Stuck in the Middle

After the fourth episode i'm finally all in on this show. Harley's brain blazes white-hot energy throughout in a wide variety of ways, and it's such an inspiration. It's this above all that the writers need to sustain throughout the life of the series. The fact that she's a conniving liar no longer bothers me but adds to the fun, especially since she frequently loses at the end. She's just 13 after all, and wouldn't have any lessons to learn if she started out as an angel.

Jenna Ortega isn't perfect, but she more than carries the show and pours her heart into every moment. Cerina Vincent is good too in what needs to remain the second most important role.

The family isn't strictly poor, but it is limited in a way that rarely gets on TV. On most other shows, even characters who supposedly aren't rich seem to have everything they want all the time. These characters don't, and, importantly, it's depicted as _normal_ and goes by as a part of life, without undue angst. Many of the problems that are supposedly the result of being in a big family are also experienced by smaller families with less money.

The show tries hard at realism sometimes and lapses inexplicably at other times, which is fine since being too real would shut out the humor. And it's getting funnier by the episode, and of course the lack of a laugh track is so refreshing. The parts where Harley breaks the fourth wall seem too frequent and often repeat what's already known, but maybe younger viewers need the extra exposition.

Too often intelligence is shown as being done the "right" way by the "right" people, and too many "be different" messages are really "be different in the same way as everyone else". The character of Harley is legitimately breaking it all down.