The Middle – “The Floating Anniversary”
So far, the premise for every episode of The Middle has basically been, “Check out how hectic this middle-aged mother of three’s life is,” but, surprisingly, it all works out. This week, Frankie Heck has a plethora of problems on her plate, including Brick being sick, Axl wanting to practice driving, Sue’s freaky obsession with a new boy at school, and having to take care of her elderly, chain-smoking aunts. But here’s the kicker, this is all going on during what is supposed to be a “romantic” anniversary vacation.
Watching Frankie juggle all of her headaches provides a ton of good, clean humor, and it definitely relieves stress when compared to your own life. Patricia Heaton is lucky to have such a diverse, humorous cast to support her. For instance, Brick ends up coming to the car dealership with Frankie where he inevitably is taken away during a test drive. In addition, Sue experiences one of the most embarrassing moments of her life after she serenades a new student over the school’s PA system.
Each episode of The Middle, so far, has been structured with about 17 minutes of Frankie frantically running around trying to solve all of the family’s problems, as well as the other family member’s shenanigans, and they usually end with a heart-warming resolution. Fortunately, this system absolutely works well with the show’s concept. This might grow a little stale over time, but currently, it’s all good.
Grade: B
Modern Family – “The Incident”
TV veteran Shelley Long (although I’m admittedly too young to have a deep knowledge of her work, thank you IMDB) guest stars this week as Mitchell and Claire’s mother, Dede, which, in turn, means Jay’s ex-wife. Dede is moving off to the “dangerous” land of Canada with her new lover, but she has decided that she can’t leave before she has closure about “The Incident,” which is what the rest of the family has code-named Dede’s alcohol-induced outburst at Jay and Gloria’s wedding. For example, one of her more distasteful comments was “I knew they were perfect for each other when I saw his wallet and her boobs.”
Mitchell, being the momma’s boy that he is, invites Dede to the family’s Sunday dinner, but he fails to ask for Gloria’s permission. Meanwhile, Phil and Claire debate with Haley whether or not she is mature enough to go to a rock concert with her senior boyfriend Dylan, and he ends up being invited to the family dinner as well. Ty Burrell does what he does best as Phil, trying to act like one of the teenagers.
Eventually, everyone shows up at the dinner and all hell breaks loose, with Gloria and Dede in a cat-fight and Phil hilariously yelling, “I’ve got Gloria! I’ve got Gloria!” as they try to break-up the fight. Dylan is the one who unexpectedly breaks up the controversy, comparing them to his members of his family, who don’t even talk to each other. And just when Phil and Claire think Dylan is nice enough to take Haley to the concert, he is persuaded by the family to sing one of his songs, entitled “In the Moonlight (Do Me),” in what I consider to be one of the greatest endings of all time. The ratings don’t lie; Modern Family is definitely one of the best shows of the fall.
Grade: A-
Jordan is a high school student and aspiring journalist. He loves playing/watching and writing about video games, television, and movies. 
