Dec

In the middle

Indiana’s, the home state of The Middle, Daily Student has a review of The Middle, here are the highlights:
The show was sharp and witty, but hidden behind the zingy one-liners was a little condescension.

Take the family’s name, Heck, which sounds just a little too much like “hick,” or the fact that during the pilot episode the IU theme song plays in the background as the dorky daughter unsuccessfully tries out for 12 teams.

Still, every quirky, dysfunctional family doesn’t have to reflect negatively on the real-life place in which it is set. Patricia Heaton’s other fictional family, the Romanos, didn’t demean Long Islanders or make the statement that everyone in the state of New York has an annoying mother-in-law.
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It turns out that both of the women who wrote the pilot episode for “The Middle,” Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, should have some perspective, because they met each other as freshmen here at IU. Then they transferred to NYU two years later.
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We need real, genuine writers and thinkers to tell our story – the story of Indiana, of the Midwest. Those of us who have spent real time here need to be the ones telling its stories.

What we need are more Kurt Vonneguts and Scott Russell Sanders and fewer Frankie Hecks.