If you’ve read my feel good show recommendations – you would already know how much I love this show. After posting my recommendations, I realised that a lot of people hadn’t watched or even heard of this sitcom. So I thought I’d do a review of the show for all the people thinking about watching it. In India, “The Middle” is available on Prime Video.

“The Middle” ran for 9 long seasons airing first in 2009 and winding up in 2018! I had caught a couple of episodes of the show on TV but really got into watching it in early 2018 when I found it on Prime Video. After watching the first few episodes, I was hooked. I completed all 9 seasons over the period of 2 months and even got to watch the last few episodes in parallel with them being aired. It is such an underrated sitcom and it surprises me that more people haven’t watched it.

The family had job loss, broken dishwashers, and college tuition to stress over, and they always found a way, with love, family, and humor at the core of every challenge.

About: “The Middle” is about the Heck family living Indiana and living an average middle class life. The family consists of Mike, Frankie and their three children – Axl, Sue, Brick. The story line of the show revolves around this dysfunctional American family trying to make ends meet and scrape through the years one credit card at a time. Mike works in a quarry and Frankie has a few jobs over the show starting off as a car salesperson (a really bad one). Axl is the spoilt, popular kid whereas Sue is the unseen “middle” child filled with hope and optimism. Brick is a quirky kid with different tics. There are many other repetitive characters over the years the main being their “too good to be true” neighbours – The Donahues. The show shows the Hecks dealing with different crisis in each episode in a humorous yet extremely relatable way.

What I Liked:

• The show is out and out hilarious! It is a light comedy that will leave you feeling really good inside.
• It is very relatable. The relationships, plotline, issues are all very real and relatable.
• I love how all the kids are so different from each other – you get to see the different types of issues faced by them.
• The show propagates some really nice lessons. A. Frankie always insists that “you do for family” – making sure you’re there for your family member whenever they need you. B. The neighbours are always there to lend a helping hand in every situation. C. You don’t need a lot of money to be happy. D. Every family member plays an important role in making the family functional.
• How beautifully and sensitively they have dealt with a main character coming out of the closet to their best friend after years.(Spoiler Alert!)
• All the break-ups are dealt with so beautifully and are not made dramatic.
• How brutally honest their portrayal of real life is – sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s unbearable but you can get through the bad days with your loved ones by your side.
• How dysfunctional they are makes you realise that no family is perfect and somehow that thought is comforting.
• All the Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween & Christmas episodes are hilarious and yet leave you feeling fuzzy inside.
• Despite how perfect the neighbours kids are, Mike and Frankie never put any pressure on their kids to compete with them.

What I Didn’t Like:

• Despite all their money problems, they always have money for takeout.

Verdict: Definitely watch this show if you haven’t. I’ve rewatched the show countless times and still do whenever I’m low and need a laugh. The crazy Heck family is bound to win your heart.

YAY or NAY: Super YAY (9.5/10)

Check out my other posts:

My Go-To, Feel Good Shows

Review | “Dead To Me” on Netflix