The Middleman

[icepixie]

pezprez gave me the first (and, as far as I know, only) season of The Middleman for Christmas. Tonight, I could've been getting ahead on my thesis, but I chose instead to watch the first four episodes. (I am weak. And pretending I don't have to go back to school tomorrow.)

I wasn't too sure about it after the pilot, but the next three slowly won me over. I think it might be mostly because if Benton Fraser were American, fought aliens/mad scientists/other comic book baddies, and had a Cuban-American Jaye Tyler with a better attitude for a partner, he would be the male lead. (He actually says "Thank you kindly." And his "Oh, dear" catchphrase is "Oh, phooey," because he finds cursing degrading to one's moral fiber, or something like that.)

It reminds me a little bit of a very, very clean Spaced, particularly because of all the pop cultural and sci-fi references that fly by. There's definitely a bit of Twist in Lacey, too. There's also kind of an aura of The Invisible Man about it, and an Americanized Avengers. It's goofier than all of them, though. I particularly liked the running gag in the third episode of giving the place and time for each scene, but using a different time zone for each one they did.

I feel a little weird describing it entirely in terms of other shows, but...I think that might be part of its charm. It definitely seems intentional, anyway. It's cute!

Comments

[thiswaltz.livejournal.com]

I only saw a few episodes of it when it was on, but I adored it. All of your comparisons are so completely true, especially the Benton Fraser ones -- half the fun of the show was the way it seemed to be winking at so many other shows.

I didn't know it was on DVD though, I'll have to look for that.

[icepixie]

It is indeed on DVD! Fun times.