The Middle, "Halloween"

A majority of the shows this week are doing their Halloween themed episodes.  The Middle is a sophomore sitcom on ABC, starring Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Neil Flynn (Scrubs), about the Heck family in middle-class Indiana.  The true scene stealers of the show are their 3 kids: Axl, the dumb jock, Sue, the awkward teenage girl, and Brick, the bookworm of the family. 

This week, Frankie and Mike (Heaton and Flynn) were invited to a neighbor’s Halloween party.  Frankie tried her best to get Mike into a costume, but he insisted on going as “Mike” in his typical plaid shirt.  His reasoning was that “costumes on adults are sad, and a little creepy.” Even at the party, Frankie wanted Mike to at least dance with her but he wouldn’t even give in to that.  The delivery of their lines makes them one of the most realistic married couples. 

Axl and his friends set out with their dates to a haunted house.  The directions and location of the party were tweeted out the night of Halloween because “it’s illegally gross!”

Sue ended up at the church’s Holy Hayride hosted by Reverend Tim Tom, a guitar-strumming man of God.  Sue talked with the Reverend about her typical teenaged problems including boys and not getting her first kiss yet.  He replied, “So you’re in a rough patch. You know who else hit a rough patch? Jesus. He was dead. But, three days later, he was back on his feet. Rockin’ it resurrection style.”

Brick dressed up to go trick or treating as Sergeant Charles McKenzie, a historical World War I figure.  No one got who he was supposed to be, but he didn’t let that get him down.   Finally, one elderly neighbor knew exactly who Brick was dressed as, so Brick bonded with him while his parents went on to their party. 

Perhaps one of the most underrated comedies on TV now, The Middle is consistently hilarious each week.  It is on an hour before the Emmy-award winning Modern Family on Wednesdays at 8 PM. 

Pick up season 1 on DVD now!

How I Met Your Mother, "Baby Talk"

Tonight's episode of HIMYM focused mainly on our favorite married couple, Marshall and Lily Erikson.  If you aren't up to speed with season 6 so far, this episode will catch you up pretty quickly.  I'll go through each character's storylines to make it a little easier:

Barney: He was back to his usual womanizing ways when he "accepted" a challenge that wasn't really offered by the rest of the gang.  He set out to pick up a woman while speaking like a little boy, as this was sparked by the conversation about needy women who look for Daddy figures.  Not to spoil the episode entirely, but of course you can rest easy that the Barnicle did not fail in this latest mission.

Robin: Every season of this show has had Robin getting slightly less and less disappointed with her job as a news anchor.  True to fashion, this time her biggest complaint was that her newest co-anchor, Becky's looks alone drew everyone's attention to her instead of listening to what Robin had to report.

Ted: This was a light episode on Ted's storyline.  His biggest thing was dating Becky (see the Robin segment above).  By the end of the episode, Ted had his revelation that everyone else was smart enough to see all along.

Marshall and Lily: This episode title "Baby Talk" was the basis for Marshall and Lily this week.  They have been trying to get pregnant all season so far, but were getting ahead of themselves when they were inspired by their other friends who had a dilemma when trying to name their newborn baby girl.  Marshall instantly came up with a list of boys names, while Lily was only thinking of girls names.  They even got so far as researching the techniques and tips to go about conceiving their desired sex of the baby.  By the end of the episode, they were no further than they were before.  At least they now know what names they will not be using once their time comes to be parents!

Overall, this was one of the better episodes of season 6.  It had a few throwbacks to earlier seasons, plus another classic Barney challenge.  I would definitely recommend getting caught up with this season if you aren't already because you're already missing some good times at MacLaren's Pub!

Catch up with season 5 out on DVD now!