It has arrived, the penultimate episode of my favorite series of the year, The Middleman has graced our HDTV’s and old fashioned boob tubes, and boy does it go out with a bang. Back at Comic-Con Middleman-mastermind Javier Grillo-Marxuach let slip the title and plot of the finale, and when I heard that it was called The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome, and it took place in a mirror universe a la Star Trek (goatees and all) my love for sci-fi comedy gem was sealed instantly. What a brilliant premise, and a great way to play with some of the most classic sci-fi cliches, which is one of the things Middleman does best. In the Middle-verse Fatboy rules with an iron fist, the Middleman is a Snake Plissken rip-off, Nozer totes a shotgun, and Tyler is the deceseased former Middleboy. This easily could be my favorite episode of the series, perfect to get newcomers into the the show, and a shinging example of great television. If The Middleman doesn’t come back, I will loose faith in media all together. Yeah, it’s that good. MORE »
As we approach the end of the first, and most hopefully not last, season of the glorious gem known as The Middleman Javi and the gang continue to show us how unbelievably talented they are. As I said last time, the latter half of The MIddleman’s first season has been significantly deeper and more character-focused. That trend continues as we get to “The Clotharian Contamination Protocol”, the second to last episode of the season. And this week builds up to what looks to be one hell of a finale, introducing us to our main villain, Manservant Neville, as played by Mark Sheppard! Now Sheppard is no stranger to us Battlestar Galactica fans, where he played the suave and infinitely clever lawyer Romo Lampkin earlier this season. He also had a brief stint on Whedon’s Firefly as the conniving criminal ‘Badger’. With his wit and awesome accent he melds perfectly into the Middle-verse. And next week’s season finale is shaping up to the most brilliant episode of the series so far. MORE »
I had the pleasure of meeting Javi (the creator of Middleman) on the Comic-Con show floor. He gave and fellow Nerdgasmic blogger Sam Siskind some tidbits on upcoming episodes, and just from those quick one line synopsis I was amazed at how the show was evolving. This week brings us “The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation” where Wendy must infiltrate a haunted sorority and the Middleman is possessed by a sorority sister mad scientist. Javi and crew continue to impress me, every week brings another brilliant mix of sci-fi and comic book action/adventure on a shoestring budget. Matt Keeslar and Natalie Morales are brilliant as always, and Natalie really got to flush out Wendy’s character (like Matt got to do in last week’s Titanic tuba episode). But some of the real charm this week comes from Brendan Hines as Tyler (back from the Luciador episode) and Louis the ghost interpreter. They help give the episode an added level of charm and cleverness. MORE »
ABC Family, for some reason, picked up the comic book series The Middleman and hired the writer of the comics, Javier Grillo-Marxuach to pen the new show. The MIddleman turns out to be some serious super hero fun, but I can’t help but feel it would be better suited on the Sci-Fi Channel. The show follows the adventures of the milk drinking wise cracking Middleman played by Matt Keeslar, and his sidekick Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales).