Karen L. Newman has been a published writer since 2004 in the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres. Over two hundred and fifty of her short stories and poems have been published both online and in print. Her books include EEKU (Sam’s Dot, 2005) and ChemICKals (Naked Snake Press, 2007) and her work has been nominated for a Dwarf Star Award. She won the 2005 Mary Jane Barnes Award and two of her poems received honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She edits the online magazine Afterburn SF, which publishes speculative short stories, and is the editor for the print poetry magazine Illumen. She also write reviews for Dark Discoveries. Her reviews have also been featured in Noneuclidean Cafe, The Dream People, Night to Dawn, and Gothic Review.
We are at the halfway mark of The Middleman. Well, not really. It’s hard to halve eleven episodes, so I’m just going to call it half. I don’t think The Middleman himself would mind.
I’ve been a fan of comic book characters going to television since Batman aired in the sixties. No, I’m not that old. I saw reruns. From faded color and the colorful POW of back then to now, The Middleman shows how far things have come, baby. I still see the comic-book wonder of the gadgets and their design which makes me feel I’m inside the actual pages, without the dots. The quick scene changes are like turning the pages.
The episodes have varied week to week, and that’s because of different writers each time. Episodes 1 and 3 were both written by the executive producer of the show and the author of the graphic novels upon which the show is based, Javier Grillo-Marxuach. Episode 2 was written by Sarah Watson, a co-producer of the show. Episode 4 was penned by Tracey Stern, Episode 5 by Andy Reaser, and Episode 6 by Jordan Rosenberg. These writers keep the same feel of the characters, but differ in their handling of the plot, especially Jordan Rosenberg, where the plot is predictable and slow-moving. The Noser character is used differently by each writer, but he’s a minor character, so that doesn’t really affect the show. However, all writers keep the characters of Wendy and The Middleman constant.
The casting for each episode is outstanding, not like Sci-Fi’s Flash Gordon, where the villain looks like a grandfather figure. Costuming is reminiscent of a comic book, and the dress Wendy wears for "The Flying Fish Zombification" looks like scales and is brilliant.
The dialogue is snappy, the action is snappy, and I can’t wait to snap back in front of the TV to watch another episode.