'Pushing Daisies' was honored with an award from the Casting Society of America, winning an Artios Awards, the Hollywood Reporter says || James Cromwell, who played Zefram Cochrane in 1996's 'Star Trek: First Contact,' broke his collarbone in a fall off his bicycle last weekend, Yahoo! News reports. He's expected to fully recover. || ABC's 'Lost' will return to Wednesday nights starting Jan. 21. A clip show will run at 8 followed by a two-hour premiere. || All of the Star Trek movies could be coming to Blu-Ray as early as next year, Digital Bits says. Paramount had supported HD-DVD, but has conceded defeat to Blu-Ray, and is now moving to the format || SciFi Channel's 'Warehouse 13' has completed its creative staff with the likes of Jack Kenny, David Simkins, Drew Greenberg, Stephen Scaia, and others || 'Pushing Daisies' was honored with an award from the Casting Society of America, winning an Artios Awards, the Hollywood Reporter says || James Cromwell, who played Zefram Cochrane in 1996's 'Star Trek: First Contact,' broke his collarbone in a fall off his bicycle last weekend, Yahoo! News reports. He's expected to fully recover. || ABC's 'Lost' will return to Wednesday nights starting Jan. 21. A clip show will run at 8 followed by a two-hour premiere. || All of the Star Trek movies could be coming to Blu-Ray as early as next year, Digital Bits says. Paramount had supported HD-DVD, but has conceded defeat to Blu-Ray, and is now moving to the format || SciFi Channel's 'Warehouse 13' has completed its creative staff with the likes of Jack Kenny, David Simkins, Drew Greenberg, Stephen Scaia, and others ||

Review: 'The Middleman' - The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation

Page: 1|2 |Next
Email this story

By WAYNE HALL
Source: SyFy Portal
Aug-19-2008

The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for "The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation," the tenth episode of the ABC Family network's show, "The Middleman."

I must be on to something with my finding similarities between "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and "The Middleman." This week, Wendy even says, "Ah ... I'm gonna get my Buffy on."

This time, we get back to good ol' "Middleman" business by returning the major focus to the ongoing characters.

Here's what happened: To prevent the resurrection of every vampire that has ever lived, The Middleman and Wendy search for a possessed puppet that once belonged to Vlad the Impaler. Meanwhile, Noser pulls a disappearing act.

With the baddies being vampires this time, we get a lot of vampire lore mentioned, including: Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan's "Tomb Of Dracula" Marvel Comics series; the "Blade" movies; the John Seward Home of the Criminally Insane; and the fact that "Van Helsing might as well been Dutch for 'Middleman.'" The fact that puppets and vampires were combined could also be a nod of the hat to "Angel."

We also see that Wendy may have connections to mystic forces when Jamie the Tarot Girl does a card reading for Wendy. While Jamie's predictions are totally off, Wendy sees her go into a creepy eye-rolling, gravel-voiced, tongue-speaking trance and says, "Young Noser will be rent limb from limb to save you."

Lacey has the beginning of a fling with slimy landlord-son Pip before she kisses and then slaps him. Of course, she really longs for "The Middleman" because Pip is wearing The Middleman's Eisenhower jacket in her dream.

We also get to visit a ventriloquist convention and see the residents in Wendy and Lacey's building tell her what they think of Pip ... while he's listening.

What Worked

All the usual fun dialogue is going on, including Wendy quoting Bon Jovi as she stakes the vampire puppets/lovers, saying, "You give love a bad name!" Also, I lost count of how many times someone said "pure Carpathian wood."

We see that Lacey and The Middleman actually are experiencing "true love," which leaves MM pining and alone at the end. We'll likely follow up on that more next week.

We see more of Lacey, more of Pip and something for Noser to do besides sit and quote song lyrics ... overall, a pretty good week!

Page: 1|2 |Next

Talk about this story