The Middle : Jump the Shark………..not.

For the last three years, I keep waiting for this show to deteriorate,, nut it doesn't.
Maybe, it's that I fear it will, with other viewers, and its ratings will drop.

It's never been, nor ever will be one of those Huge mega-watched shows, like a Seinfeld, 2 1/2 Men, or BigBang.
It's just your basic simple sitcom. It entertains me for 30 minutes each week.
No ones running into work of school the next day, saying, "OMG, what did ya think and The Middle last night?"
I like each character, their back story. I even like all of the peripheral characters. They each play their roles well.
So. I hope it continues until Brick is long married off.

Was just thinking the same thing. It's still as cute as ever.

This show does such a great job of portraying that the scenes are actually filmed in Indiana. Opposed to The Goldbergs which doesn't try hid the fact st all that the show is filmed in California and not Philadelphia. It's actually comical.

Props to the writers and directors of The Middle.

You mean because they show all that fake snow, yet we never see their breaths? Is that what you mean about "hiding" that it's filmed in California? Funny, but the palm trees do have a tendency to give away their location.

http://www.imdb.com/board/11442464/locations

None of it is filmed in Indiana.




**~Not my circus, not my monkeys~**

Come on, the Middle hasn't jumped the shark? Hmm. What is the definition of "jump the shark?" In the popular lexicon, it stems from the episode of Happy Days where Fonzie actually jumped a shark (then popular for Jaws) while water skiing. The result was so ridiculous, so out of character and away from the show's premise, that the audience just could not accept it.

So, whenever a showusually, a long-lasting onepresents something so unbelievable, so ridiculous, it's a "jump the shark" moment. And The Middle has had its share.

Here are just a few:

(1) Axl somehow managing never to play football, though he has a full-boat athletic scholarship at East Indiana U to do just that.

(2) That Darrin, who was a major supporting characterfirst introduced as Axl's nice but lunkheaded "best friend" and then a love interest for Suecould suddenly disappear from view COMPLETELY. This happened after he asked Sue to marry him, almost two years ago. He's been mentioned once since then, I believe. But neither Sean (who was also Darrin's friend), Axl, or Sue ever bring him up. It's as if he never existed, the Chuck Cunninham of The Middle.

(3) That Sue, supposedly an aware student, didn't know what "native American" and "caucasian" meant as a senior in high school.

(4) That Sue, who supposedly is awkward and so unpopular that kids singing Happy Birthday to her can't remember her name, has had at least FIVE boyfriends (counting Brad) since the second season. So much for "unpopular." One of them even proposed marriage.

(5) The BIGGEST jump the shark moment: Axl, who's flunking out in every class, suddenly pulls a B+ average and somehow magically continues to maintain that average throughout his entire college career. Never mind that he needed a tutor to even graduate high school.

So, please, don't say The Middle hasn't jumped the shark because it has. And there are other examples, as well,.

Those are not "Jump the Shark" moments. A "Jump the Shark" moment is when a show has reached it's peak and starts to decline in quality and will never be as good as it once was. Like Roseanne winning the lottery or the addition of Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch or season 10/11 of the Simpsons or season 2 of Heroes.

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Those are not "Jump the Shark" moments. A "Jump the Shark" moment is when a show has reached it's peak and starts to decline in quality and will never be as good as it once was. Like Roseanne winning the lottery or the addition of Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch or season 10/11 of the Simpsons or season 2 of Heroes.

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Finally someone who knows what "jumped the shark" means.

Here are a few responses:

1.) I have friends who were athletes on scholarship and, yet, never actually played ball. This is especially true in small schools where there are transfers and walk-on players. In fact, there is a term for them: "Practice dummies."

2.) I suspect that Darrin might show up again with an explanation of why we haven't seen him. I have a feeling that Darrin found someone and quickly married her. He probably would feel uncomfortable going back to his ex-fiance's house. ***Personally, I think that it would be a funny twist if Darrin married Carly. This would explain why we haven't seen either of them.

3.) This is why it's a comedy. She is a decent student in school (not an "A" student) but also incredibly naive. I was second in my high school class (out of 480) and the valedictorian was shockingly naive. She had a crush on me and I had to run from her throughout high school. In my AP English course, she was assigned to me as a partner where I discovered just how naive she was in just about everything.

4.) Who has Sue dated? Brad was still in the closet and only lasted a few episodes. Matt lasted a couple of months (if that). Darrin was her long-term relationship but he wasn't exactly a knight in shining armor. The Abercrombie priest never really dated her during high school and was primarily attracted to Sue's innocent heart.

5.) Again, it's comedy. I never questioned how George Costanza or Elaine Benes were able to survive in NYC while rarely holding jobs in the long-term.

Actually Scary none of those things jump the shark. The show is sometimes kookie, but it's consistent and has never jumped the premise about being the struggles of a middle class family in Middle America. Jumping the shark is like when the Nanny married her boss (and so was no longer the nanny). Or when Rossane won the lottery and was no longer working class. The premise of the Middle allows for some things that are improbable or unrealistic, but that's not jumping the shark.

Using your criteria for "jumping the shark," then Axl suddenly becoming a solid B+ student after a lifetime of academic failure definitely qualifies. Or don't you think so?

The shows not a procedural. It isn't meant to be strictly realistic, or even strictly consistent. It's a series of stories, only sometimes canonical, meant to amuse and entertain. Axl's grades are a minor detail. jumping the shark would be if the family moved to Los Angeles, had another child quickly aged to 5, or if Sue was replaced by another actress. Axl is pretty consistent as the rebellious son who sometimes makes poor choices is a jock and a bit of a ladies man. No jumping there.

What? Axl's grades aren't a "minor detail," since episodes have revolved around them. Aren't you forgetting Cassidy, his tutor? He's number than a post, and to have him go from failing in college to magically being a B+ student is just as "shark jumping" as the nanny marrying and Oliver being introduced on the Brady Bunch.

Axl may be pretty "consistent" as the so-called "rebellious" (a laughable term, when applied to this weak-kneed mama's boy) son, but he' also been CONSISTENTLY presented as something of a moron.

Whichever way you cut it, his becoming a B student strained credibility to the breaking point. A classic "jump the shark" moment.

And by the way, a jump the shark moment isn't always something as drastic as another actor stepping in, like Darrin in Bewitched. Fonzie jumping the shark in Happy Days didn't change anything, really. It was still Happy Days. No new character introduced at that moment in the show's history. No marriages or divorces or deaths.

But Fonzie jumping the shark was something so out of character, so ridiculous, it became famous for its asking us to suspend disbelief. The SAME with Axl and his grades. There's no way of getting around it. When a character is presented as stupid for 6 seasonswithout variation, mind youto suddenly have him become an academic scholar (while still beyond portrayed as mentally deficient) is just as wacky as Fonzie jumping a shark.

Frankly I don't remember what grades I got in school and it certainly doesn't define me today. I'm sure sometimes I got really good grades and sometimes not so good. Poor students can buckle down or find classes they like and do well. Plenty of kids did mediocre in high school, did a stint in community college and then thrived. Usually grades are subjective and can vary from year to year.

Anyway, it's still within the range of the Middle to have stories where Axl is a jerk and a gentleman, a screw up and a scholar, a winner and a loser. The flexibility of his character allows the writers to create a variety of stories. The rigidity you seek is boring.

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The rigidity you seek is boring.

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I'm sure that's what the Happy Days writers were told when they came up with Fonzie jumping the shark. "Why can't the Fonz be and do anything? The flexibility of his character allows the writers to create a variety of stories, including Fonzie jumping a shark while water skiing. Remember, rigidity is boring."

I gotta wonder if you've watched The Middle for any length of time. Axl wasn't a "mediocre" student. That describes Sue. He was a below-average student, big difference. Mediocre students don't need tutors to help them graduate.

Whatever the case, Axl was defined as a dimbulb from the very first episode, and now you're saying it's ok if he's a great student. Sorry, but it isn't ok, it goes against the grain of the character completely. It's like Frankie suddenly realizing she's a horrible mother and decides to make home cooked meals. Just wouldn't happen, and if it did, it would stretch credibility to the breaking point.

Sorry, but it isn't "rigidity" that a character is defined in a certain way. It's just the way it is. And when you have a character doing something completely OUT of characterlike being a B+ student, for exampleit's a jump the shark moment.

John Kerry got D's in college and is now the Secretary of State. Plenty of Nobel Prize winners flunked a class here and there. Hillary Clinton flunked the bar exam but she was doing pretty well until November. Also plenty of kids get tutors, even straight A students, just as many of the biggest CEOs hire coaches.

The Cassidy arc wasn't meant to define Axl. It was just cute. He insulted the girl and she turned out to be his tutor. He misread her signals and made a pass, but she had a secret crush. He had awkward moments with her older boyfriend. She sent him a painting which he had to interpret that their relationship was over. The entire arc was meant to be cute, not to lock Axl into a life path. Sorry you missed that.

Are you actually comparing John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and "plenty" of Noel Prize winners to Axl? Come on.

Don't you remember the episodes where Cassidy tutored Axl? He was a DUMMY. He didn't even know what a dial telephone was used for and didn't recognize a stone bust of William Shakespeare.

I think it's pretty clear that Axl has been portrayed, from episode one, as a boastful, preening jock with a big mouth and very little upstairs. He's lazy, looks for the easy way out, and thinks he's entitled. Do you disagree?

That's fine, that's the character. But when the dummy suddenlyand for no reason and with no explanation within the plotsomehow goes from a D- student to a B+, well, it's a jump the shark moment.

You can bring in all the Nobel Prize winners you want. Doesn't change that fact.

And what does Axl suddenly becoming a good student have to do with Axl's life path? We're talking about the Middle here, not a real person. Within the context of the show, Axl has been presented in one way, and rarely has he strayed from that template. His biggest straying moment was suddenly getting great grades. It just didn't fit with what we've been learned about the character.

Sorry you missed that.

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He didn't even know what a dial telephone was used for and didn't recognize a stone bust of William Shakespeare.

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But Axl knew who Yoko Ono was.

He's a mediocre student but has had many moments of brilliance the joint classroom presentation on Italy he did with Sue; the idea of the video he made with Brick where every book he had read toppled like dominoes; the business idea to invite girls to prom ands to break up with them; Boss Co.; how he's able to manipulate everybody in the family plus Darrin and Sean; how he's given pretty good brotherly advice to Sue and Brick: how he interpreted the painting. So not always dumb. more of a slacker. He's always more street smart than book smart, but definitely not a dumbbell.

He's as dumb as they come. Do you even watch the show, Rod? Wow.

ScaryMary is Rod Labbe, not me.

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ScaryMary is Rod Labbe, not me.

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So is tankitty, ironically the one who called YOU Rod. He is truly bordering on unstable.





**~Not my circus, not my monkeys~**

I think you're both unstable, especially since Hide86 is a "sockpuppet" of Bookmanmovielover, and everybody knows it.

I agree with the OP, I don't think this show has fallen off in quality any since the beginning. No small feat, since the kids are growing up so fast - that's usually the death knell for a show like this.

Regarding ScaryMary's "jump the shark" comments: This show has always had ridiculous aspects to it, it's always been a bit cartoonish, so no change there.

Some people like Scary Mary do not know what Jumped the Shark is.it is an event. Axl never being shown playing football or Darrin disappearing is not an event.

Zing!

Jumping the shark is not always an "event," Zingbot. Do your homework. It can be an event, yesbut it's also when a show veers off into uncharted territory and presents something contrary to what's come before. Like Axl suddenly becoming a B+ student, for example. Surely, you know that. Zing!