One-Season Wonders 10

THE MIDDLEMAN
2008
12 Episodes
Created by: Javier Grillo-Marxuach

And so we ask you to rise to your feet, remove your hats and cast your eyes downwards in a moment’s silence for one of the most criminally-cancelled shows in television history. Never has a programme been so suited for readers of SFX magazine; never has one tried so hard to be as funny, as witty and as loveable and actually managed to pull it off; never have we mourned so hard for its loss.

Lovingly based on the comic series by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and starring Matt Keeslar and Natalie Morales as two secret agents fighting evil (so you don’t have to), The Middleman was a laugh-a-minute example of clever wordplay, deliberately hammy acting and primary-coloured fun stuffed with so many geeky gags you have to watch every episode three times to catch them all. Those who watched it LOVED it, but, alas and alack, there simply weren’t enough of them.

If we ruled the world The Middleman would be back in action in a minute, but sadly we don’t. So we’ll just have to tell you to hunt it down and watch it if you haven’t already. How can you not love a show that contains episodes titled “The Flying Fish Zombification”, “The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation” or “The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown”? In Morales, feminists also had a TV feminie they could be really proud of – a woman fronting a show who wasn't either a kick-ass babe merely designed to get the lads watching or a cypher for dealing with women's issues.

We miss you, Middleman. Sniff.

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