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was founded by John Gabbard in 2000. It's purpose has been and
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“The Middleman: The Complete Series”
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Reviewer:
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Wayne
Klein
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Studio: |
Shout Factory
Home Video |
| Genre: |
TV-Series
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Release
Date: |
7/28/09
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| Special
Features: |
Commentary tracks, web featurettes, audition tapes,
table read
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| Review:
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“Middleman” had an imaginative premise and was based
on a popular series of graphic novels. Originally produced
by ABC Family as a companion series of sorts to “Kyle XY”
and some of the other fantasy based shows the network has
produced, “Middleman succeeded if it had been paired with
“Fringe” or “Eureka” but it was something of an odd match
with shows like “Kyle XY”. Certainly the cast has a bit
of chemistry suggesting that with a little bit more work
and a bigger budget “Middleman” could have been a success.
***
Based on the graphic novels by Javier Grillo Marxuach
and Les McClaine the show focuses on a struggling artist
and temp receptionist named Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales)
who is recruited by a secret agency to fight supernatural
criminals. Her “boss” so-to-speak is a guy known simply
as “The Middleman” (Matt Keeslar) because he is precisely
that—he works for a secret agency and has recruited her
to do the same as an agent in training to-to-speak. In the
first episode which could have come out of “The X-Files”
during its middle years a Terra Cotta warrior is brought
back to life and is on a mission to kidnap the last living
heir of the Qin dynasty. If the warrior succeeds Earth will
be subjected to fire from the skies for a thousand years.
Later episodes have the somewhat dynamic duo fighting aliens
from space who disguise themselves as a boy band, dealing
with evil dopplegangers from an alternate universe and even
vampires who are behind a major fashion company. ---
Image & Sound:
“The Middleman” looks quite nice in its DVD debut for
the first and only season. Colors are consistent throughout
with nice flesh tones. Audio sounds quite good throughout
with a focus on dialogue. ---
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| Special
Features: |
Among the extras included here are Commentaries With
the Cast and Crew, Deleted and Extended Scenes Web Featurettes,
Gag Reel, Audition Footage,The Complete The Palindrome Reversal
Palindrome Table Read, A Gallery of Middleman Photography
by Ralph King. Overall, I’m surprised at the quality and
the amount of extras included here. I must give kudos to
the DVD producer for assembling all of these for fans of
the show. It certainly makes up for the short first season.
---
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Final Words:
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A good show that deserved more
of a chance that has more in common with “Men in Black” than,
say, “Lost” or even “The X-Files”, “The Middleman” failed
to find its audience on ABC Family. It’s too bad a network
like The Sy-Fy Channel (yes, they changed their name to a
silly one) didn’t pick this up because it really was ready
made for their core audience. I have to recognize Shout Factory
once again for stepping in and releasing something that other
studios might have ignored and doing a fine job of it. |
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