The Middle
What it is: The wife from Everybody Loves Raymond, the janitor from Scrubs, and their weird offspring.
A little more to go on: A middle-class, slightly dysfunctional family with three kids all just trying to get by. So if you don’t count Family Ties, Malcolm in the Middle, Roseanne, According to Jim, Growing Pains, Full House, My Wife and Kids, and Family Matters, it’s a pretty original concept.
Premise: F
Lead Actors: C (Patricia Heaton was solid on Everybody Loves Raymond and even in her failed followup Back to You, but not in this. She's a car salesman?... Seriously?)
Supporting Cast: D (Brian Doyle-Murray helps a little, but a sitcom where the kids aren’t cute or funny is a bad sign.)
Writing: F
Overall: F
The show aims for quirky, How I Met Your Mother-style comedy but misses the mark. I know I keep harping on it but the lack of a laugh track really hurts this show and the family and their foibles and eccentricities, which are meant to be droll and endearing, come off as annoying and pathetic. I honestly had trouble just getting through the first fifteen minutes of the premiere episode. This one should be axed before Halloween.
What it is: The wife from Everybody Loves Raymond, the janitor from Scrubs, and their weird offspring.
A little more to go on: A middle-class, slightly dysfunctional family with three kids all just trying to get by. So if you don’t count Family Ties, Malcolm in the Middle, Roseanne, According to Jim, Growing Pains, Full House, My Wife and Kids, and Family Matters, it’s a pretty original concept.
Premise: F
Lead Actors: C (Patricia Heaton was solid on Everybody Loves Raymond and even in her failed followup Back to You, but not in this. She's a car salesman?... Seriously?)
Supporting Cast: D (Brian Doyle-Murray helps a little, but a sitcom where the kids aren’t cute or funny is a bad sign.)
Writing: F
Overall: F
The show aims for quirky, How I Met Your Mother-style comedy but misses the mark. I know I keep harping on it but the lack of a laugh track really hurts this show and the family and their foibles and eccentricities, which are meant to be droll and endearing, come off as annoying and pathetic. I honestly had trouble just getting through the first fifteen minutes of the premiere episode. This one should be axed before Halloween.
What it is: The Office (the home version)
A little more to go on: Suburban dude in his fifties (Ed O’Neill) has a hot Latina wife (Sofia Vergara) and a smart-alecky stepson. Meanwhile, his daughter (Julie Bowen) and her tool of a husband struggle to relate to their teenage kids, while her gay brother and his overly dramatic life partner have just adopted a Vietnamese baby. Got it?
Premise: C
Lead Actors: B
Supporting Cast: B-
Writing: B+
Overall: B
Creator Steve Levitan (who also brought us the underrated Just Shoot Me) developed this as an Office clone, right down to its documentary style. O’Neill, channeling a bit of his old Al Bundy character, is perfect as the family’s sarcastic, always slightly annoyed patriarch. The comedy is smart and the writers do a nice job of weaving storylines together. The gay characters, though somewhat trite, are also funny, but strangely, Bowen's family comes off as pretty normal. Once again we get no laugh track (I guess we’re supposed to be smart enough to figure out what’s funny all by ourselves) but in this case, it totally works.
Supporting Cast: B-
Writing: B+
Overall: B
Creator Steve Levitan (who also brought us the underrated Just Shoot Me) developed this as an Office clone, right down to its documentary style. O’Neill, channeling a bit of his old Al Bundy character, is perfect as the family’s sarcastic, always slightly annoyed patriarch. The comedy is smart and the writers do a nice job of weaving storylines together. The gay characters, though somewhat trite, are also funny, but strangely, Bowen's family comes off as pretty normal. Once again we get no laugh track (I guess we’re supposed to be smart enough to figure out what’s funny all by ourselves) but in this case, it totally works.
What it is: 24 meets Lost with a smattering of Fringe.
A little more to go on: Based on a novel by Robert J. Sawyer, at the exact same moment, everyone on the planet goes unconscious for 90 seconds and has a vision of their future six months into the future. The FBI tries to figure what (or who) caused this and why at least one mysterious person was awake during the whole thing.
Premise: A
Lead Actors: B+
Supporting Cast: B+
Writing: B+
Overall: B+
A great cast that includes the Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger (HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me) and the always excellent Courtney B. Vance star in this series that expertly combines a paranormal premise with the “every episode a cliffhanger” feel of 24, and the “what the f**k is happening” confusion of Lost. Apart from the main story of the blackout investigation, nearly every character (and there are many in this one) has an interesting storyline. You'll especially like John Cho (Harold and Kumar, Star Trek) as an FBI agent who’s haunted by the flash he had of his own death, as well as Walger as the wife/surgeon struggling to distance herself from the man her flash indicated she’d leave her husband for. This is nitpicking, but I will say it struck me as curious that a U.S. production of a novel by a Canadian writer includes so many British actors (Fiennes, Walger, ER’s Alex Kingston, and more) playing Americans. Also, the kid actors in this show aren’t very good. Other than that, ABC labeled this show as “can’t miss” and they were right. If you haven’t seen the early episodes, catch up online.
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