TV tonight: 'The Middle,' 'Thorne,' 'Big Bang'

By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Posted June 12, 2012

•Start tonight with a typically funny outing of The Middle (ABC, 8 ET/PT) that finds Brick working as the world's worst paperboy, much to the disgust of the paper's editor — played by the great Ed Asner.

Still, as amusing as the main plot is, the subplot may be even funnier, as the family struggles to prepare the eternally optimistic Sue for the obvious impending end of her long-distance relationship.

•Encore offers the conclusion of its British import Thorne ( 9 ET/PT), starring The Walking Dead's David Morrissey.

Tonight, he's joined by a familiar and very welcome American co-star: Grey's Anatomy's Sandra Oh.

•Some repeats are so good, they're worth watching whenever they pop back up — like the classic Christmas gift outing from the second season of The Big Bang Theory (TBS, 9:30 ET/PT).

If you've ever wondered why people rave over Jim Parsons as Sheldon, watch his comic tour de force at the end of the outing, as he cycles from smug certainty to confusion to ecstatic collapse.

It's the performance that won him that year's Television Critic's Association's Individual Achievement in Comedy Award.