The Middleman

[Guy Gardener]

I just reviewed the episode. "Commander Benton".

Sargent Benton of U.N.I.T. fame hung out with the 2nd and third Doctor.

James Herriot wrote the vetrinarian books which led to the BBC drama All Creatures great and Small which had Peter davison as a supporting cast member, who also played the 5th Doctor.

but that's a touch of a stretch.

 

[DWF]

One of the second Doctor's companion was Zoe Harriot and the famous pan galactic gargle blaster was also mentioned.

 

[Cain]

The Middleman is still in trouble. From Ask Ausiello:

Question: I was wondering if you knew anything about the renewal status of my favorite show, ABC Family's The Middleman. I hear the ratings aren't great. -- Julie
Ausiello: You heard right. As a result, it appears Middleman is on the verge of going on a permanent hiatus. Interesting factoid: I hear a lot of industry folks are really into the show and its leading lady, Natalie Morales. The feeling is she's going to be what's known as a huge-ass star.

 

[Professor Zoom]

The Middleman is still in trouble. From Ask Ausiello:

Question: I was wondering if you knew anything about the renewal status of my favorite show, ABC Family's The Middleman. I hear the ratings aren't great. -- Julie
Ausiello: You heard right. As a result, it appears Middleman is on the verge of going on a permanent hiatus. Interesting factoid: I hear a lot of industry folks are really into the show and its leading lady, Natalie Morales. The feeling is she's going to be what's known as a huge-ass star.

It's good to hear that people are really into the show...but...it sucks to hear about the ratings.

But, then, maybe, people are watching it other ways...tivo, online (is it online?) There was a great article about Galactica and it's ratings on MSNBC.com.

Natalie may become a huge-ass star...but, I think actually Brit will be. I like Natalie, but, I have a feeling her range maybe extremely limited...and limited to sarcasm, which works for the show...but, Brit, I think she has a wider range.

 

[Neroon]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this:

Yeah, that one slipped my mind too, but it wasn't the one I meant. When MM introduced himself and Dubby to the NASA guys, he said "I'm Agent ____ and this is Agent Herriot." I didn't catch what name he used for himself.

From The Middleblog:

- "commander benton and specialist heriot" - homage by namecheck to sgt. benton of UNIT, companion to the second and third regenerations of doctor who and to zoe herriott, companion to the second doctor

And after reviewing the recording, yeah... that's what it sounds like.

 

[Christopher]

Ausiello:[/B] You heard right. As a result, it appears Middleman is on the verge of going on a permanent hiatus. Interesting factoid: I hear a lot of industry folks are really into the show and its leading lady, Natalie Morales. The feeling is she's going to be what's known as a huge-ass star.

Well, I wouldn't call it huge. Very nice, certainly, but actually rather compact.

Morales is certainly very lovely and sexy, but I'm only moderately impressed by her as an actress. I'm much more impressed by Matt Keeslar, who I think makes a fantastic comic-book hero and a very likeable leading man in general. He's the one that I feel has real star power, although it's a good ensemble overall.

I read somewhere that despite low ratings, ABC Family is very invested in this show as something they produce, and might try to sell it to another network even if the ratings don't justify continuing to show it on theirs. If a lot of industry folks are into the show and Morales, hopefully that means someone will want to pick it up if ABCF has to stop showing it.

 

[Cain]

I'd like to see Sci-Fi pick it up.

 

[Neroon]

Some marvelously cool parallel imagery this week:

And here's my vote for parallel Lacey's modified Middleman outfit. though I have yet to find a picture of it.

References caught tonight referenced:
- Galaxy Quest
- Buckaroo Bonzai
- Escape From New York (majority were here)
- Star Trek's "Mirror, Mirror"
and so much more!

Anyone notice how many goatees were being worn in the parallel universe?

The Middleblog pointed out a VERY cool, albeit extremely obscure, reference:

- the coordinates given by the middleman correspond to the constellation serpens - the snake - a VERY subtle homage to snake plissken of "escape from new york"

 

[Christopher]

They're really going all-out with the pop-culture in-jokes in this one. Most of the refs are to Escape from New York, which by coincidence I saw on AMC earlier today so I got them all. And of course there were a number of Mirror Universe refs, including the goatee on Neville and the dagger through the Fatboy emblem, aside from the overt ones. But we also get a beryllium sphere (Galaxy Quest), an oscillation overthruster (Buckaroo Banzai), and "Come with me if you want to live" (the Terminator franchise). Plus "monologuing" supervillains (The Incredibles) and a phased polaron cannon, which is a Dominion weapon from Deep Space Nine.

I didn't get the one about the movie version of The Wall, never having seen that one.

Keeslar got to show his range here. He did a good job playing a wildly different character (although he was essentially playing Snake Plissken). And he showed more than that. Both of the leads on this show are remarkably physically fit. Equal-opportunity eye candy.

It's cool that MM and Lacey got together in the MU, and I like the idea of Lacey as a Middle-Apprentice (Middlegirl?). I also like Brit Morgan better with the straight dark hair. (And the decolletage. Talk about eye candy.)

If this was the season finale, then I really, really hope there's a second season. The last two episodes set up some major stuff. The main thing of note: if the Mirror version of Manservant Neville was a good man trying to turn an evil corporation to good, what does that tell us about "our" Manservant Neville?

 

[witchie]

Went to the Middleman panel at D*C. No word yet on renewal, but the panel did suggest some things we could do. Basically, ABCFamily is looking for a reason to keep the show. We have to give them one. TPTB are looking at iTunes, HULU (because it links back to abcfamily.com), and hits to official site on abcfamily.com. The panelists also suggested contacting ABCFamily and asking about the show (renewal, marathons). Anything to let them know we love the show and want it back. Snail letters would be best because it shows more effort on the writer's part and gets through ABCFamily's filters.

About the show...

1) Nearly every ep has a theme (Die Hard, 60s shows/movies). You can find them on the Middleman blog.

2) MM's real name is revealed in the 3rd volume (comics)

3) Javi wanted Matt Keesler and didn't consider anyone else for the role.

4) Natalie was relatively unknown on TV, but she had done theatre and that got her notice.

There were questions about the comic, but since I don't read it, I wasn't really listening. It was pretty good panel with about 30 people, some in costume. Sorbo wanted to come but he had a fan club party to attend. He did reveal that he'd been approached to do a spin-off of his character's adventures before he was frozen.

I'll post again, if I can remember. It was a long weekend.

 

[Neroon]

I strongly encourage everyone to go read The Middleblog this week. There is a very nice tribute to Neil Levin, who ised to work on the show.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Was there a scene missing in tonight's episode? Or am I insane...which I'm ok considering that possibility.

I was watching the DVR...we went to commercial with Evil Wendy saying she can prove her identity and then we come back with "Evil" MiddleMan having already saved Good Wendy. What happened?

Very confused.

 

[Neroon]

I took a quick again this morning, and the scene was there. Parallel MM came riding in on the MiddleHog, knocking a few guns out of the henchmen's hands. That gave Wendy and him a chance to gun fight their way out with the needed cannon. Parallel Wendy ssurvived, though.

 

[Christopher]

Was there a scene missing in tonight's episode? Or am I insane...which I'm ok considering that possibility.

I was watching the DVR...we went to commercial with Evil Wendy saying she can prove her identity and then we come back with "Evil" MiddleMan having already saved Good Wendy. What happened?

Your local station must've run the commercials too long, or your DVR screwed up, or something. I don't remember everything, but: Evil Wendy had Good Wendy and Alt-Lacey surrounded by guards. GW tried to appeal to the residual goodness in EW, without success. "It was worth a try," she said, and Alt-L said at least she was glad "my Dub-Dub" was still out there somewhere. Just before the guards shot them down, Middleman Plissken rode in on the Middle-Hog and took out one of the guards. A fight ensued and the good guys escaped, although the Middle-Hog was lost in the line of duty.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I took a quick again this morning, and the scene was there. Parallel MM came riding in on the MiddleHog, knocking a few guns out of the henchmen's hands. That gave Wendy and him a chance to gun fight their way out with the needed cannon. Parallel Wendy ssurvived, though.

Your local station must've run the commercials too long, or your DVR screwed up, or something. I don't remember everything, but: Evil Wendy had Good Wendy and Alt-Lacey surrounded by guards. GW tried to appeal to the residual goodness in EW, without success. "It was worth a try," she said, and Alt-L said at least she was glad "my Dub-Dub" was still out there somewhere. Just before the guards shot them down, Middleman Plissken rode in on the Middle-Hog and took out one of the guards. A fight ensued and the good guys escaped, although the Middle-Hog was lost in the line of duty.

Thanks to ya both. I'm glad it was me and my technology not a total collapse of the writing team.

Weird though.

 

[DWF]

I took a quick again this morning, and the scene was there. Parallel MM came riding in on the MiddleHog, knocking a few guns out of the henchmen's hands. That gave Wendy and him a chance to gun fight their way out with the needed cannon. Parallel Wendy ssurvived, though.

Call him Snake.

 

[Ptrope]

Well, after reviewing the videos, I just discovered something fun and subversive about last night's episode - I don't know if it was built for something else or appeared anywhere else previously, but the phase polaron cannon is none other than:

Dr. Horrible's freeze ray!!

"With my [phase polaron cannon], I will [save] ... the world!"

 

[Christopher]

Neat. But given the minimal budget of both productions, I'd imagine it's a pre-existing prop that they both rented.

 

[Ptrope]

Yep! In fact, that's the reason given in the Middleblog:

- the phased polaron cannon was not intended as an homage to "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog"; this was merely a case of two modestly-budgeted productions renting from the same prop house

Too bad they couldn't have at least mentioned 'wonderflonium,' though ...

And is it just me, but did Mirror DubDub look slightly like a certain VP candidate with those rimless glasses (regardless, she looked pretty hot!)?

 

[Christopher]

I think WW's normal "Clark Kent" glasses are more Palinesque than Evil WW's fetching rimless frames. After all, Palin's said publicly that she intentionally tries to de-glamorize herself with the frumpy glasses and hairstyle. But Evil Wendy looked pretty nice. I wish Good Wendy would switch to those glasses.