Keeping up with the spookiness… here’s the second part of my month long feature highlighting the best in Halloween TV.
This time around: The Middle
Much like Roseanne, The Middle rocks the holiday specials! They’ve done six Halloween ones to date, hoping for another one this year, and while they’re all awesome these are my MUST watches…
Halloween – Season 2, Episode 6
The first in their annual Halloween episodes finds Mike reluctantly agreeing to go to a Halloween party with Frankie, but refusing to dress up. Meanwhile, Axl has a plans to pick up some girls and take them to a ‘real haunted house’, and Sue parties at the Church Group with Reverend TimTom.
We all know someone like Mike. Someone who thinks Halloween is childish and not for adults, and while I can’t personally relate, it makes for some great comedy dynamics between him and Frankie. At least “Hippie and Mike” end the evening in a truly Halloween-y way! Toliet papering the neighbors house! I guess you’re not so lame after all Mike.
Also, Eden Sher’s beautifully sweet portrayal of Sue – who is one of my all time favorite characters on television – is both hilariously awkward and so genuinely relatable it hurts. And, she totally has the best costumes – I don’t care what people say!
Halloween II – Season 3, Episode 7
Mike convinces Sue to update her wardrobe, but he is scared by what he sees. Meanwhile, Frankie takes Brick’s social group trick or treating.
Anytime Frankie has to do something school sanctioned, I’m aboard and to see her hearding a group of oddly costumed kids around the neighborhood will make you laugh, and realize Brick really isn’t that weird….“this one can only eat things that are red, this one meows…”. Plus she has several freak outs at parents along the way. Again, Frankie Freak outs = totally aboard!
Plus the Mike/Sue story line is touching, I really wish Mike Heck was my dad; and Sue’s lack of awareness on her wardrobe speaks to me on EVERY level. You do you, Sue! You do you! Where can find that Pumpkin sweater by the way?
Halloween IV: The Ghost Story – Season 5, Episode 5
Sue has a Halloween sleepover, and during a game, she thinks she sees the ghost ship of Christopher Columbus. Axl finds he is low-man on the totem pole as a freshman in college. Brick is interested in a girl at school.
This is probably the least Halloween-y on this list, but I still love it. When the family mocks Sue for what she thinks she saw, she tries her best to get them to see the world from her always rose colored glasses and her wonderfully sincere monologue at the end of the episode inspires me every time I watch it.
“….How can you sit there on a planet made of star dust, that was once thought to be flat – and not think anything is possible?”
Halloween V – Season 6, Episode 5
Brick invites Cindy over to the house for Halloween, Sue tries to raise money for college with a pumpkin patch screening of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” and Axl accidentally gets locked in the library.
This episode is my absolute favorite because we get to see Brick with Cindy – that weird arm/hug thing they do still cracks me up. And how can you not LOVE Brad’s duo-costume? Sandy, and Danny from Grease! Brilliant. But dammit!, why can’t Sue just win one?! All her hard word setting up an epic movie watching setting, only to be one-upped by the cheerleaders! Damn your kettle corn having, idea stealing asses Courtney and Debbie! Ugh. None the less, Sue once again turns her negative into a positive to become the reigning geek in my heart!
“You don’t always get what you hoped for, but you can still keep trying.”
I realize this has turned more into a Sue Heck/Eden Sher appreciation post, but I’m so not bothered….. go binge The Middle and eat some candy apples – because that’s what Sue would want you to do.
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