The Middle

The Middle on ABC is about a middle class family dealing with the struggles of the standard American family. The show often gets overshadowed by ABC's money maker, Modern Family. Contrary to popular opinion, I much prefer the Middle.

My entire family loves The Middle. We watch it all the time, and sometimes quote it even. It is filmed like a typical sitcom, but the characters and the narrative are so strong, that the show is downright hilarious.

The Heck family has three kids, Sue, Axl, and Brick, and they all have completely different personalities. Axl is the jock, Brick is the book worm, and Sue is the optimist. Their personalities are exaggerated to the point that they are almost like caricatures. This could make the show cheesy, but the writers play it off well.

The thing I like the most about the show is that each episode can stand on its own and be funny whenever you watch it. You can skip a whole season and still understand the plot. Also you can re-watch episodes and catch jokes that you didn't get the first time.

Skins

Recently, I have been re-watching the British show Skins with one of my friends. I have already seen the entire series, but I have been enjoying watching it for a second time because there are a lot of things that I did not notice the first time around. 

The show revolves around a group of teens that go to a local College. The show tells stories of growing up and the problems that life brings us. Some story lines include eating disorders, pregnancy, death, and relationships. The show is a lot like my favorite show, Degrassi, however it is made for a more mature audience. 

One big way that Skins differs from any show I have seen is that it covers controversial subject matter without going into a moral-of-the-story sort of set up. The show seems to have a running theme that life is dark sometimes but that is just the way it is. The characters live a very extravagant lifestyle, with lots of partying and irresponsible behavior, but they are never represented in a negative light because of this behavior. 

The show is set up in three generations. Each generation has two seasons. The show does one thing very well, and that is developing characters. By the end of each generation you are sad to see the characters go. At the beginning of each generation, I found myself struggling to get used to the new characters because each batch is so different from the rest. But in the end you grow to appreciate each character. You love some and you hate some,  but they are so developed that you recognize the beauty behind them no matter what. If you are looking for an addicting TV show, Skins is definitely a show to watch. 

Glee Says Goodbye

With the series finale of Glee on last Friday night, Glee has officially come to an end. While the series has seen its ups and its downs, it is still sad to see it be over.

The final episode "Dreams Come True" showed all of our beloved characters of McKinley High in five years time. Rachel is a Tony award winning actress. Sue is running for president. Kurt and Blaine and Santana and Brittney are happily married. Mr. Schue is the principal of McKinley High School for Performing Arts.  Sam took over his place coaching the New Directions, and Mercedes is on tour with Beyonce. Everyone has achieved their dreams and are happy with the direction that life took them.

In the final moments of the episode, everyone came back to dedicate the auditorium to Cory Monteith's character, Finn Hudson. This was one last tribute to the deceased cast mate. In this scene, every past Glee character was back to sing One Republics song "I Lived." This gave viewers sentimental feelings of time gone by and old friends uniting.

It was nice to see that the show got a proper se
nd off. The last few seasons have not been to the standard of Glee's glory days. However, the show has a very strong group of fans who have an emotional connection with the characters. In many ways, seeing each characters success in this episode was like seeing an old friend after years apart. These characters have been on our screens for years, and we have rooted for them sense the beginning, so this was the best ending that Glee could have given us.

From YouTube to TV

Popular You Tuber, Grace Helbig, has recently announced that next month she will have her own television show on E! Creatively named The Grace Helbig Show, the show will premiere Friday, April 3rd, at 10:30 p.m.

The show will be an unconventional talk show. Helbig will host guests at random locations rather than in the typical studio setting. E! mentions potential sites such as grocery stores, cars, and Helbig's own home.

With millions of subscribers on her YouTube channel, Helbig no doubt knows how to capture an audience. Her videos consists or her special brand of sarcastic comedy. It will be interesting to see how her usual content is changed to be broadcast through a different medium.

YouTube celebrities are becoming more and more popular in pop culture today. Who knows, TV might be the next big thing for You Tubers to conquer. With such a large teen demographic, television networks are smart to take advantage of YouTube as a potential market.

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Tyler Hoechlin No Longer a Teen Wolf Regular

It was recently announced that "Teen Wolf's" Tyler Hoechlin will not be coming back as a series regular for the upcoming fifth season. Hoechlin portrays Derek Hale, the experienced former Alpha, who has spent the past four seasons as Scott's mentor.

However, just because Hoechlin is no longer a series regular, this doesn't mean that we have seen the last of Derek Hale. Creator, Jeff Davis told MTV that he and Hoechlin have already discussed upcoming plots involving Derek. We can expect to see appearances of the grouchy werewolf in future seasons, but he will no longer play as large as a part on an episode to episode basis.

After Hoechlin's recent experience in an indie film, the actor has decided that it is time to move on from "Teen Wolf" and work on other projects, like so many of his fellow cast mates. Colten Haynes (Jackson), Crystal Reed (Alison), and Daniel Sharman (Isaac) have also left the cast with similar reasons.

The biggest concern that I have with Hoechlin's departure is that he will take a part of the value of the show with him. After Alison and Issac left, season 4 fell short of the fan's expectations. Loosing a actor that is such a fan favorite really takes a hit at a show's ratings.

The fact is that the original cast of "Teen Wolf" and the cast that we will see in the next season are barely the same thing. This is a natural thing for a TV show. However, it is hard for fans to see a show go on without the characters that they first fell in love with.

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Binge Watching "Weeds"

At the request of my friends, I spent the last few weeks binge walking the Showtime series, "Weeds." Weeds is about a recently widowed suburban mom who becomes a drug dealer in order to support her family. The show focuses around around Nancy, her sons Silas and Shane, and her brother in law Andy.

At first, I was hesitant to watch the show, but after a few episodes I was hooked. I was completely attached to the characters, and I had to see it through to see if they ever solved all their problems. Of coarse, that never really happened. Just when you thought that Nancy couldn't get her family in any more trouble she would get involved with yet another gang that wanted to kill her.

The first couple seasons are no doubt the best. I like the dynamic of the show when the family lives in Agrestic. When they move away, the plots become more and more intertwined and more and more unrealistic. However, the characters are so lovable that you continue to watch.

As the show progressed, I found myself getting annoyed with Nancy as a character. It is completely her fault why the family wound up where they did. She would always comment about how she had no other choice but to be a drug dealer, but she had dozens of opportunities to get out throughout the series.

Andy and Silas were often the only shining light in the plot lines. I could always rely on them to make the episode funny and entertaining with all Nancy's drama spiraling around them. My biggest disappointment in the series is how Shane turned out. He seemed have got the brunt of Nancy's mistakes. While Silas and Andy were resilient and were able to bounce back, Shane seemed to fall further and further into the abyss.

At the closing of the series, I found that the finale wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be. I think that it focused too much about unimportant characters. It attempted to bring back nostalgic feeling from all the seasons past, but it dropped the ball on a few key characters. It may have been due to availability, but there were some actors that didn't come back that I really would have liked to see.

Modern Family Goes Apple

Last week's Modern Family episode was filmed entirely using apple products. The episode took place from the screen of Claire's Mac Book. The episode featured FaceTime conferences with the rest of the family, scrolls down Claire's Facebook wall, and iMessage chats between the characters.

While watching the episode, I couldn't help but feel that it was just a super extensive Apple commercial. I like the uniqueness of the concept, however, I felt that the show was shoving Apple down my throat. Also, the rapid shifts from different media sources proved to be nauseating when watching the show on a large screen.

I would have liked the episode more if the FaceTime clips would have switched to take up the whole screen while the characters where communicating. Instead, Claire would be doing other things on her desktop while the video only took up a small portion of the screen. I found this to be distracting. Had Claire not been multitasking so frequently, it would limited the amount of stimuli that the viewer was forced to take in while watching the episode.

Overall, the episode had themes of technology complicating our lives. On one hand, it showed off all the cool things that you can do with Apple products. But on the other hand, it showed how in the end, the technology only caused unnecessary drama. I think that the writers meant this as a commentary on our society's internet habits.

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