CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
DVD Reviews: 2010 Rookie TV Seasons Including ‘The Good Wife,’ ‘NCIS: Los Angeles,’ More
“The Middle: Season One”
DVD Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
ABC hit comedy gold with the Emmy Award-winning “Modern Family” on Wednesday nights but they struggled a bit to build a complete lineup around the network’s best program. “Cougar Town” loses most of the audience of its lead-in and the network had problems with the first hour of primetime the entire season. It started with the horrible “Hank,” which was quickly canceled and most thought “The Middle” would follow into the history books but it eked out an entire season and will return for a second. “The Middle” averaged just under 7 million viewers and couldn’t place in the top 60 for the entire season but ABC seems to be behind the show and it’s the kind of program that could develop into a hit that far outshines the first season.
The Middle: Season One, Part One was released on DVD on August 31st, 2010. Photo credit: Warner Bros. Home Video |
Why? Well, one of the most important ingredients for long-term success in a sitcom is determined before a frame is even shot — the casting. And the ensemble of “The Middle” is straight-up talented. Patricia Heaton has perfect comic timing and Neil Flynn makes a great straight man for the wacky behavior of the Heck family. They are the matriarch and patriarch of a clan that seems clearly inspired by the FOX hit “Malcolm in the Middle” with three eccentric children — troublemaker Axl (Charlie McDermott), awkward Sue (Eden Shur), and just-weird Brick (Atticus Schaffer). Most of the episodes center around Heaton’s super-mom character dealing with her unusual children. Again. And again. The problem with the first season of “The Middle” is that if you’ve seen one episode, you’ve see them all. The cast is too talented to completely dismiss the program but they really need to mix up the storylines and not have each week’s adventure seen SO much like a repeat of the week before. The kids are weird, dad is quiet, mom is harried — repeat.
“The Middle: Season One” is presented in a matted widescreen aspect ratio with a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound Track. A matted transfer and no Blu-ray option in 2010? Shameful.
Special Features:
o “Raising a Sitcom Family”
o “Sue’s Best Shots”
o Unaired Scenes
o Gag Reel
The Good Wife
LOVE IT!