Boy do I love our weekly visits with the Heck family. There’s just something about The Middle that makes me feel less like I’m watching TV, and more like I’m getting a strange video update from good family friends.
And with Spring in the air, last night we got the chance to learn about a Heck annual family tradition: the cousin hand-me-down box of clothing. A tiny part of me wonders where those wacky outfits have been for the past two years, but not enough that I couldn’t enjoy the sheer fun of all the leather and zippers. And it could always be that, at Brick’s age, the cousins were starting to go through a phase … who knows. But seeing Brick all decked out was a lot of fun.
I was very into Sue’s story at the beginning. It was clear that something was up with the MVP award if Sue was getting it — I figured that everyone was getting a prize — but I thought maybe it was all to raise money; $40 per award would probably go a decent way toward financing the under-funded cross country team for the following season. I mean, how much could the sport cost?
So the cross country end of year banquet was fun, and I loved the various titles that the school handed out to the members of the team. The coach seemed to have a hard time even naming Sue MVP for Punctuality (or was he merely trying to recall who she was?). And Sue carrying her trophy everywhere was awesome — great look with the trophy in her bicycle basket.
But things got a bit rocky when the dog grabbed it and the trophy ended up in the Glossners garage. Neighborhood rivals make for fun running gags … even bullies will do. But the Glossners make all the Hecks seem really pathetic and sad, and who wants to watch someone be pathetic and sad? Even Frankie’s gotten schooled by them, but Sue especially seems like a total sap when dealing with them. I just don’t find it funny.
I like how Mike has slowly come out of his shell as the series has progressed. And I find that in particular it’s Axl who inadvertently entices Mike to evolve. Axl growing into an adult at times forces Mike to confront his son with either lessons he needs to learn in life, or realities about how to interact with other people. Case in point this week was the sock battle.
Now I don’t know how Axl manages to leave his socks everywhere, but for whatever reason it was a line that Mike chose to draw. Should the punishment have been getting benched for the last basketball game of the season? Seems a bit harsh, but then it’s always easy to judge another parent looking in from the outside.
That said, I was pretty disappointed that Mike caved as readily as he did. I know he regretted the punishment, but the last thing Axl needs to learn is that consequences are reversible. That’s not really true in life, so why teach it to a kid who’s still too immature to put on pants?
What was great was the montage of Mike and a young Axl playing basketball together; I loved when Mike sent Axl flying. And the fact that Mike still dominates? Well, Neil Flynn is freakishly tall, isn’t he?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Apr 14, 2011 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
