THE MIDDLEMAN 1.9 - "The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown"

Writer: Tracey Stern
Director: Michael Grossman

Cast: Matt Keeslar (The Middleman), Natalie Morales (Wendy Watson), Jake Smollett (Noser), Brit Morgan (Lacey Thornfield), Mary Pat Gleason (Ida), Kevin Sorbo (Guy Goddard), Erick Avari (Lord Jeremiah Purcell), Brendan Hines (Tyler Ford), Natalija Nogulich (Rosa Krebb), Ricky Ullman (Derek), Matthew Morgan (Anatol Gogol) & Megan Lee Etheridge (Vilma Schnipp)

Wendy
Check this guy out: The Fabulous Face. He tries to
replace everyone in the White House with evil doubles.

The Middleman
And he succeeded, though
no one seemed to notice at the time...

The improvement continues, although the last half of "The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown" is notably slacker than the first. The Austin Powers-like plot finds a former Middleman from 1969, Guy Goddard (Kevin Sorbo), defrosted from a cryogenic freezer because his arch-nemesis The Candle has resurfaced in 2008. Fortunately, the Austin Powers similarities are kept to a bare minimum, with Guy avoiding clichéd '60s stereotypes...

A lot of the comedy comes from the arrival of macho, roguish competition for The Middleman (Matt Keeslar), with android assistant Ida (Mary Pat Gleason) particularly enamoured with her ex-boss -- so much so that she reverts to wearing roller-skates and zipping around Middleman HQ like a love-struck teen! Wendy (Natalie Morales) is surprised to find that previous Middlemen aren't as starched as the current incumbent, but it soon becomes clear that two Middlemen are actually a hindrance to crime-fighting.

The problem with "The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown" is that the professional threat posed by Guy is neutered half-way through by persuading him to accept official retirement. While this doesn't prevent Guy continuing his investigation in secret, by recruiting Wendy to help him in a high-stakes card game, it does slam the brakes on the enjoyable antagonism between Middleman '69 and '08. More comedy could have been mined from the Middleman rivalry; although it was admittedly exciting to see Keeslar's character beat-up Sorbo, with relatively no effort. It was one of the few times The Middleman came across as dangerous and cool, instead of an old-fashioned, reserved stickler. More, please!

The show's new-found emphasis on character has proven successful already -- and not only with the enjoyable Guy/Middleman/Wendy triptych. Wendy's new boyfriend Tyler (Brendan Hines) is still around, proving himself every bit the geeky equal to Wendy. He's actually perfect for her; which scares the ordinarily pessimistic Wendy, who admits to Lacey (Brit Morgan) she can usually predict how her relationships will fail. Will Wendy's romance continue to blossom amongst talk of violent arcade games and zombie movies, or will it all come crashing down? Well, dramatically, happily every afters are rarely fun...

After a confident start, helped by a surprisingly good performance from former Hercules actor Sorbo, the plot doesn't really develop into a particularly exciting finale. The comedy dries up once Guy is made a civilian and, while a late-twist concerning The Candle's identity works well, the cave-set finale is fudged by bad direction and poor FX. To compensate, we finally get to see Natalie Morales in her Emma Peel cat-suit from the opening titles, with the added bonus of a Honey Rider white bikini towards the end. So that was nice.

Overall, this was an enjoyable episode that neatly avoided aping Austin Powers too much, with a fun performance from Kevin Sorbo and more development of Wendy's social life. Indeed, I'm pleased the Middleman/Wendy relationship is more brother/sister than I expected when the series began. It's a shame the humour fizzles out half-way through and the episode doesn't really do full justice to the premise, but there's still plenty to enjoy -- particularly in the first 25 minutes.


11 August 2008
ABC Family, 10/9c pm