TV Question: “The Middle” Has an Episode Featuring a Social Worker. Is the Portrayal On Point?
QUESTION: The way the public perceives social workers is often shaped by the entertainment media. Video clips of the episode no longer appear to be available but here’s the synopsis. You can leave your comments below.
"The Middle" stars Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn. Photo courtesy of ABC.
“The Middle” is a Wednesday night ABC comedy about a family living in middle American town. Tonights’ episode at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time involves a social worker. According to a Web report, Mom Frankie (Patricia Heaton) accidentally hits her youngest son with a beer bottle while racing to get the garbage to a trash truck. Her son shares this incident at school, which leads to a social worker visit.
| Leave A CommentAdvertisement
4 Comments
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Watched the show. It’s a comedy so you have to cut it some slack. But why are social workers always portrayed as monsters who can come in an break up a home? Oh, but it was funny watching the family preparing for Ms. Berry’s visit. Putting out a Bible? Oh, brother. That doesn’t fool anyone LOL.
It was a cute episode and the social worker was professional, well-dressed, pretty and perky. At least she looked better than Mariah Carey in Precious.
It’s just a comedy…relax everybody
Yes, it’s a comedy. But comedy is always grounded in some sort of reality, and often, is a direct violation of expected social norms. We laugh at things because it is not what we were expecting. The reason this passes as comedy is because the social worker role depicted here is NOT the social norm that people recognize. Instead of being a disparaging depiction of social workers, in the context of a comedy that purposefully violates social norms, it’s actually a compliment to the field of social work. People in general have a sense of what social work is supposed to be about, and they recognize this clip as a violation of those norms, and subsequently, they laugh. If it were portrayed as a serious documentary, then, yes, I’d think a social worker commenting about a past relationship with a client in the presence of the clients’ spouse would not be a fair characterization of the social work profession.