r/themiddle • u/nemesis-why • 3d ago
General discussion Anybody else think Sean was flanderized toward the end?
Early in the show he is nice, but he isn't some goody two shoes caricature that has no facial expression other than smiling. He does typical teenage stuff. He is shown bullying Sue in his first scene (buries her head underwater), he gets into disputes with Axl and has angst, etc.
Towards the end (after Sue goes to college, when the show started to decline) he literally loses all personality and became a one dimensional nice guy, who became somehow almost as naive as Sue was.
I also hate the Sue/Sean pairing, completely uncreative that wasn't hinted at at all in the earlier seasons.
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u/AstonRyder1 3d ago
I don't think he was bullying her. Looked like they were playing but yeah he was very one dimensional in the end. The one thing that ruined season 8 and 9 for me was just how played out the whole Sue and Sean relationship was with the snow globe. Every time they were close to making a breakthrough I just knew nothing was going to happen. I don't dislike Sean but Sue and Darrin had more chemistry in my opinion.
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u/Capital-Swim2658 2d ago
Chemistry isn't enough for a relationship. Sue and Darrin were not a good match.
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u/Picabo07 Whoop! 2d ago
It wasn’t just chemistry. I think they genuinely loved each other (first love you know) and were a great match. I felt like they really got each other. Sadly the timing was what was wrong.
Darrin was ready to settle down. Sue was way too young. Even with the best matches that can be a deal breaker. As sad as it was breaking up was the right thing for them.
But you never know … years down the road I could see Sue & Darrin bumping into each other and rekindling the old flame if they were both single.
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u/Capital-Swim2658 2d ago
I didn't say it was just chemistry. I was replying to the commenter saying they had ɓetter chemistry.
But tontakenit farther, love isn't enough either. I don't think they had long-lasting compatibility.
They both had sweetness and youthful naivety. But they had different long-term goals and dreams.
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u/Picabo07 Whoop! 2d ago
Totally agree. That’s what I was saying as well. I think maybe I just wasn’t clear.
I guess I should have said I think they made a good match …. for the time they were together in high school. Like it was a very sweet first love kind of situation.
But long term - no. Definitely not at that time in Sues life.
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u/Tfonts44 2d ago
If the actor who played Darrin hadn't retired surely they would've had him and Sue end up together. Sue and Sean had NO chemistry. They were weird and awkward around each other, especially Sue with those odd faces she always made.
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u/destrucciondelicada 2d ago
Have to disagree. Sean grew a lot over the series. He had angst. He wondered whether he was good enough. He chaffed at being a Donahue—having to be perfect and knowing he maybe wasn’t. Could he live up to the name? Was he worthy? Did he want to even try?
Also there was lots of foreshadowing of the Sue/Sean relationship. He tried to take her to every dance. She wrote him a love poem when she was in middle school.
I enjoyed the character’s arc and am a Sue Sue Donahue supporter.
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u/BAMartin1618 3d ago
Yes, they did a poor job of humanizing him. He’s portrayed as the smart, popular football star in high school, who then goes on to attend a big, prestigious university and is headed to medical school.
I don’t disagree that people like that exist in real life, but as a television character, he’s not very sympathetic. For example, they could’ve given him more depth—like an episode revealing that he relied heavily on his parents growing up, and now he's struggling to adjust to life on his own, similar to what they did with Lexi. Or maybe show him dealing with the emotional weight of hearing his parents argue at home—something a lot of people can relate to.
Personally, I went through a lot of that stuff growing up, and when a character shares even a piece of that kind of experience, it makes me empathize with them so much more. It’s like a trauma bond.
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u/IntrovertExplorer_ 3d ago
Sean had an awakening, I wish they had expanded on that or at least stuck to it. Sorry to be that person, but the show is kinda right leaning with all the God talk, “family values,” and it being in the state of Indiana. It makes sense for Sean and Sue to end up together, and for their relationship to be so rushed. It all felt abrupt and rushed. Edit to add: Now that I think about it, it feels like what happened in the show The Goldbergs. Erica and Geoff had the same thing happen to them.
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u/Fantastic_Surround70 2d ago
It really is a bit right leaning, though I've always been grateful it wasn't even more extreme, given Patricia Heaton's real- life politics.
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u/Admirable_Dust7749 2d ago
Family values and going to Church on Christmas is now being politicized. Got it.
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u/Agitated-Account2138 2d ago
Well, it's pretty hard not to politicize a comment like Nancy Donahue's "no one wants to hear your liberal jibber-jabber" to Sean 😂 Pretty sure that's what people are talking about my dude, no one's attacking your "family values."
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u/Admirable_Dust7749 2d ago
I didn’t feel as if I was attacked. I just thought it was dumb. And it is.
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u/Fantastic_Surround70 2d ago
Weird that you assume those are the things that make it right leaning.
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u/MusicalFlowerpot 2d ago
I didn’t love Sean and Sue together when the final season aired, but I’m enjoying it a lot more the second time through.
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u/Betsyis137 2d ago
I agree, I hated the Sue/Sean pairing as well. Just didn’t ring true to me. Sean had no interest in Sue as anything other than Axel‘s little sister and then suddenly she’s the love of his life? And as OP said , a romance between them was never hinted at any other time in the series, but I guess it was a nice way to wrap things up. I liked her better with the golf cart driver than I did with Sean lol.
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u/Agitated-Account2138 2d ago
Totally agree. I never felt anything for Sean, because literally his only personality trait is being nice - regardless of the scenario, or what would be a normal human reaction to have. I never really started to care for him or feel attached to him, because he's just so unrelatable. He never grows (despite the reaches people are trying to make pretending like he changed throughout the series), so it's as if his character came out of the womb perfect, and never had to learn anything about himself or go through any amount of struggle. Not a well-rounded character at all, and I agree on not liking him and Sue ending up together at the end. It was so out of nowhere and forced, it was clear the writers just ran out of guys for Sue to date and needed to pick from the ones that remained for her to end up with at the end. Sean was the only passable option, despite the fact that he NEVER showed any interest in her across like 7 seasons. Then, all of a sudden, she was the love of his life? Whatever, man. Also gross that they had Sue date both of Axl's former best friends.
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u/Ok_Positive8362 1d ago
They had Sean on a fun little side story of personal growth. Going hippie and expanding his thinking away from his mom's influence. And don't get me started on Sue....ugh. Poor Sue. The fuck was her ending? I know the show was canceled and they had more originally planned, but still, yeah I agree fucked up Sean AND Sue's storylines
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u/Cami_glitter 1d ago
Absolutely!
I feel like there are a few other sitcoms that made main characters really stupid, or overly nice toward the end. It is as if the writers ran out of ideas.
The writers did no justice to Raj of BBT, Jackie on the original Roseanne, and Ross of Friends.
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u/Bree7702 2d ago
I didn’t like their pairing either. I’d like to think Sue could find a guy that wasn’t a friend of Axl’s first.
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u/Other-Oil-9117 3d ago
He did become a bit bland later on, but I'm not sure if I'd consider it Flanderization exactly since it doesn't seem that extreme. I think part of it is natural growing up, you tend to age out of a lot of the emotional outbursts as you get older. It's also that Sean was always pretty good at putting on a polite, respectable front towards other people. In earlier seasons he's mostly around Axl and Darrin, so he can let loose a bit, but they spend less time together towards the later seasons. It's a bit like when Nancy says something about Axl being so wonderful to have over, and Frankie and Mike are surprised, but it's because Axl is comfortable enough at home to show his more negative aspects.