The Middle

Meet The Hecks.Sky1 HD and Sky1 are proud to present The Middle. Welcome to the new hit comedy from the US about raising a family and lowering your expectations.
 
Meet the Hecks, an ordinary family struggling to survive life – and each other – in Middle America. Middle-aged, middle class and living in the middle of the country, a harried wife and working mother of three uses her dry wit and sense of humour to try to get her family through each day intact.  Head of the household is Frankie (Patricia Heaton from "Everybody Loves Raymond"), a hapless used-car salesperson who's recently started using a magic marker to colour her greys. As she struggles to keep her family, job and ageing body together, calamity-prone husband Mike (Neil Flynn from "Scrubs") fights to survive every hazardous day as foreman of the local quarry.
 
And then there are the kids. Axl (Charlie McDermott, Hot Tub Time Machine) is a teenage jock with discipline issues and a penchant for parading around in his underwear; Sue (Eden Sher, Weeds) is the untalented-yet-eternally-optimistic pre-teen who fails at everything with great gusto; and Brick (Atticus Shaffer) is a bona fide oddball. Despite his self-consciously cool name, Brick counts his backpack as his best friend and is described as "clinically quirky" by his teachers.
 
Talking about The Middle, Neil Flynn commented: "It was smart and relatable and I thought that this is the kind of thing I would like to do... It's funny without trying too hard and sometimes a little bit touching. I think it is almost always relatable that you might feel you know these people."
 
Patricia Heaton added that the theme of the show is: "Raising a family and lowering expectations. I think it's about that and it's about finding the joy and fulfilment in a simpler life."
 
If its popularity in the States is anything to go by, The Middle will be welcomed into the fold by Sky1 HD viewers. Described as "eccentric and funny in unexpected ways" by Entertainment Weekly, The Middle takes the traditional sitcom and tweaks it with a quirky twist. Charting the day-to-day trials of raising a family who are feeling the economic pinch, The Middle's motto is that sometimes laughter is the best way to overcome life's obstacles.