Tuesday, January 17, 2017

The Middle: Pitch Imperfect

Well, the Heck children are growing up. Axl (Charlie McDermott) will hopefully graduate college in four months and his concerned parents want to make sure that he understands that he knows he must find a job because he can't live with them forever. So he sets out to the job fair, only to find out that he's late. Everyone else there is a junior and even his roommate, Kenny (Tommy Bechtold) can't toss him a bone as he was hiring for his app business twelve months ago. Kenny's talking more now, he's had two lines in the past two episodes. So Axl sets out to have an interview at Mr. Norwood's (Pat Finn's) business, doing whatever they do there.
Sue (Eden Sher) asks Brad (J. Brock Ciarlelli) to join her no-cut a capella group and immediately he's elected leader and is horrified with what he sees. But he whips them into shape. And Sue even needs to fight for them to have a spot in the competition but everyone quits after seeing real groups, except for Sue and Brad. The audience hates them at first and they use that hate to their advantage and eventually they clap for them. But an a capella group probably should have cuts if they want to compete and win trophies even though cuts suck.
And Brick (Atticus Shaffer) is told firmly by Cindy (Casey Burke) that he should spend less time reading. I'm surprised that's the first time someone mentioned that to him. Mike (Neil Flynn) and Frankie (Patricia Heaton) argue over who should help him, though in the end, they both do, saying that because that relationship is still young and new, compromise is key. So they do, reading a book together, Brick having to turn the pages before he's totally finished because Cindy is a faster reader than him. Audio books don't work out either but somehow Brick persuades her to read his beloved Planet Nowhere books as those books are literally a part of him and she loves them, so they can stay together. The family that reads together stays together.
Axl has his big breakdown in front of Cindy reading, though she probably ignored the whole thing, as he didn't get the job he interviewed for, but Mike assures him that this is only a temporary setback as he is social like Frankie and actually likes people and Mike also did stupid things when he was younger also.
So everything is fine again, Sue is happy and so is Brad, which is probably more important and Brick and Cindy are just adorable reading Planet Nowhere together, finally bonding over something, even if they aren't communicating as much as a couple should. I still wish that this episode was more important but it wasn't bad. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-Axl still has the tie Mike tied for him, so he's good.
-Frankie is never buying ribs from a garage sale again. She knew it was too good to be true. That line had me laughing so hard.
-Also, for whatever reason, she boils Mike's work socks on the stove.
-Axl thinks there are much better things that can be done on that couch rather than just reading.
-Sue loves living in the fancy apartment and is upset that money can truly buy happiness.
-The toilet in that apartment is smart and Sue didn't realize before how dumb all the other toilets she's used before are.
-Frankie and Mike still pretend to care and compromise about what the other is doing.
-Axl looked good in those new clothes he bought, just saying.

No comments:

Post a Comment