Patricia Heaton and Co. Offer Smart Sitcom in 'The Middle'

The smart new sitcom The Middle presents a positive but realistic view of Middle America’s pursuit of the American Dream.

Set in the fictional small town of Orson, Indiana, The Middle (8:30 EDT) follows Hank in ABC’s new Wednesday night lineup and like the Kelsey Grammer program, it features a big sitcom star, Patricia Heaton, in a lead role. Also like Hank, The Middle takes a comic but sympathetic look at Middle America, described by central character Frankie Heck (Heaton) as “One of those places you fly over on your way from Somewhere to Somewhere Else but you wouldn’t live here.”

The writing of the pilot episode is particularly strong, and it even uses a couple of symbols to very good effect: a jet flying overhead, and Frankie’s new drivers license with its grossly unattractive photo documenting how badly life has been beating her down. Heaton’s willingness to make herself look silly and physically unattractive is used to great effect in the pilot episode and shows great sense on her part and that of the show’s producers.

As in the late, great Malcolm in the Middle, the entire family is fairly messed up, and their lives are largely awful. They live on fast food, and Frankie’s days are a perpetually hectic blur. The youngest child, Brick, is described by his teacher as “Maybe clinically quirky,” and his best friend is his backpack. Their oldest, a son named Axl, is a surly jock. The middle child, Sue, is an appearance-challenged teen who fails at every extracurricular activity she tries.

Yet despite all the comic horrors of their lives, they really do love one another, and in the end that makes their crises endurable and the show enjoyable. While showing the troubles of people who are striving to achieve the American Dream but not making it, the pilot episode of The Middle doesn’t make fun of their hopes and ambitions.

As such, it’s ultimately a positive view of American aspirations while remaining realistic in acknowledging that the dream includes an ever-increasing list of material things that continually remains outside many people’s grasp. It also points us back toward the importance of personal relationships and the real source of happiness in familial love. This kind of comedy, tough but never cynical, is rarer than one would wish.