The Middle – Didn’t the Hecks look like they’d been to a water park?

Is it really spring break already? At least in TV land? This is the first spring in eleven years that neither I or my wife is in school, so I feel as if it kind of snuck up on me. Nevertheless, last night was the Heck’s grand spring break on The Middle.

I loved the premise of the episode: a neighbor, doing a favor for Frankie, walks into the Heck house to drop off the mail while the family’s away. Seeing the house in shambles, she desperately calls the Hecks back home to deal with an apparent robbery. Sue was worried for her cross country sweatshirt (that was awesome!); Brick feared for his books; and Axl hoped the robbers didn’t steal his nunchucks.

But it turned out that it was the Hecks themselves that had left their house as if a tornado had hit. Of course you can’t admit as much to the two cops who are standing in your living room, so the family went along with the theory. The result? A spring break of cleaning.

Here’s where the episode got a little wonky for me: first of all, pretty much the only thing that Sue said that I found amusing was her line in the car about her sweatshirt; her hair curler fetish was beneath even her.

And Frankie was kind of annoying too … at least as far as the house cleaning was concerned. What was awesome about her last night was when she came across Mike’s stack of pro/con lists, and discovered the one he’d written when contemplating marrying her.

Although the obvious question is how Frankie didn’t know the pro/con thing about her husband of twenty years, I loved Mike’s lists about Frankie, as well as the fact that the blender got more pros. Frankie’s attempt at a revenge list was kind of weak, but I must say that I anticipated something different from that story line: I thought Frankie would take Mike’s idea and start writing pro/con lists for every single household item whose fate she had yet to determine. That could have been pretty funny too.

Brick hit his stride doling out information for one dollar on the side of the road. I loved that Brick went there instead of a lemonade stand, as well as how it was a nice shout-out to Peanuts comics. Sure Lucy offers “psychiatric help,” but that’s the vibe I got seeing Brick sitting behind the desk.

And there were also a lot of great throwaway moments throughout the episode:

• When Frankie handed Axl a box to use for garbage and he said it was the second worst breakfast she’d ever cooked. I’d really like to know what still holds the lead in that category.
• Brick wanting to copy all of his books in case the family really did ever get robbed. “I need fifty thousand quarters.”
• Axl hurting Sue’s feelings when she discovered that he was throwing away the Best Brother Oscar that she’d awarded to him over Brick. And I loved Brick’s line: “It was an honor just to be nominated.”

And it was great to be back in the middle!

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 24, 2011 @ 16:00 EST5EDT