By Lisa Fary
I totally want to be Domineering School Marm version 2.0. It’s a perfect excuse for my inherent crotchety bearing and I wouldn’t even have to get new glasses. I would, however, have to age by about thirty-five years, which would render the money I’m currently spending on night cream and eye serum wasted.
Domineering School Marm version 2.0 is an image projected by Ida, The Middleman’s robotic secretary. Unfortunately for her, the image projector has malfunctioned and she’s permanently stuck on that persona.
Last week I saw the rough cut of ABC Family’s The Middleman and had some problems with it. After watching the broadcast premiere of The Middleman on ABC Family on Monday night, I have some revised opinions about the show.
Why watch the same episode again when I’d already reviewed it? A couple of reasons. First, I wanted to see how much editing had taken place. Second, I really, really wanted to like it.
I’ve said this several times, but I’m tired of dark, dreary, depressing sci-fi. I’m tired of sci-fi babes catching the crazies. I’m tired of watching a scene that should be, like, happy, while mentally making a bet with myself on just how long that happiness would last (with the mid-season finale of BSG, I bet myself a glass of syrah that the fleet’s happiness would be shattered in three minutes or less. I won!).
Despite it’s faults, The Middleman is sci-fi that doesn’t make me feel like crawling into a bottle. It’s freaking summertime – I want something light and fluffy and The Middleman delivers “light and fluffy” like a toothless carnie selling cotton candy.
The changes from the rough cut to the broadcast are subtle, but they make a significant difference in the quality of the show. The sound mixing was better and the music was less annoying. Several scenes were re-edited – not drastically, but enough to make the episode snappier. I found myself laughing out loud at scenes I didn’t find too funny before.
I also get the sense that Matt Keeslar looped some of the dialogue – he’s now warmer and less theater-y in the scenes that were problematic. The (possibly) looped dialogue and new editing significantly improves the Gilmore Girls beat the show is striving for.
The Middleman pilot does still have some of the same problems as the rough cut, particularly the issue of talky exposition and gags that go on a bit too long. I can probably chalk up both of those to a case of first-episode-itis, but will have to wait and see. So far, I think The Middleman is going to be good summer television.
Next week: Matt Keeslar in a toga!
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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
