The Middle: Season 4

In the fourth season of what some consider to be one of TV's most under-appreciated series, the beleaguered Heck family faces some very real life changes and rites of passage. Wife Frankie (Patricia Heaton) loses her job at the car dealership, daughter Sue (Eden Shur) desperately tries to get her driver's license, and surly son Axl (Charlie McDermott) enters his senior year with chances for a college football scholarship endangered by a broken foot. But perhaps taking its cue from Seinfeld, there is little character growth here. The pathetically clueless Sue still reacts to everything with unbridled enthusiasm, Frankie and husband Mike (Neil Flynn) still consider themselves “awesome parents who care,” Brick (Atticus Shaffer) develops even more unsettling quirks, and Axl continues to be the thoughtless entitled son from hell. The Middle is essentially a cross between Roseanne and Malcolm in the Middle—not as bleak as the former, but also more grounded than the latter. Still, no matter how “real” it gets (Sue finds one of her father's paychecks and realizes the family's desperate financial situation), most episodes manage to end with a sliver of hope or a poignant moment. Memorable guest stars this season include a very game Brooke Shields as a hostile, white trash neighbor; Pawn Stars proprietor Rick Harrison as a bemused pawn store owner; Dave Foley as Brick's guidance counselor; Norm MacDonald back as Mike's feckless brother; and Jane Kaczmarek as a hard-nosed dental school teacher who has it in for student Frankie. The Hecks are still making the best of bad situations in this sharply written and intimately observed series. Presenting all 23 episodes (one a two-parter) from the 2012-13 fourth season, this is recommended. (D. Liebenson)