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Saturday, July 3, 2010

The Middle T.V. Series

I'm in love with this new T.V. series. Check it out when you get a chance. This is a sitcom about a very average North American family, a mom, a dad, 3 kids. So far, nothing special and yes, there has been a lot of sitcoms about average North American families before, but this family is the most realistic T.V. family I have seen. None of that Cosby family or Leave It to Beaver perfection. These folks are it. They hit the average family nail dead on the head. Perfectly. Eerily. Eerily because the dialogue is so real, it sounds like the writers are standing under our kitchen window listening to our banter while we do dishes and taking note. This family is us, we're them. Well, we don't have a weird grade one kid with the ability to read at a grade 25 level (so brilliantly played by the adorable Atticus Shaffer, a kid with a great name and a great future), but the rest of the family? Yup. As close to imperfection as us. Even their house is decorated like most of us do, in the mishmash fashion of odds and ends accumulated over 20 years of marriage.

And then there's the title. It stands for Middle America, Middle of the road, Middle class, whatever spin you want to give it. This family doesn't pretend to be at the top or even at the bottom. It's in the middle. In other words, average. It doesn't pretend to be something it's not and that's why it rings true for us. The parents are tired, they cut corners, but they try hard and they mean well. It sums us up so beautifully.

Great cast, great writers. A rare little jewel in the somewhat tarnished crown of television, a crown so overloaded by mediocre reality shows these days.

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