I know this question may ...
Question: I know this question may sound desperate, but I think desperation is a common theme among those of us who don't want to watch terrible reality TV shows or one of the many mutant forms of
Gossip Girl next season. So here goes: Do you think it's possible that
The Middleman, if indeed not picked up for a second season by ABC Family, could be picked up by another, more appropriate network? ABC Family never seemed like the right place for this quirky but talented show, and it especially doesn't now that the network seems to prefer a wishy-washy, mediocre show like
The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
The Middleman might do better on a network that garners an older fan base. Network switching may be an unlikely possibility, but we watched NBC mistreat
Scrubs for years, and now it's getting a new home on ABC! I feel like
The Middleman is relegated to the bottom of ABC Family's new TV shows in terms of advertising and promotions, so it's not even getting a fair chance to survive. It reminds me of
Keen Eddie, a similarly smart and unusual show that produced about 12 episodes a few years ago, only to be canceled and leave me still mourning years later. What do you think?
Answer: Ah,
Keen Eddie. What a heartbreaker. But regarding
The Middleman, I'll repeat my standard refrain that the likelihood of a show being rescued after cancellation (which for the record hasn't happened yet here) is a very slim one. It almost never happens. But the more you look at this quirky action/superhero spoof, the more it becomes clear that it's too bad it's not airing on Sci Fi, home of the similarly offbeat
Eureka, than on ABC Family, which has a big genre hit in the much more earnest (and teen-centric)
Kyle XY. Not to say
Middleman is too good for the ABC Family target audience, but its tone (beyond the silliness of the weekly plots) is a bit more sophisticated and possibly out of sync with what tends to work on this schedule.
Danny writes in with some similar observations: "I started watching The Middleman after reading your review and immediately fell in love with the show. However, I read in a recent Ask Matt that it wasn't doing as well as hoped. I'm wondering if it might be because there seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between the writing and the style. The style is obviously designed to appeal to the hip, mid-teens to early 20s crowd, while the writing, even though very witty and clever, seems to be aimed more at their parents. Would a "hip" teen really get, during a ghost episode, the joke in having a sorority house on "Ray Parker Jr. Rd" at "Reitman University?" Or really understand why using the name "Dr. Emmett Brown of Hill Valley Institute" is such a hoot without Googling it? If writers start throwing in these kind of in-jokes too much, they risk alienating the very people they want to attract. On the bright side, since it is cable, let's hope it's allowed to develop another couple of seasons, like Eureka on the Sci Fi Channel."
Big difference between Eureka and The Middleman: Eureka is seen as a hit, and it was marketed much more cleverly and found its audience almost immediately. Middleman may very much be a victim of being the right show on the wrong network, which as some have noted may have erred by moving it to the later-than-network-norm 10 pm/ET time period, potentially sealing its doom in an attempt to move it away from tougher competition. All in all, a real shame if this season is all we get from this one.
