The Middleman: Cryogenic Meltdown Review

I’m a little behind on my TV show reviews but that’s only because I’ve been knee-deep in cool stuff and The Middleman is one of them.

Last week’s episode,  “The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown” made me ridiculously happy with a shout out to my very first fandom, an obscure British (I’m American) TV series called The Protectors!

More on that later.  Right now it’s time to hop into the middle-time-machine for a closer look at the episode!

This week the series was a parody of a parody as they paid homage to both Austin Powers and the James Bond films.  Kevin Sorbo guest stars as the former Middleman who has been in cryogenic freeze since the 1960’s.  He’s left orders with Ida to be thawed out if evil, super-villain The Candle should ever rear his ugly flame, and guess what. . . he does, so she does and suddenly we have two Middleman(s?) when there can be only one.

Sorbo finds a middle ground (!) somewhere between the totally campy Austin Powers and the suave James Bond. He drinks, he smokes, he leers at Wendy and his moral compass is a bit bent. None of this sits well with our favorite Middleman but he does his best to tolerate the situation as they hunt down this week’s evil doer. As if that wasn’t enough to handle, poor, sweet MM must also deal with the knowledge that Wendy is doing the deed with new boyfriend Tyler.

The romantic and social entanglements of this series is one of my love/hate factors. On one hand, I like the humanity it brings to the show but I hate the amount of time it takes away from hunting the bad guy scenes which are always more interesting.

With Tyler, Wendy is forced to face that age old dating adage – he’s too perfect, so it’s bound to end ugly.  And since this is a TV show, I’m inclined to go with her on that.  Despite MM’s assurance that Middlemen can fall in love and be happy, we know (from every other superhero movie and comic we’ve ever seen) that it’s not true.

So, Wendy, MM and FMM (former Middleman Sorbo) set out to track down The Candle but the villain turns out to be a mere shell of his former self. Mystery solved, FMM must now retire because there can only be one Middleman. (Yes, it must be said again, and again and again.) It is at his retirement ceremony that we learn FMM’s real name is Guy Goddard.  Hmm, bells go off in my head.  I should know that one.

Sure enough, creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach, says it’s made up of the names of the two manliest men in sixties television: Guy Williams and Mark Goddard of “Lost in Space.”  Hello, huge Lost in Space fan here!  Remco Robot next to my bed, Guy Williams bio on the bookshelf, LIS DVD’s never out of the 5-changer DVD player.  Yeah, I should have got that one.  Bad fan.

Don’t worry, I got the next one.

Retirement be damned, Guy (Formerly known as FMM) enlists Wendy’s help in crashing a super-villain card game on a secret villain island.  This necessitates putting Wendy first into a requisite Bond-girl bikini and then a fabulous Emma Peeler catsuit. Guy dons the 60’s white gambling jacket and it’s all fun and games until someone’s hand gets melted. Mom always said, don’t play with melting rays in the house!

Turns out it’s all just an angry Guy trying to murder our beloved MM so he can become the current Middleman all over again.  Yeah, it’s cliche, but then again, this is The Middleman, it’s what they do best. Guy is dispatched, the world is safe and Wendy goes back to Tyler.  But what of MM?  He seems so sad in this episode, like a dad dealing with the fact that his baby girl has grown up and doesn’t need him anymore. Yes, Wendy is finding her own niche and although he wants to be proud of her, I think MM is having a little trouble letting go.

Now let’s talk Protectors.

Back in 1972, Gerry Anderson (of Thunderbirds and Space 1999 fame) created a half hour action series that starred Robert Vaughn, Nyree Dawn Porter and Tony Anholt.  Vaughn and Porter played Harry Rule and the Contessa di Contini — the names Guy and Wendy use while playing cards with the super-villains. In the series, the threesome ran around solving crimes as sort of private-spies dealing with espionage, high-profile kidnappings and protection details, and a variety of terrorist activities. It was my favorite show and my first fan fic writing fandom. A real miracle, since I was only two years old at the time! (Cyn rolls her eyes and hides her birth certificate.)

So, thank you Javier.  I may have been the only person in US to get that reference, but it totally made my night and then some.

Other references in this episode include Jake 2.0, Seaquest DSV, I Spy, Wild Wild West, Dr. Strangelove, The Third Man, Doctor Who (jelly babies), Remo Williams, The Avengers, and more James Bond references than you can stuff into a Wild Bikini.

For a full list of references for this and all of the episodes, visit The MiddleBlog, the official LJ of The Middleman.

PHOTOS: (ABC FAMILY/JAIMIE TRUEBLOOD) KEVIN SORBO, NATALIE MORALES