THE MIDDLEMAN 1.8 - "The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation"

Writer: Sarah Watson
Director: Michael Zinberg

Cast: Natalie Morales (Wendy Watson), Matt Keeslar (The Middleman), Jake Smollett (Noser), Mary Pat Gleason (Ida), Brit Morgan (Lacey Thornfield), Cassandra Jean (Dana Barrett/Sorority Ghost), Ashley Johnson (Eleanor June Draper), Rome Shadanloo (Janine Melnitz/Sorority Ghost), Darren Revitz (Fraternity Brother), Chrissie Marie Fit (Shannon Faris/Sorority Ghost), Anthony Di Palma (Fraternity Brother), Cindy Chiu (Kristen Lonner/Sorority Ghost), Kevin Sizemore (Campus Police Officer), Tyler Kain (Alley), Brendan Hines (Tyler Ford) & Jeremy Lelliott (Louis)

"It may all seem like light and magic at first, but
the next thing you know the walls are bleeding and
you've got 25 pregnant women running around
screaming 'Mary, Mary, Mary!' and clawing their
yes out with knitting needles, while your own hair
grows to 3 times its length and tries to strangle you."

-- The Middleman (Matt Keeslar)

"The Cursed Tuba Contingency" was the first time The Middleman's imaginative plotting dovetailed with decent character development. The return of the fashionista succubus' also gave it a sense of creating a "universe" and loose mythology. The best thing about "The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation" is how it continues on this stronger footing, showcasing another strange mystery, but finding time to stretch its characters and actors into new directions...

Ghostbusters is the primary inspiration for this episode, as Wendy (Natalie Morales) helps The Middleman (Matt Keeslar) investigate sightings of ghostly sorority girls at Reitman University. The spectral witness, Louis (Jeremy Lelliott), recently underwent a brain operation, and the removal of his pineal gland has bestowed him with a sixth sense. Wendy is given a pair of ghost-seeing glasses and told to go undercover as a sorority girl -- enabling Morales to ditch her faux military attire for a slinky blue dress, and bust some ghosts...

Elsewhere, with 7 episodes under its belt, The Middleman is starting to reference and continue its own storylines and ideas. Tyler Ford (Brendan Hines) is back, last seen helping Wendy in "The Sino-Mexican Revelation" before having the two-day experience wiped from his memory. This throws up complications when Tyler mistakes Lacey (Brit Morgan) as the "soul mate" he half-remembers meeting during his "missing time". To prevent Tyler regaining his memory of top-secret Middleman activities, Wendy's forced to keep her true feelings a secret and give Tyler and Lacey her blessing to start dating..

It's great to see The Middleman balancing its storyline in this manner, and "The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation" is undoubtedly the most successful episode at keeping you engaged with the characters, whilst ensuring the imagination and creativity of the main plot doesn't suffer. While it's mildly annoying to see Lacey move onto Tyler (after professing her love of Middleman in episode 7), it's a minor blip in an otherwise engaging character-based storyline.

Of course, the university haunting is the driving force behind this episode, and Sarah Watson's script made a few creative leaps -- beginning with the revelation that the mute sorority spooks are "ghosts of the living". Most memorably, the story engineers the possession of The Middleman with the geeky villain's spirit -- enabling Matt Keeslar to drop his stiff hero shtick and flounce around the screen as a malevolent teenage girl. Good fun, and an enjoyable way for Keeslar to flex more acting muscle.

In the humour stakes, there are the usual densely-written statements, protestations and comebacks, but this episode did cram in far too many allusions to Ghostbusters for my taste. Most were fairly obscure, but easy referencing is something The Middleman tends to lean on rather too heavily. Still, this was an easy episode to get swept along by and there were more hits than misses. I still find Brit Morgan a particular joy as Lacey (such an exuberant and likeable performer), hopefully Morales' relationship with Hines will continue developing in the weeks to come, and Keeslar had some chances to shine. The eponymous do-gooder still doesn't grab my attention (he's intentionally more stilted than everyone else), but it's definitely an assured performance.

Overall, The Middleman looks to be developing rather nicely now. The early crazy-for-crazy's-sake tone is being tempered by an emphasis on character and a slow-build of The Middleman's off-kilter universe. A few episodes ago I wouldn't have cared if The Middleman was cancelled (in the face of very poor Stateside ratings), but I'm revising that opinion...


4 August 2008
ABC Family, 10/9c pm