The Middleman

After yesterday's half-cocked political rant I want to lighten things up and talk about a new television series airing on ABC Family Channel this summer, The Middleman, which is based on the comic book series of the same name created by Javier Grillo-Marxauch. I was not familair with the comic but I have enjoyed Grillo-Marxauch's work as a writer/producer on teh first two seasons of LOST.

The set-up is pretty simple; a struggling female artist by the name of Wendy Watson supplements her income by working lousy temp jobs and on one of those jobs she is attacked by a genetic expirement gone wrong. Our title character The Middleman comes to the resuce and is impressed by Wendy's handling of the situation. He then recruits her to join his secret organization that battles against the forces of evil like monsters, aliens and mad scientists intent on controlling the world. All that good stuff from comic books that nobody knows exists in the real world. The Middleman works for an organization that is so secret he himself doesn't even know who or what they are, so he's just The Middleman.

The dialouge is razor-sharp, especially the rapport between our straight-laced Middleman (aptly played by Matt Keeslar) and Wendy (uber crush-worthy newcommer Natalie Morales) and the show is very tongue-in-cheek towards the more fantasy and action aspects of the show, all the while not turning the characters into caratictures. The supporting cast also includes Wendy's roommate and best friend, Lacy, a self-proclaimed confrontational performance artist(also uber crush worthy Brit Morgan) and Ida, the tempermental cyborg secretary.

The Middleman airs on Mondays at 9PM CST on ABC Family Channel and the comic book series of the same name is published by Viper Comics. I will certainly be picking up some issues in the near future. It's a fun, sarcastic and geeky show that has a lot of potential.

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Speaking of comic books, we're in a summer movie season that has never been so dominated by comic adaptations or other superhero stoires. So far Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk have really delivered and I'll certainly catch Wanted based on the Mark Millar graphic novel sometime this week, while Hancock looks to be a toss-up but I'm hoping for the best. The rest of July will bring us Hellboy II: The Golden Army which looks like a fantastic step forward from the decent first film and then it's time for the biggest one of all, The Dark Knight, opening on July 18th and I'm preparing myself for geekgasms galore. I don't even want to anymore trailers or promos that might spoil one iota of the awesomeness that is to come.