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osgrath-1
Reviews
The Middle (2009)
A rare sitcom with no embarrassment
It's not that I am a puritan, but most sitcoms have enough raunch to them that I don't always feel comfortable watching them in mixed company. Yet often the humor lies in the very words, phrases and concepts that make me want to keep my kids away from the show. That is never a concern with "The Middle." On the other hand, it is genuinely funny - and although based on exaggeration, a solid reflection of the typical, average small-town American family. Most families have to live modestly from paycheck to paycheck, live in a plain, cramped house with old, tattered furniture, drive an older (sometimes junky) car and live with a degree of eccentric dysfunction. However, the family members are loyal to one another, even as the occasionally disagree. So many family comedies depict a group living in a house that, these days, would cost a million dollars, with furniture brought in by an interior designer, who talk in in soundbites heavy with zingers and put-downs. "The Middle" has a coherent plot and a nice flow of dialog. Frankly, I have been surprised it has been on for so many seasons, running somewhat under the radar as it does, and I am looking forward to future seasons, at least until Brick goes off to college.
Granite Flats (2013)
Intriguing concept
I'll confess that I watched this primarily because it was produced locally and because it followed something I had been watching on the same channel. But it exceeded my expectations. The acting was good, the writing was very good, and the plot moved along quite well. I've always been interested in a "what if" kind of story, and this develops the premise very well.
Of course, much of my interest was in the fact that I lived through this period and was probably the same age in 1962 as the kids. But don't think the show is only about the kids - the adults are all interesting and they have very real interactions with each other.
The biggest fun for me though was in seeing how goofy people's thinging was back in the days of the cold war. But I also remember my own anxiety over the Cuban missile crisis or over the fact that a major Air Force base 60 miles to the north would be a likely target for nuclear attack. There was a lot of fuzzy thinking with the duck and cover exercises and the basement bomb shelters, but it's easy to see why from a contemporary perspective.
Well worth watching.