The Middleman

Am I the only one who saw and liked the pilot episode (last night, Family Channel)? Sort of a Men-in-Black-in-a-superhero-universe setup, played with deadpan humor (and constant comics references, not all of which are mainstream).

 

I couldn't finish it.

I found it to be that bad.

 

There's already a thread on this in the general TV & Media board, although it really belongs in this forum. Hopefully it will be moved here and merged with this one.

 

I did to, it was stunningly horrible.

That's never going to happen. There has been Jericho topics everywhere because the mods don't know what to do.

 

The main character is hot, that's a plus.

 

I enjoyed it, thought it was so gosh durned funny

 

I fail to see how that follows. Jericho is a show that's hard to define as either genre or non-genre, since it's about a premise that, while unreal, is rooted entirely in known possibilities. It's ambiguous enough that a case could be made for placing it in either category. But The Middleman is blatantly, aggressively a fantasy show, so much so that I'm astonished anyone could've thought a thread for it belonged in TV & Media instead of here.

 

Cute and charming. I liked it a lot. Natalie Morales is really cute despite what those evolutionary throwbacks over at the AICN talkback said about her. Frakkin' losers.

 

I'm watching it finally.
I think it's a lot of fun. I love the pace, the comic book references, and quite frankly, that it's not taking itself too seriously.

 

I didn't like the comics, and some of the dialogue was lifted verbatim but the show had a surreal charm.

 

My understanding is that a great deal of it was, or at least that the show is remarkably faithful to the comics. After all, Grillo-Marxuach originally wrote this as a TV pilot, then adapted it into a comics story, and now has gone back and shot what's essentially his original pilot script.

 

I saw part of it last night - loved the lead, liked the cast, thought it was too cute by half and had a very "Disney Channel" feeling to it.

I miss "Special Unit 2," especially Carl...

 

It makes me miss Jake 2.0, but nevertheless, I like it a lot. My friends don't seem to get it , but I'm looking forward to tonight's episode.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3e-2uOWZCQ

 

Did anyone see last nights?
I thought it was alright, but didn't have some of the elements of the pilot that pulled me in.
The pilot had velocity with dialogue to match and really didn't have a "moral."
Whereas this one: Wendy learns a lesson.
So, meh. But I'm still curious.

 

I'm afraid this week's episode didn't impress me as much as the pilot. It had less of the mile-a-minute snarky goofiness of the pilot and more conventional character interplay stuff that just kinda bored me. The whole business with Lacey the roommate, not to mention its pat resolution, was very sitcommy. Also, the dialogue wasn't especially witty.

With one exception -- I loved the Middleman's line about protecting the Earth from "all threats extra-, infra-, and juxtaterrestrial." Juxtaterrestrial! Which is even a valid Latin formation -- "close beside the Earth." (As in parallel realities, no doubt.) That's my new favorite word. We should all try to use it frequently so it'll catch on. I also liked "I just had an atypically vivid daydream."

Also, Natalie Morales' lack of strength as an actress is starting to show. Her dry, deadpan delivery was fine for last week's attitude-heavy script, but when she was called on to express relationship angst about her roommate or her father, it just wasn't convincing. (Plus, that "official" hairstyle just doesn't look good on her.)

And already the limitations of the low budget are starting to manifest. The "Terra Cotta Warrior" was just some guy in armor with clay-like gloves, a very cheap effect; they couldn't even be bothered to paint his face and armor to look like terra cotta. And the CG transformation/mud effects were awfully crude. Plus we get a generic office lobby set as the underworld. Even SciFi's Flash Gordon had better production values than this. I'm afraid this is going to hurt the show in the long run. Or keep it from having a long run.