I definitely haven’t been shy about calling for more clarity on who Axl on The Middle is. He’s a great family member, but as an independent teen, the most we’ve seen of him has been when hanging out with his friends on Valentine’s Day. And there he lapsed into some kind of morphed persona that I wasn’t a fan of. Even Axl’s limited time with girls has been clouded by the way he treated Mike when Axl’s car broke down. Not that I like a whiny teen fighting with his mommy, but Axl’s always done better as family member Axl.
So I suppose I should be thankful for what we saw last night … only not so much. I definitely think the message was right, but what was wrong with Morgan (Alexa Vega) that she missed how unmotivated Axl was for 51 days? And who didn’t get a Zac Efron in 17 Again vibe when Axl lost the big game because he was too busy lost in his heart? I remember high school love, but everything here seemed just a bit too fast-forwarded. I actually think watching Axl woo Morgan and develop feelings for her over the course of part of a season would have been really great.
I did, however, love the tape of Mike crying that Frankie saved. Although I’m surprised she didn’t learn that lesson in her past life, when Debra got mad at Ray for saving an answering machine tape that contained a break-up message from an old girlfriend on Everybody Loves Raymond. But it was funny, albeit stereotypical, that Mike wasn’t even able to look Axl in the eye after Axl heard the tape. I would like to see Mike a little more parental, but at least he’s growing.
The sucker list that Frankie keeps is cute. The only problem is that it’s impossible to keep up with all the new vultures who call you for money (and it’s way too high for Brick to be realistically able to reference it). And that stupid National Do Not Call Registry is worthless, because they somehow keep calling anyway, right? I think the list is just an internal one … you’re on it in the registry’s database, but they don’t share that information with anyone else. You know, privacy and all. So what good does it do?
I was into the Sue and Brick combo last week. I even got into it at the beginning of last night’s episode, when Brick was trying to get babysitter Sue to let him stay up and watch a scary movie. But at some point the combination of zombie crap, and a Sue/Brick pairing meaning more Sue, left me praying for it all to end. It kills two birds with one stone by giving them both screen time, if that’s even the point, but who the hell wants more Sue? Brick does well with Frankie, Axl, even Mike … why mess with a winning formula?
Definitely not a bad episode, but this show’s done a lot better.
“So catch me up; these zombies … why are they seeking revenge?” – Brick to Sue, before beginning their zombie movie
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 11, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
The problem with growing feelings for a girl over the season is that The Middle isn’t that type of show. There is no story arcs that really continue over from week to week besides the normal jokes and such.
I still love this show, probably because of that.
*POST AUTHOR*
True enough, as with most sitcoms. But, things like jobs and significant others do often get those exceptions. This isn’t Seinfeld, but they managed multiple episode arcs for things like that on a show that went nowhere. It’s certainly doable. Like, Mike should be working his snack cake job every night. Why not?