The family situation comedy, a staple of television since I Love Lucy, has survived over the decades because basic family dynamics are so common to viewers.  Not all of us have been part of a television comedy writing team (like NBC's 30 Rock) or an Intergalactic delivery service (Comedy Central's Futurama) which are situations that attract much smaller audiences.  But, everybody at some time in their lives is a family member

For nine seasons on the world-class family comedy Everybody Loves Raymond, Patricia Heaton mined endless laughs from recognizable family conflicts as the exasperated wife putting up with her dopey husband and meddling in-laws. Heaton demonstrated a flawless knack for domestic comedy and Raymond became comedy classic with the writers often drawing from their own familial experiences.

Now, after a short-lived effort at a return to comedy in last year's Back to You, Heaton is back, again playing another frazzled wife and mom in ABC's The Middle. The title, which sounds like a downsized version of the Fox comedy Malcolm in the Middle, seems to be aiming at a similar style and wacky tone.  Like Malcolm, The Middle is shot in single camera style without a laugh track, and has an often manic mom, a clueless dad and kids who generate many of the storylines.

This time though, rather than seeing the stories from Malcolm's point of view, Heaton's mom character Frankie narrates.  The show's title comes from its setting, small-town Indiana, which Frankie refers to in the pilot as "flyover country" since it's ignored by elites on both coasts, and we see a jet fly high over the corn fields to underline this.  The Middle seeks to show solidarity with the struggling middle class wrestling with the current recession and the first two episodes are about families struggling with finances and the challenges of childrearing.

Frankie is barely clinging to her job selling cars at a local dealership.  In the pilot episode while trying to make the one sale that will keep her employed, the lot PA system calls her to the phone with problems with one of her kids.  She sneaks off from work to address the situation concerning her youngest, Brick, an elementary schooler who's just… weird.  The show presents him as a brilliant little kid with special needs but no diagnosis, unless it's a cooked up sitcomy Strange But Funny Child Syndrome.  The young actor, Atticus Shaffer, is very good and his character seems the closest thing to an original character the show has to offier.

Frankie's other two kids, Axl (Charlie McDermott) and Sue (Eden Sher) are teenagers and more conventional characters.  Axl is the lanky, aloof kid who walks around the house clad only in his boxer shorts and an air of disdain.  Sue is a sweet awkward girl who is incompetent at everything she attempts, a continuing challenge for her parents to encourage. But as written, Sue is hard to sympathize with—her cringe-inducing efforts in the school chorus or the swim team result in disaster. She is ironically still unlikable and pathetic with no compensating comedic effects.  It's not funny to watch such a loser character.

The real cipher in this family is husband and father Mike, played by Neil Flynn, who is the most even-keeled of the bunch, except that he also seems not to feel any of the stresses of the other members, happy to just roll with the punches and say inappropriately frank things about the kids.

For a new comedy to succeed, the audience must quickly adjust to the character and to its tone and style; if we do and it works for us, we "get it," and start laughing as the gags induce that reaction.  The success of a comedy is easily measured by whether and how much we laugh—it's that simple.  I laughed a little watching the first two episodes of The Middle, but the best comedies win you over in the first 20 minute or so, enough to bring you back expecting more.  If you don't buy in to the characters and concept quickly, the occasional chuckle will not keep you coming back.

Unfortunately, The Middle sets up situations whose hilarious outcomes are all too predictable.  Last week, Brick took his library book to the pool and sat in his float reading happily.  Then Sue, competing on the swim team, swerved out of her lane and of course crashes into Brick who, guess what?—drops the library book to the bottom of the pool.  Har har.

Or, Frankie, to save her job, comes up with the idea of filling a car with jelly beans and offering a prize to the customer who most closely guesses the number of beans.  It probably won't surprise you that Frankie forgets to count the number of beans she's poured into the sedan, or that when a customer wins, that the candy beans will be so melted together in the hot car that they won't pour out when the door is opened.  Comedy must to some degree be based on surprise and there's little surprising about this kind of writing.

And that's where the trouble lies.  Heaton and company are obviously talented performers, and if you saw her on Everybody Loves Raymond, you can tell what a difference great comedy writing makes.  Now the two time Emmy-winner is stuck in The Middle, but alas, without me.

The Middle airs Wednesdays at 8:30 eastern on ABC (check local listings) and is available on hulu.com.

Alex Wainer, Ph.D. teaches media and film at Palm Beach Atlantic University.  He is a regular contributor to theFish.com.

Review posted October 21, 2009