r/themiddle • u/pinksweatpants • 13h ago

Episode Review S7E2 Brick

First time watcher and still only halfway through this episode.... but gosh this is a REALLY hard watch. I want to turn it off every time Frankie and Mike are on screen with Brick. I get that it’s a comedy and everything’s exaggerated for TV, but honestly their behavior this episode felt like straight up neglect and abusive.

Is it really okay to ask a 13 year old to let you not parent for a few months because you just sent your daughter to college?! Like I get Sue leaving is a lukewarm deal (not big because she isn't Axl obviously!!!!!!!!!) but Brick is under their roof and a MINOR. He asked to be fed and they just did not care.

Ya ya ya we all know deep down they love their kids and show up when it matters but I didn’t get any of that this time so it just felt really sad.

I’m usually a Frankie apologist (Mike is the WOAT and I will die on this hill - no further questions please) but they took their nonchalance to a really uncomfortable extreme here. I'm sure the ep is going to end with a lesson learned by Frankie (never Mike!) and she'll show appreciation for Brick but the bad taste in my mouth will linger.

2 Upvotes

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9

u/mattpsu79 13h ago

In isolation this episode doesn’t bother me, but if you’re binging the series, it follows relatively close of the heels of S6E15 where they forget Brick’s birthday and he asks for a day to just share his interests and they cannot tolerate it , then Frankie straight-up lashes out at him for being so weird. When you view those episodes so closely together it is a bit jarring just how badly they treat him.

2

u/pinksweatpants 13h ago

Exactly!!! They constantly forget about him and I get the trope for the most part. Ultimately I find that most of the things Brick does (aside from the ticks) that they dislike about him are direct results of their neglect and he is just screaming for attention!

4

u/mrsredfast 11h ago

All I know is our youngest kid was the only one of our four who got to eat pop tarts for breakfast.

2

u/Marvel_573 12h ago

Yes! Exactly, I hate the parents for this, both are too lazy to parent, and tbh, sue was a good kid, you would not get tired of her too much. It was such a silly reason to neglect brick.

1

u/IamTheMan85 8h ago

Comedy show. -shrug-