Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The Middle: Birds of a Feather

Well, changes are acomin' in the Heck family. Axl (Charlie McDermott) has begun his internship and finds that it sucks while Sue (Eden Sher) is finally forced to think outside the box and Brick's (Atticus Shaffer's) relationship with Cindy (Casey Burke) has hit a massive thorn. Frankie (Patricia Heaton) has started working for Smile Superstars has begun and it is not going well at all.
Because of the re-model, the dentist office has no separate rooms which can't be legal and Frankie uses her tablet to go back and forth between patients. It must be horribly confusing, but at least the uniforms are cute.
Axl's internship is horrible. His boss (Alan Ruck) doesn't care about Axl's name and Axl doesn't feel like he is reaching his full potential by taking coffee orders, answering phones and taking out the trash. He is thoroughly miserable and Frankie doesn't have much sympathy for him, while she lies about how fulfilling her own job is. His life only gets worse when he forgets the tickets to his boss's dry cleaning and is late to the vets and thus must bring home the parrot whom belongs to his boss. And, yes, it gets better. Axl will need to rub ointment on Marshmallow's butt every two hours, but then the poor bird flies away.
In the meantime, Sue is forced to dig deeper about the precarious situation in the Middle East and not just sprinkle love over the troubled countries to figure things out and not spit back facts at her professor. She tries, she really does, but it just doesn't work. She loves looking on the bright side of things and seeing only the good in people. She isn't cynical like Professor Grant (Josh Cooke) and argues with him over this in easily the most awkward argument ever, but he's glad because his point has finally been made. She's thinking outside the box and getting angry and will finally look beyond the unicorns and rainbows, though that will still occupy the majority of her thoughts.
Now, Mike (Neil Flynn) is completely taken aback when Cindy shows up at the house and wants to see him, not Brick. She calmly informs him that she has kissed another boy and that he must tell Brick. Needless to say this doesn't go well. Apparently, their relationship doesn't have much depth. They don't talk as Brick is usually reading. And when Mike finally does tell him, Brick freaks out and wants to know more information. Mike does not get involved anymore but does have a heart to heart and says that girls care more about emotions and only a little bit about what they actually say. Despite Mike encouraging him that there are a lot of other fish in the ocean, he decides that it is easier to merely pay her ten bucks to never do that again.
Meanwhile, back in Frankie's world, Mike gets her to understand that both she and Axl are dreamers and probably always will be. They both have big dreams and complain when things don't go their way. They end the episode with both of them laying on the couch and eating ice cream dreaming about having their own ice cream shop one day.
Despite cramming in a lot of plot lines, nearly four in one tiny episode, each was quite good though they didn't have room to breath, but some of the guest stars still have their moments to shine despite everything. Axl may not be happy but he has to understand that he won't be an intern forever. Life does get better. And dreams are always important to have, but you must keep them in check. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Cindy is upset when Mike doesn't talk to Brick in a timely fashion, she gets angry and kicks his car.
-Brick likes that she is unpredictable. I can't believe that.
-When Frankie begs for a foot rub, Mike does oblige, but only after putting the afghan over her feet first.
-Mike doesn't complain about his work even though a machine ran over his feet and now his toes are black. Icky.
-Axl has no paper so he wrote down the coffee order so he writes on his hand and all over his chest.
-Both he and Frankie pick out the almond nuts out of the ice cream because they can't take all the work of chewing.
-Sue even thinks her professor is a little bit attractive and he barely bats an eye. They already argue like an old married couple but please, please don't let them get together that would just be the worst.
-The girl Mike liked before Frankie, Debbie Sullivan, would wear jingle bells in her hair around Christmastime. Okay, whatever you need.
-Also, Mike, for the record, Brick is in eighth grade, not sixth or seventh.
-Axl gets his boss the wrong lunch and he dumps it in the trash as Axl is changing the trash bags.
-Mike explains that the stress of the job is what makes him drink.
-Axl, next time, please put the orange juice back in the fridge.
-Frankie's job still includes dance breaks which is extremely awkward and annoying to the customers.
-Orson is also a town who needs and uses coupons. No wonder her job is so busy.

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