The Middle: Twenty Years

This episode was better than the Christmas episode, which should have been aired this week, being closer to Christmas and everything.
Mike and Frankie are about to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, but things aren't looking that great. Frankie was passing Mike while running errands, but he wouldn't pick up her call and later he sneaked out of bed to eat a steak and TV at one in the morning. That doesn't stop Sue from trying to plan a surprise party for them, but Axl and Brick won't help out, so she's left to prepare it all by herself. Which doesn't turn out to well, as all the friends, relatives and venues vanish on them. And Sue leaves her planning binder on her parent's bed, meaning that Frankie and Mike are expecting something grand, because everything is crossed out, and that is certainly not the case.
The party is disaster, with Sue ruining all of the food and getting into a huge fight with Axl, imitating their parents perfectly, and becoming a sobbing mess. But the night turns out to be wonderful, though Frankie was somewhat disappointed. Mike managed to even surprise her by saying that he had a present for her, and he gave her a nice ring, she was really touched.
For the subplot, Brick was getting a new book in a series of seven books perhaps similar to Harry Potter, these books meant the world to him, but Axl, still upset over losing his guitar to him in the last season, decided to spoil the ending for him, causing Brick to enter a coma-like state. Brick just lies around, depressed over what he is going to do for the rest of his life. Finally, he explains to Axl what the books meant to him, because he doesn't have sports or friends to fall back on. "I know these characters better than my own family," he pleads at one point. Eventually, Axl tries to create a new ending for Brick, though it is horrible. Instead, Brick decides to show Axl the power of books and begins reading out loud to him as the episode ends.
Though the episode was quite simple, there were still a few funny moments, mainly when Sue ventured out to visit Grandpa Big Mike who is a man of very few words, and doesn't help her out at all with cute stories of her parents and broke down to her parents. Rarely does anything ever work out for that girl. It's really sad. Though this episode lacked the craziness of the Thanksgiving episode, it was nice for the show to finally focus on the family, with only two tiny roles for guest stars. Hopefully something will finally go right for this family, though I might be upset if that happens. Grade: A-