The Middle: Graduation, Driving, and Photographs

I think this comedy did a great job this season and has set up a lot for viewers to look forward to come fall. Axl will be in college, Sue will be driving, and Brick will be in that terrifyingly awkward stage known as middle school. I don't know how much of Axl we'll continue to see, but you can bet that his storylines will be memorable regardless. Like in this episode, Axl wanted nothing more than to enjoy his final days as a senior and party up graduation. This is a period to which most of us can relate, though we certainly weren't all blessed to have French Stewart as our principal! Anyway, Axl's freedom drove Frankie crazy, as she desperately clung to the few remaining moments when she might actually have control over her adult son. It was very much a moving-up-and-moving-on episode, where even Brick did a decent job of solving his own problems. Let's wish the Hecks a great summer!

The Middle "The Graduation" (S04E24): Brick has tons of items in the school lost & found, and as he is collecting them, he's reminded that he only has a few days to put together a 15-minute slideshow from the past four years. Well, he had long forgotten that he was elected class historian, and when Frankie won't help him, he tries to get out of it. [elected class historian in like second grade and doing it for four years is ridiculous!]

ABC/Michael Ansell

However, the Vice Principal is quite adamant that he do a great job. [her threats were funny but ridiculous.] In the end, he presents a blank slideshow and encourages his classmates to picture various events that he describes. [the first two went well, but of course it all fell apart after that!]

Frankie wants to plan a graduation party for Axl, but he won't give any input, preferring to spend all of his time with his friends. But, when he is more than 30 minutes late getting home, Frankie shows up and purposefully embarrasses her son. [dang! also, the "jello sh-alad" was funny.] Mike sides with Frankie, but after Frankie wrestles Axl to the ground over the color of his socks, Mike knows that his wife is overreacting. [and we all know that athletic Axl could take his mom.] In the end, all is forgiven, Axl graduates, and, instead of a party, Mike and Frankie give Axl a car and the freedom to hang out with his friends.

Sue prepares to take her driver's license exam for the sixth time, and she is upset that nobody on her bus cares. [haha.] This time around is even harder because she has to take it in the church van instead of a car, but she is determined. [the 3 DMV examiners doing rock-scissors-paper to see who has to grade Sue was funny!] She destroys a balloon arch, drives with a mattress on the windshield, gets a flat tire, and careens through smoke, but she passes with flying colors. [good for her!]