Wednesday, September 03, 2008

ABC Family's "The Middleman"

It is way, way too late for this post as I'm not sure there are even any episodes left for this show in its first season.

But that doesn't mean I won't give it a League salute, anyway.



The Middleman is about our hero, Wendy Watson, who has been recruited as the sidekick for an operative who stands as "The Middleman" between humanity and the bizarre and arcane forces at work to destroy/ conquer/ hassle the world. Wendy's artist roommate from her pre-Middle-life, and the various artists sharing her illegal sublet are also all main and recurring characters. As well as The Middleman's robotic assistant, Ida.

The League has to give the show the highest marks.

Leads Matt Keeslar and Natalie Morales are both great in their respective roles as The Middleman (no other name is given) and Wendy Watson. Keeslar's Middleman is an outdated brand of milk drinking, profanity-eschewing guy in the white hat, while Morales's Dub-Dub is dead-pan perfect no matter how bizarre the threat.

The bottom-line in development for the show is: fun.

Wendy and The Middleman pose as employees of "The Jolly Fats Wehawkins Temp Agency", a job so dull sounding that nobody is really that interested in what they actually do. And meanwhile spin improbable identities to investigate the various sites effected by the paranormal.

Whether facing down zombie-fish, alien invaders posing as boy bands, or cursed hand puppets, nobody really takes things too seriously. What shouldn't work about the show, but does, is the ongoing subplots, from Wendy Watson's roommate falling for her boss, to the annoying son of the landlord, Pip... it all hangs together in a way unique for any show.

Sure, it helps if you have a background rich in sci-fi, comics, action movies, etc... And can catch the rapidfire delivery of throw-away pop references.


Mary Pat Gleason as Ida is pretty awesome

Anyhow, you crew seem like the sort of folks this show is aimed at, and I'd love to see the program get another season. So help me out and watch the show, too.

Look for it on ABC Family on Monday evenings.

3 comments:

mcsteans said...

Last week was the season finale, sadly. Maybe they'll rerun it?

Sleestak said...

I found the early episodes unwatchable, but it quickly got better in execution. The season finale was great.

Michael Corley said...

I stumbled across this by accident, and called it good.