The Middleman The Complete Series (2008)

The Middleman (Matt Keeslar) solves problems of an extraterrestrial or supernatural nature. In the series’ first episode he recruits Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales), a barely employed artist, to be his assistant. Also involved in the Middleman madness is administrative personnel Ida (Mary Pat Gleason), while Wendy shares an apartment with another artist, Lacey Thornfield (Brit Morgan).

Despite starting the season with a talking gorilla, who quotes from Hollywood movies, the season show doesn’t hit it full swing until episode 3, when Sensei Ping (Mark Dacascos) arrives and is kidnapped by a villainous group of masked, Mexican wrestlers. The series is charming and funny from there on in, with flying, zombie fish; plastic surgery addicted aliens; vampire, ventriloquist dummies; and a previous Middleman (Kevin Sorbo) thrown in to the mix.

The series is adapted from a comic of the same name and was aired on ABC Family. The show maybe friendly to children and teens, but the humour is more adult, with pop culture references thrown about with gay abandon. Keeslar is great at playing his character totally straight. Morales is wonderfully sarcastic, surly and phenomenally cute. Morgan is also a hottie and plays the quirky artist to perfection. Gleason is sarcastic and dead pan and her character is full of surprises. The idea and execution might owe something to Men In Black but it is, at times, more reminiscent of the sixties Batman series. Maybe the Middleman was too clever and too much fun to be allowed to stay on tv after the first series.