The Middle – How exactly does one act out Charlie Brown?

If you’re just joining us now, you might not be aware that I decided to cover each of last night’s new episodes of The Middle separately. So, while there’s nothing continuity-related about the show, make sure to check out “The Jeans” either before or after joining our conversation about “The Neighbor” below.

The neighbor in question in this episode was the Glossner family, black-hole terrorizers of the block. I’m just going to say this once, get it out there and then move on: if this family had existed and cast a shadow over the entire block for years, wouldn’t they have been mentioned in some way during the block party episode? Sure, Frankie tied them back to the party last night, but isn’t that little more than the writers’ realization of the continuity issue that they created?

Okay, my soapbox is now available.

The matriarch of the terrible family was played by none other than guest star Brooke Shields. I always find myself disappointed when a big name star comes in and sucks it up, but then it dawned on me … I’ve been conditioned to believe that she’s a famous actress, but I’ve never been impressed by anything that Shields has done. Her stint on Friends? Suddenly Susan? Lipstick Jungle? Are you kidding me? So she was just some random actress who guested and stunk — I feel much better.

But she also kind of tanked Mike and Frankie for the episode too, because the majority of their action came opposite Shields, and so I felt a little robbed of their goodness. Yes, Mike was funny talking to a bra-clad Rita (Shields), and Frankie trying to climb the tree that is the giant actress was a nice gag, but you can only get so much out of a scene with someone lacking. Too bad.

Sue wasted her chance at redemption, in my eyes. I think I was just left with a bitter taste in my mouth after the last episode — maybe, had there been a week in between, I would have appreciated her “Kung Fu Fighting” routine, but as it was I just found it annoying. However, I’d just been asking my wife if we knew of any friends that Sue had. Well, in walked Carly (Blaine Saunders), potentially someone to help our misguided Heck navigate the waters of her teenage years. So that was cool.

The gold in this episode came from Brick — yet again. Kid’s a gold mine. Flipping the script on Axl by selling him a page of the report Brick wrote for Axl on Moby Dick for every episode of fun that they had together was great. And that the kid couldn’t kick a ball … where do they get that stuff from? That was hilarious! Too bad we didn’t get to see them acting out Charlie Brown; maybe as a DVD extra? Producers take note.

But do you know what topped it all? There’ve been many precocious kids on TV, and almost as many young kids who do older kids’ homework. Usually, it’s easier to assume that they excel in all areas instead of breaking down their strengths and weaknesses. But then our Brick can’t be lumped in with anyone for any reason. Sure, he reads on a high school level, but when Axl confronted him about the “C” he got on his Moby Dick paper, what did Brick have to say by way of explanation? “What do you expect? I’m only in second grade.”

Everyone else in Atticus Shaffer’s category might as well concede their acting awards for a long time to come.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jan 07, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT