If you were a big fan of “Malcolm in the Middle” by Linwood Boot – the family sitcom which has been recently renewed for a revival – As I was when I grew up, you certainly felt the gap that the show left behind when it ended in 2006. There were many big sitcoms in the medium and late aughts, but very few managed to capture this story centered on the family and a stupid atmosphere of “Malcolm” almost singularly represented. For me, the one who was closest (although never as wild, who pushes the limits or scandalous as the Boomer series) was “The Middle” by Eileen Heisler and Deann Heline. The series features the Wonderful “Everyone loves Patricia Heaton de Raymond“Scrubs'” Neil Flynn, and three children’s players / adolescents (Charlie McDermott, Atticus Shaffer and Eden Sher) who got her feet in the huge pond of American television.

“The Middle”, which ran on ABC from 2009 to 2018 for 9 seasons, followed the daily life of the Hecks, a family barely the middle class in the fictitious city of Orson, Indiana, including disillusioned and worn parents Frankie (Heaton) and Mike (Flynn), and their three regular children, the oldest of Jock Axl (McDermott) Sur-gludds overachving sous Suche), the young, and the McDermott), the sur-gludes of the surface, the Swère), the young), the young Axl), the Jock Le, the Magdermott), the over-child Overachiev and the most eccentric, Brickw Rorm Brick (Shaffer). Curiously, the charm of the show was in its relaxed but perfect ordinarity. There was no unusual angle, no social program or an incident of incentive that would arouse the life of the protagonists when we joined them for the first time. From the start, it seemed that the Hecks could be our neighbors, typical insipids, but that is exactly why they were attractive in the first place. A group of familiar faces that were just as miserable, sometimes happy and often involuntarily hilarious as the rest of us.

Whether you are a parent with several children of different ages or someone who likes to remember in their own childhood (or always a child by the way), “The Middle” covers all the basics quite confident. The approach of the show was to emphasize how ordinary family life in the suburbs can suck – by sailing on all dull day jobs, unwanted social events, painful school assignments, insufficient grandparents and debilitating finances to cover everything – while trying to find in a way these small victories and small joys that keep us with the case. Which is particularly difficult for devil children, who are not particularly talented in anything, have strange habits (like whispering to yourself), and often find themselves in difficult scenarios from which they cannot go out. In other words, they are stereotypes. However, they also have just enough quirks that make them simultaneously awkward, sometimes soft and almost always laughable.

Although the show’s humor is soft and family, frequently using predictable slapstick bags, it is also more intelligent and more effectively used than in other Similar sitcoms. Whether it is the ups and downs of parenting, typical brother’s quarrels or important moments of life such as leaving the family home for college or a delicate divorce confession, writers generally find the best ways to deliver them. And once you have really learned the Hecks, there are also a few really touching moments that you can see coming, but you always find surprisingly moved.

Although “The Middle” was not bombed in prices throughout his race (his only Emmy appointment came in 2012 for exceptional makeup), it was a testimony to the quality of the show that he was able to stay on the air for nine years and release under his own conditions in 2018 with a comforting final. Overall, if you are looking for light family entertainment to put after work, you can’t go wrong. It is also practical that the nine seasons of the series are currently broadcast on Amazon Prime Video.