"The Middle" is the New "Breakfast Club"

The Breakfast Club is perhaps the most iconic film about teenage life, and as such it has many imitators.  Movies like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and the documentary American Teen have been called modern versions of the John Hughes classic.  Little did anyone expect that the true heir to The Breakfast Club would come not as a highly buzzed about melodrama, but as a sitcom that no one watches.

Patricia Heaton may narrate and play the lead role in The Middle, but it is usually her young co-stars who steal the show.  Heaton's Frankie Heck is mother to three children: Axl, Sue, and Brick, played by Charlie McDermott, Eden Sher and Atticus Shaffer respectively .  Axl is the oldest child, an athlete and popular student who coasted through his high school education until his recent move to college, similar to Emilio Estevez's Andrew with bits of Molly Ringwald's Claire.  Sue is the middle child, and as such often goes neglected by her family and is all but invisible to her fellow students, much like Ally Sheedy's Allison.  However, Sue is far from the cynical loner that Allison is.  Sue is much more passionate than Allison; she is a dedicated student and eagerly desires to improve her social status, traits she shares with Anthony Michael Hall's Brian.  The youngest Heck child Brick, who is just beginning to enter his teen years, also shares traits with both Allison and Brian.  He is intelligent like Brian, known to constantly have his nose buried in a book.  He is also a social outcast like Allison, even more so than his sister.  While Sue goes unnoticed for what her peers perceive to be mediocrity, Brick is looked down on for his quirks.  He whispers to himself and woops for no known reason.  The only archetype seen in the Club who doesn't make an appearance in The Middle is the tortured rebel, John, who was played by Judd Nelson, probably because he's in prison.

I don't like it anymore than you do, but let's give credit where credit is due.

He called his shot and Bendet got the horns.

The appeal of The Breakfast Club isn't just the familiar traits of the characters, but their complexity, and the sincerity of the actors who portrayed them.  The world of The Middle is more comedically heightened than The Breakfast Club, and as such the characters are more caricatured.  Nevertheless, they retain some of that same complexity and even more of the sincerity.  As exaggerated and cartoonish as things like Sue's happy dance may be, her utter joy at finally succeeding after countless failures rings true to life in a different but equally affecting way than anything in The Breakfast Club.

She pulled the elephant's trunk and the light came on.

The biggest difference between The Middle and The Breakfast Club is that in the former the parents receive just as much screentime as their children, if not more.  This only serves to further one of The Breakfast Club's central themes; that all people, regardless of any and all differences, should be seen as fully human.  While it is normal for teenagers to see their parents as foes and that is likely one of the reasons for The Breakfast Club's longevity, the reality is that more often than not parents have their children's best interests at heart.  The Middle has its share of generational battles as well, but the view points of both sides are shown with near equal regard.

Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of The Breakfast Club touching the hearts and minds of the young and the young at mind.  The Middle is entering its sixth season even though, as previously mentioned, no one seems to actually watch it.

Why don't we give another Emmy to Jim Parsons?  He's earned it.