‘The Middle’ Will Live On For Years As People Find Out How Good It Was

One of the big indicators of how much we like a show in our family is how soon we watch it after its recorded onto our DVR. Our favorite shows were always watched that same night, perhaps even started while the show was still being recorded. Very few shows made that list, but The Middle was one of those shows.

The prospect of watching Tuesday night’s series finale actually made me a little anxious, more than even the prospects of watching the upcoming finale of an supposedly more dramatic show, The Americans. At first I thought that was a little weird, but when I thought about it, that anxiousness made sense.

I’ve lived with the Heck family every Tuesday for nine years, seeing Frankie (Patricia Heaton) and Mike (Neil Flynn) struggle to keep their heads above water, but somehow muddling through with wry senses of humor about how much they’re always struggling. There was always hope beneath Frankie’s grumbling, and a little pride that she can, for instance, get that almost-expired meat at the Frugal Hoosier for half-price, or get more life out of the dishwasher by just using a broomstick to keep it closed.

Mike was just stoic, but not without warmth or his own sense of humor. He was a man of few words, but when he made a speech or expressed his love for Frankie or his kids, it always had more impact. And while Frankie always complained at how Mike wasn’t an expressive guy, he showed how much he loved her in many ways, including the inflatable foot bath he gave her for Mother’s Day (“You still use it!” he said after she complained about it yet again in the finale. “I have a fungus!” Frankie shot back).

Of course, the kids — Axl (Charlie McDermott), Sue (Eden Sher) and Brick (Atticus Shaffer) — were the heartbeat of the show. Despite not having much and always living in chaos, the kids all managed to have eventful childhoods and are shaping into fine adults. Axl, who always was the difficult teenager who walked around in his boxers, always groaned when Frankie asked him to do things or showed him affection, went off to Denver in the finale to start a new job but, in his own Axl way, he let his brother and sister know how much he’ll miss them.

Sue and Brick reacted in their own unique ways — Sue, ever the optimist, wanted her “moment” with Axl, and Brick… Well, Brick was busy measuring the room for his “fiche niche”, where he can use his microfiche machine in peace. At the finale’s midpoint, the three of them are in the Heck family station wagon, claiming their place for the drive to Denver the next day. Brick’s notion that it’ll be weird to have a room that’s just his fits his very thoughtful-but-weird character perfectly, and Sue’s speech about loving being “in the middle, because I get love from both sides” was Sue to a T.

It was fitting that the show ended with Heck road trip, which is usually full of chaos. Even though the kids are all grown up, Axl still tortured Sue, and Sue still asked her parents to make Axl stop. Brick was still sitting on the hump in the back seat, trying to avoid the crossfire. As usual they pulled over — this time for Sean Donahue (Beau Wrick) to finally tell Sue how he feels about her — and they left the blue bag of snacks behind. There were flash-forwards to what the kids’ lives ended up being like, but leaving them in the car going down the show’s signature cornfield-laden road was nice way to show that the Hecks will always be there for each other.

The Middle was one of the few shows on network television that actually showed what life was like, well, in the middle: the middle of the country, the middle class, the middle of everything. The Heck family watched TV, shopped at discount stores, went to church, and generally just lived their lives, without pointing any of it out as unusual or some sort of spectacle.

What DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler built was a relatable world, with characters who were so well-drawn and well-acted that most of the humor came from what we knew about them instead of gags. But, most of all, The Middle was funny. Week after week for nine seasons, the Heck family made my wife and I laugh hard more than once per episode.

There aren’t many nine-year comedies that can say that; Modern Family, which debuted on ABC the same year as The Middle, stopped being funny many years ago, long before the Television Academy stopped reflexively giving the show the Best Comedy Emmy every year. In fact, I’m not even sure if the Dunphys and Pritchetts even like each other. The Hecks, though, have always shown how close they are even if the family seems dysfunctional on the surface. Frankie’s desire to keep everyone on the Indiana Mobile family plan because “the minutes are running out” was a very clever way to show how much they all loved each other.

So I can lament why The Middle didn’t get nominated for more Best Comedy Emmys or why Sher didn’t get a supporting actress nod every single year, but I can be satisfied with the fact that the show will live on for years, with people discovering it on cable syndication (on Freeform and Hallmark Channel) and streaming (let’s hope ABC and Warner Bros. get their acts together and put the entire run on Hulu soon). It’s a perfect show for reruns, because even though there are some continuing storylines and lots of running jokes (like the blue bag!), you can watch a favorite episode and dip in and out without a problem.

And for people who thought that the show was too much about “flyover country”, or thought Brick was too weird, or something else, they may sample it at some point, connect the episode back to their own family experience, laugh, and think “why did I hate this show so much?” I get the feeling a lot of people will be saying this for a long, long time.