton) takes her weird son and his misfit “social skills group” trick-or-treating.  Her oafish older son and his even more oafish friends help return some stolen candy to a little girl dressed like bubble dress Lady Gaga (one of the episode’s better sight gags).  And finally father Mike stresses over his teen daughter’s wardrobe, at first finding it too dorky and then later too sexy as he sees her off to a Halloween party.

Dig that cool ABC spider-web logo in the corner!

The whole episode is overlaid with a sickly-sweet narration about growing up, fitting in, good manners (I’m not kidding).  The overall effect is a bit nauseating, like eating too much Halloween candy in one sitting. The best thing about this episode?  Every time someone opens the fridge door (which happens a lot) a skeleton sign makes a spooky groaning sound.  The fact that a groan is the highlight kind of tells you what a blah sort of episode and show this is. Unfortunately not even the Halloween trappings can rescue it from mediocrity. 

The Middle indeed.

Halloween Quotient: Despite the moralizing there is plenty of Halloween to be found so this earns a 3.

See It, Skip It, Own It?

Despite being Halloween heavy I can’t really recommend this so I say skip it in favor of a Halloween episode from one of the many superior sitcoms out there.