The Middle – Why not stop and see sunny Pittsburgh too?

You wouldn’t think that a trip’s adventure could be had while traveling to your destination, but on The Middle they know how to live it up while still en-route to their ultimate goal.

I loved how excited Frankie, Mike, Sue, and Axl got about the trip, jumping up and down and screaming that they’d just won a trip for four … only to have Brick walk in and ask what was going on. How did Frankie’s mind immediately go to leaving Brick behind? I’d think leaving Axl — the oldest and therefore the child most likely able to fend for himself — would be the first choice, followed by one parent going with all three kids, followed by what they eventually did: spring for one kid’s travel. But I loved how Frankie was rationalizing leaving Brick, arguing that he’d have his head buried in a book anyway and wouldn’t appreciate the trip. Nice!

Did anyone else get a Home Alone vibe, first when Frankie ran out of her bedroom screaming that they’d overslept, and then from her incessant “Where’s Brick?” screams? But everyone wearing orange was cute, even if it didn’t work — I love seeing entire families doing that at amusement parks — and sticking a luggage tag on Brick’s wrist was good thinking. It would have been great for her to have saddled him with one of those “unattended minor” signs around his neck.

The conveyer belt gag was awesome. Frankie taking clothing out of the suitcase to make sure it fit in the overhead compartment, and then making everyone put on extra layers of clothing, was perfect. That’s exactly who Frankie is. And I loved how she discovered that you can’t say “Suck it” to TSA agents; I’m going to file that one away for future use.

I really couldn’t believe that there was that much for Frankie to nag people about on the plane. But if she was already playing musical chairs with the seating I would have loved to see her find seats for her and Mike far from the kids. I wonder why she felt they needed to be together. Great seeing how everyone — but Mike — behaved in First Class: Axl stripping down to his boxers, Sue regaling the seat neighbor with tales of cross country, Brick finding something to read and enjoying giant cookies, and Frankie finding some blessed peace and quiet … but not before getting her picture taken with a menu, for posterity.

I loved Mike leaving the back door open in the house, and how it came back at the end with the bird. It was very reminiscent of when the front door was broken and the deer ambled into the house. They really live in the middle of nowhere … how was a bird the worst thing that entered their house with the door left wide open?

Sue’s diary was sad. I mean, we know Sue’s sad, but that was sad. Lettuce? The only thing is that we know she’s had more exciting things happening to her — the boy from the hayride coming to her school, for instance — so it was kind of fake, but she’s still sad. But not enough that she deserves to have everyone read her diary. Nice move by Axl at the end to really feel how much she needed to get to New York. I bet they got some great pictures in that storm; they could label them all “Scenes of New York from inside a snow globe.”

By the way, I don’t think “Achilles Factor” is a real book … just in case you were upset that Brick had ruined the mystery for you!

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