Its been a strong year for new genre shows from the States. Granted, some didn’t survive their first season, but still Journeyman, Terminator and Chuck have all been really solid offerings.
Coming a bit later than the others is The Middleman, originally conceived as a television show, before being launched as a comic series, things have come full circle with the show finally being made.
Wendy Watson is enjoying a normal day at her temp job at the genetics factory when a monster escapes from the lab and attacks her. She tries to fend it off but is rescued by a mysterious man, who goes on to recruit her as his new assistant. It turns out that the kind of alien warlords and insane scientists that comic books love also exist in real life, and its his job to stop them. He’s supplied with an impressive array of advanced technology, but he doesn’t know where it comes from. He’s just the Middleman.
This is a brilliant show. Daft as a brush and not afraid to show it. The show follows Wendy as she goes into training to become the next Middleman, working alongside the current one. This involves her dealing with the aforementioned insane scientists and alien warlords, as well as dealing with the impact her new job has on her personal life (her friends think she’s working for a temp agency), while receiving training from the likes of Sensei Ping in the art of being a Middleman.
If I had to compare this show to another, its probably the closest (and most successful) we’ll get to an American version of the Avengers. There’s a very similar vibe coming off of it (although this show played more for straight out laughs than the Avengers was).
Definitely one to check out. I hope this enjoys a long run.
Tags: Television, The Middleman
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This is just mental. Great stuff, from all the wee side jokes like the random times and scene descriptions and bonkers plots, great fun, and think about it, its been ages since we’ve had a good family series from teh US, its generally been teen angst or dark and gritty.
That’s kind’ve why I liked Chuck so much as well. After Galactica, so much the genre TV went down the dark route, its nice to see some shows that aren’t afraid to laugh at themselves.
It was to be expected, Galactica and Lost were pretty successful, so Dark and COmplex it was. Chuck is a little more grown up but Middleman, and of course our home grown Dr WHo are solid fun for all the family.
As an extra, one show that definitely wasn’t Dark and Gritty was Puching Dasies, pretty much the antithis of dark & Gritty.
Never actually watched that, although I heard good things about it.
One reason I’ve thought Doctor Who has been such a success is because in these days of “its a kiddie programme” or “its a dark, gritty, adult programme”, Dr Who is unafraid to be a fun, runaround family programme.
One that’ll be interesting to see will be the new Knight Rider later this month. Its definitely going to need to capture that sense of fun if its going to work I think, and the trailers have been looking promising (although I’m still not sold on the new attack mode).
Its my hope as well, you hear worrying rumbles that this will be “Character driven” and whatnot, I like character drama, but Knight Rider should be about a bloke with a talking car foiling plots which almost always need a car to jump over something.