Every Wednesday night for the last nine years, we have turned on our TVs and flipped to ABC, anxiously awaiting those familiar words, "out here in the middle". Invested in the Heck's lives as much as we invested in our own, we laughed when Sue innocently mistook herself as a Native American on her college forms, cringed during Brick's first kiss with Cindy, cried when Axl accepted a new job in Colorado, and felt for Mike and Frankie along the way. This all came to a halt this past May when ABC's hit show aired the season nine finale, serving as the final chapter in the lives of the Hecks. Or maybe not?
A week ago, ABC officially announced that a spinoff show is in the works. A pilot has already been ordered for a spinoff of the widely popular show, set to focus on the life of Eden Sher's bubbly and optimistic character, Sue. While it takes years or even decades to get the green light for show reboots or spinoffs, "The Middle" fans have only experienced a summer vacation and have returned back with the prospects of more Heck chaos in their lives. Sounds great, how could there possibly be a problem with that you might ask? Well, the show already has an ending.
In the final scene of season nine, writers of "The Middle" surprised fans everywhere by flashing forward well over ten years into the future. Axl is a businessman by day, father by night. Sue is a newlywed to her longtime love interest and next-door neighbor, Sean Donahue, and Brick has found a lucrative career as a writer. The fates of our favorite characters were predetermined for us, leaving no wiggle room for speculation, but more importantly, not much wiggle room for a spinoff.
It seems odd that the talented writer's of "The Middle" would choose to end the show with a flash forward if they already had it in their minds that there would even be a potential possibility of a reboot or a spinoff. With last week's news of ABC's ordered pilot, we know that that the show has been a thought for many months now. If the show gets picked up for the first season, it has been stated that it will follow Sue after college, but before she settles down with Sean, something that would not have to have been decided if the writers had omitted the final flash forward.
I think that there would have undoubtedly been more room to experiment with the characters as well as their journey into adulthood if the endpoint had not been predetermined before the show has even begun. Maybe Sue would have found somebody other than Sean, maybe Brick would have made a complete transformation, maybe Mike and Frankie would have hit it big at a casino. These are all things that could have easily been explored but will never be able to be without falsifying the original.
With this in mind, is the spinoff even worth watching if we already know the ending? Will the writers have enough material to sustain multiple seasons? Will viewers tune in to watch?
There are many questions begging to be answered about the spinoff. The only thing we know for sure, it will be one heck of a ride.
