The Middle: Halloween VIII: Orson Murder Mystery

Well, the Hecks are crazy. Sure, they bough a house with cracked foundation and dangerous wires, but also one where a dead body was found.
Years ago, the owner,  Claudia Tucker, age 40, was found in the bathtub, deceased. Mike (Neil Flynn) knew all along and Frankie (Patricia Heaton) is pissed. And it's in her bathtub, she's grossed out. She informs Brick (Atticus Shaffer) that he will have to share the death bathroom with Mike. And the plot thickens. Sure, her death is ruled an accident, but why was her husband out golfing in March? And why is the date of her death different in the news article from her obituary? So they head out to the cemetery and discover that her grave stone states two days after the original news article. They also discover Claudia's husband's tombstone. And he got remarried, to her sister. Yeah, that's right. So they confront the widow and fortunately, she's all too willing to gush about her deceased sister and how broken-hearted she and the husband were when she passed. Turns out, Claudia always had a weak heart and just wanted to live to see her fortieth birthday which is why her husband fudged the date in the paper, just so she could make it to forty. Frankie realizes how crazy she was though Brick doesn't pick up on it.
In the meantime, Sue (Eden Sher) is thrilled to be going to a party with Axl (Charlie McDermott) and Lexie (Daniela Bobadilla), even though she is always the third wheel. In this case, it's literal. She somehow creates a huge film reel costume to go to the party with Donnie and Marie Osmond, aka Axl and Lexie. They think they have such a cute couples costume, until Frankie and Mike point out that they are brother and sister. It does gross them out at first, though they eventually are just thrilled to be alone, making out in the death tub. Axl wants Lexie to tell Sue to leave them alone so he doesn't have to be the bad guy, because he's always the bad guy.
And then Sue has a breakdown in front of Mike. She wants to kiss someone and who can blame her? Though she likes spending time with them, it only reminds her more of how alone she is. Axl does confront her and at first, she assumes that Axl would want to spend more time with Lexie but not to worry, she likes the laundry mat fine, as it is always warm and she likes the smell of dryer sheets. But no, he means something else. They should spend more time together and she happily agrees.
Though this was a good episode, there was an inconsistency and that is not something they can get away with. The door knob was acting oddly the whole episode and breaks off and Mike shoves it aside and then, only moments later, without the door knob being fixed, Axl just flings the door open. That being said, this was still a good episode and it was funny and sweet. I like seeing nice Axl and Sue, I certainly feel your pain. Plus, the mystery part was interesting. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Thank goodness Axl never farts on Sue's head when he's around Lexie. That would certainly be a turn-off.
-Lexie has finally built up a tolerance to the Heck house.
-When Axl and Sue get together for lunch, they won't even need to buy it because some kids forget their lunch on the bus. After all, he does have time between his morning and afternoon routes.
-Sue, don't ever underestimate the power of the laundry mat. I was picked up twice there myself. And it wasn't when I was in college.
-Turns out that the Hecks have been underpaying their water bill for years. They've been getting away with murder, apparently.
-That microfiche machine certainly comes in handy.

The Middle: Meet the Parents

This was an unfortunately disappointing episode.
We do meet Lexie's (Daniela Bobadilla's) parents, Bennett and Tammy (Gregory Harrison and Lisa Rinna) who are very, very wealthy. And they aren't extremely showy about it; they just assume that the Hecks have money and it brings out an unpleasant side of Mike (Neil Flynn). He hates the fact that they are rich and he isn't. Bennett even asks Mike if he should choose marble or granite for the bar at their home in Colorado. When Bennett arrives back at Sue's (Eden Sher's) and Lexie's apartment, he just hands her a new computer and Mike wants to make a statement and hands Sue five dollars just because and she is beyond thrilled, making a huge deal out of it. Which means that when he goes to buy dinner at a drive thru, he doesn't have the money and Bennett, who drives in behind them, knocking off the driver's side mirror, pays, leaving Mike fuming.
In the meantime, Brick (Atticus Shaffer) is finally enjoying sophomore year and even participates in the fundraiser where he is arrested and must be bailed out by friends and the money goes to charity. But no one is around to do it. The unseen Troy is away on a field trip for future farmers of America and Cindy is a big, fat no. So he calls Sue and fortunately, she still has Mike's five dollars and is able to get him out of 'prison'. The principal (French Stewart) confuses her with the name her picture received in the senior yearbook, which was a good callback.
Brick is upset that Sue bailed him but she's jealous that he arrested himself; she just stared longingly out the window instead.
As for Mike and Frankie (Patricia Heaton), she finally tells him that she's jealous too, but is okay with them being rich as they like the Hecks and she wants to feed off their wealth and besides, she's happy with Mike and their crappy life. Not everyone would be. And I'm glad; they are great together.
While this episode did have two good endings, it wasn't funny enough or good enough for me. I mean, Axl (Charlie McDermott) and Lexie hardly had any scenes together, which is a shame and I feel that the difference in wealth between the two sets of parents could have done to better effect. And Brick's plot line just fell flat. I wish they would have had him make friends with that football player who was also stuck in the jail. But at least Gregory Harrison and Lisa Rinna were good in their small roles. Grade: B
Side Notes:
-Axl, seriously, how in the world did you not notice that your pants are on backwards?
-Does Frankie have a good bra
-Mike failed the parents' econ test.
-Axl is a perfect gentleman while visiting the lake house.
-And you can't just trade teams for one that is better. You have a team and you stick with them until you die.
-No one knows why Brick broke up with Cindy.
-Sue has often used curtains to dry her tears.
-Frankie gets food poisoning from a street corn dog on the way to visit the lake house and spends her whole weekend in a luxurious bathroom. Mike has the time of his life doing fun stuff.

The Middle: Please Don't Feed the Hecks

Axl (Charlie McDermott) has entered the world of adulthood. He has found employment and is Brick's (Atticus Shaffer's) school bus driver. His parents are rather relieved, though they wanted him to find something that would use his business degree. Brick thinks that the bus is going to be his new social scene, which it isn't.
Speaking of Brick, he needs to bring in someone for career day and Mike (Neil Flynn) won't do it. Frankie (Patricia Heaton) is banned from the premises. Axl has to literally beg Mike to show up. Brick wants the extra credit, mostly. And then Axl and Mike both end up showing up, but don't have a whole lot to say.
Frankie gives Nancy this old, crappy scraf which Nancy thinks is just gorgeous and then presents Frankie and Mike with her delicious apple pie. As a result, Frankie looks around the house to give her other stuff just so she can get food. And it works, for a bit. Until the pepper steak. Which is just okay. Frankie mentions that to Nancy and Nancy just breaks down, saying that some mornings she just doesn't feel like washing the windows. As a result, Frankie forces Mike to cook real, actual good food for Nancy, which was her plan all along. Nancy is only human after all.
As for Sue (Eden Sher), she is thrilled to go back to school because this is going to be a great year, until she finds out that Andy and Derek, whom they sublet their apartment to over the summer and they turned around and lent it to Sue's new statistics professor. Lexie (Daniela Bobadilla) is livid and hates living in her car, after all, she's a former debutante. Brad (J. Brock Ciarlelli) tries to force Sue to get stronger but she cries anyway. And then Sean (Beau Wirick) comes along to save the day. Which he does. He tricks the professor and blackmails him. Sue and Lexie get their apartment back, but she's upset that a man had to save her. Sean reminds her of the one time, years before the show started, when she saved him from a storm drain. Saving others is a people thing, not just a guy thing.
Sue finally grows up, a little, she gets the glitter off the outside of her binder.
This was a great episode, with some truly funny and touching moments, plus it is great to see Sue as such a feminism. Trust me, I understand, the worst part wasn't a guy that I liked saying he didn't want anything serious on Christmas Eve, it was that I let him ruin my Christmas. And I shouldn't have. That's all in the past now. And it's nice seeing Frankie doing something thoughtful for someone else.
If episodes of this quality keep coming, this could be the best season of this show. Too bad it's also the last. Grade: A
Side Notes:
-Brick's previous bus driver shot her other foot off.
-Nancy's apple pie causes riots.
-The freshmen are all taller than Brick.
-When Brick asks Mike to come to career day, he channels Notting Hill.
-Brad is okay with hair pulling as long as its for art.
-Brick also walks through the wrong door everyday.
-It's all about optics these days.
-It must be nice to be rescued.
-Being a woman is very hard.
-Never lose the glitter on the inside.

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

This film has finally come to my area, a week after trailers announced that it was opening everywhere.
Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) is a great tennis player, for a woman. She is at the top of her game, but she isn't being paid as much as the men and it bothers her, as it should. Her prize money is one eighth of the what the men will win but the size of the crowd is the same.
Frustrated, she creates her own league and her agent, Gladys (a great Sarah Silverman) finds them a sponsor. These women are making a statement.
In the other circle is gambler and former tennis star Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). Though his wife is wealthy and supporting him financially, he still believes that a woman's proper place is in the kitchen. Then, his wife kicks him out when she discovers that he is gambling again and for whatever reason, desperate to get back in the spotlight, Bobby decides to have a match versus the best woman in the game.
While out on tour, Billie Jean meets and falls in love with her hairdresser, Marilyn (Andrea Riseborough). That was probably the one false note in this film, that overly long scene when Billie Jean realizes that she has feelings for a woman. Billie Jean is married to Larry King (Austin Stowell, couldn't they have also dyed his sideburns). And she knows what loving a woman means in the 1970s and so does Larry. Side Note: It's not the famous Larry King, but someone else entirely.
The first man versus woman match, thanks to her troubled life isn't Billie Jean but rather the Australian Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee), who is rather disgusted by the secrets Billie Jean has been keeping. Margaret loses badly and Billie Jean knows that she needs to play Bobby and beat him, just to get him off his high horse.
The match is a huge spectacular, ridiculously so, each player is carried in on a throne and each presents each other with a gift. Billie Jean's present to Bobby is a pig.
She wins, I figured she had to and Bobby is so defeated at the end, and probably humiliated but for whatever reason, Priscilla (Elisabeth Shue), his wife, takes him back.
Billie Jean has a good cry before returning to the court for her moment in the sun. She had changed so much with her victory. She really made a statement. And the side of right won, at least for that brief, shining moment.
The film is superb, with excellent performances, Stone might be doing the best work of her career here, and that is saying something, considering she is the reigning Oscar winner for Best Actress. Carell is also great. The film truly creates that atmosphere of 1973, which cannot be easy to do. It shows two parallel lives with great skill and attention to detail. It is a film that is a must see for all, not just sports fans. Side Note: You don't have to understand a thing about tennis to enjoy this film.
What Billie Jean was fighting for back then is something that women are still fighting for. Grade: A-

The Middle: Vive La Hecks

This is the final season of one of my favorite shows of all time. And that just makes me sad.
The show doesn't miss a beat, with Frankie (Patricia Heaton) yelling at Mike (Neil Flynn) to get off the couch and hold the sign she made for him to welcome Axl (Charlie McDermott) home. Yes, Axl is home, he literally dumps his bag and then has a little reunion with the unseen Lexie (Daniela Bobadilla) and then he returns. Still on European time, he drinks his fancy coffee at night and presents his family with gifts, thoughtful ones for Frankie, Mike and Brick (Atticus Shaffer) and something sweet but too small for Sue (Eden Sher). By the way, Axl is sporting a man bun, which Mike loathes though Frankie had no problem with it. Then again, Mike also wants Axl to find a job, right away while Frankie wants to give him time to relax.
Sue worked her butt off all summer and now has just two days left until she returns to college so she's cramming her whole summer to do list into two days, and stresses out because she can't get it all done.
Brick, on the other hand, has another task. He wants to break up with Cindy because the spark just isn't there anymore. He asks everyone in the family for advice, though it basically comes down to just getting it done. At first, he says mean stuff about her after he butt dialed her. Fortunately, she doesn't hear him and comes over to hear what he had to say. He breaks up with her and then she blames his family and he lets her. Awkward.
Frankie is also worried about the city's time capsule. She wants to find the perfect object that fits and describes there family. After all, that object represents their legacy. No one else cares and she stresses about it so much, she keels over. She doesn't have a heart attack though; she's just never eaten real cheese before. Which makes them want to take things easy for a little bit.
At the end, Sue's poor snow globe is left in the box and that is what Brick gives to Sean (Beau Wirick) to put in the time capsule. Sue will be devastated later.
As this is the final season, I suppose I should make a prediction though I just can't. I do think Axl might move to Europe permanently, he really must have blossomed over there.
This is certainly a good episode, with every detail well thought out. The writing on this show is excellent, complete with gags scattered throughout. And the acting remains top notch. This is absolutely one of the best first season episodes of the whole series. I will without a doubt miss this show. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Brick still loses his phone all the time.
-Brick is most thrilled with an Italian manual that has the train schedule. He will probably like that more than Planet Nowhere in French.
-Frankie gets fancy pasta gloves.
-Mike gets an authentic beer mug.
-Sue gets a grain of rice with her name engraved on it and promptly drops it on the floor. Frankie says that there is no fear of vacuuming it up.
-Mike's break-up method is awkward and slightly similar to Axl's, just letting space grow between them and letting the woman drift away. He then states that there might be some women out there who still think that they are together.
-Sue loves America so much that she has them withhold the most in taxes.
-Also, she doesn't know how to whistle.
-Axl walks around the house naked, to his family's chagrin.
-Love finally truly matters to Axl.
-Cindy let Brick see her hatless. Wow.