The Middleman: Is This About My Life?

Recently a friend of mine gave me the complete series of The Middleman to watch.  The complete series is only 12 episodes, which I have to say is a damn shame.  Although some of my favorite shows come in similar packages (Special mention:  Wonderfalls).  If you've never heard of this show, that's because it was on ABCFamily for a season in 2008, around the time Greek and The Secret Life of the American Teenager became popular.  But this show is quirky and fun and really really cheesy in the best way possible.

The Middleman, based on a comic book of the same name, is about Wendy Watson, a struggling artist who temps for a living, while sharing an over-sized illegal loft apartment with her best friend (also a struggling artist).  Her life is turned upside down one day when she discovers that much like in every comic book, villains and aliens and the things that go bump in the night really exist.  Plot-wise, this show is very similar to Doctor Who with some slight differences.  It really drives home the point that supernatural things happen all around us, and the majority of humans are too stupid to notice.  The Middleman (a man with no other name, who fights supernatural evils to ensure all is right with the world as well as the safety of the human race... Sound familiar?) comes in and seeing that Wendy can comprehend the aliens and shit, he takes her on, not as his lovable sidekick who he will have some form of sexual tension with (oh, Doctor, when will you learn to just recruit a man?), but as his apprentice. 

From the first minute watching this show, I was instantly enamored by the witty dialogue, the intelligent world views, and of course, the perfection with which it is corny on purpose.  A perfection which can only be trumped by Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical.  It also helps that as an aspiring writer who literally went for an interview at a temp agency earlier this morning, I identify with the main character.  This is a really smart, delightfully self-aware show with really cool characters that make you never want to sell out and earn real money.

I'd especially recommend it to anyone who has a brain.

Cedar Rapids

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  There is something oddly very attractive about Ed Helms.  That's not the only reason I enjoyed the movie Cedar Rapids, but I felt it just needed to be said.  :-P

I saw this movie last night.  It was late for me, I didn't really know what this movie was about, and I didn't know what to expect.  But I found it delightfully charming.  While I would probably only give Cedar Rapids 3 out of 5 stars, I would still recommend people see it.  There's something about it that makes it very different from a lot of other movies out there.

The movie cut to credits and my friend said, "Well that ending was a little off point, but okay."  And I realized, that's exactly what I liked about the movie.  A lot of the things that happened in the movie were "off point", but without taking away from the movie, in fact they mostly added to it.  And then when I really think about it, the ending wasn't off point at all.

This movie wasn't about a love story.  There really was no love story arc, which was one of my favorite things about it.  It wasn't a coming of age story (although it could be considered that loosely).  It was really just about a guy who needed to loosen up, make some friends, and stand up for himself.  And through drunken late night pool swimming, sex with a married lady, befriending a prostitute (Alia Shawkat from Arrested Development), and hanging out with cool people who make a lot of offensive jokes, that's exactly what he did.  He learned he could have fun, but still be a good person who did the right thing.

I think that made it sound cheesy, and most movies do have a little cheese, but it was seriously funny and I just thought it was a very original story.  Something you don't see in the movies often.  They didn't feel the need to throw in the normal cliches to make it something mainstream.  And it made for a good movie.

I'm not saying run out and see it, but...  There's so little good in theaters now, am I right?