I have an admission to make: this summer of television has left me a little disappointed. The past few summers have been full of good shows premiering on cable. This year … well, I’m looking forward to Mad Men starting soon. Last summer, however, I totally fell in love with The Middleman, on ABC Family. I was so disappointed when the network decided not to give it a second season. Don’t even get me started on that though; my therapist is trying to get me to suppress my rage, not incite it.
Before I digress too far, I want to get to the point: the complete series is now available on DVD!
So … what exactly is there on the DVD set that should convince you to buy it? I have all the info for you. The set consists of four discs, one entirely dedicated to bonus material. The other three discs each contain four episodes each.
Four out of the twelve total episodes feature commentary with the creator and executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (I know what you’re thinking: it’s pronounced “Gree-oh-marx-watch”) with various guests. The pilot episode features commentary with the director Jeremiah Chechik. “The Cursed Tuba Contingency” has another executive producer, Han Beimler, joining Javier along with the stars of the show: Matt Keeslar (The Middleman), Natalie Morales (Wendy), Brit Morgan (Lacey), and Jake Smollett (Noser). Javi has another commentary for the episode “The Clotharian Contamination Protocol” with The Middleman writing team. Finally, the high concept finale episode had a commentary with Javi, Matt Keeslar, and Natalie Morales.
The fourth disc is chock full of bonus features. For the real die hard fan, however, most of these are probably repeats. They mainly consist of a collection of web features from the ABC Family site, including video podcasts with Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Web Featurettes that focus on behind-the-scenes content. There is also a collection of Middleman promos from ABC Family, and a bunch of sneak peaks that they ran.
There is the obligatory gag reel, along with some audition footage for most of the cast. For the true behind-the-scenes nerd there is footage of a complete table read from the finale episode. I suppose it’s interesting, but I rather watch the actual episode instead of seeing the actors sitting around a table reading the script.
Clearly, the best thing that this DVD set has going for it is the awesome show itself. Any true fan will want to go out and grab it. As far as features go, there is a fair amount of commentary, but there isn’t a whole lot of unique material on the show. If you were looking for hours and hours of documentaries and analysis, well, you’re out of luck. The show itself merits a look though, especially if you’ve never seen it.
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jul 19, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
* Sigh * It’s difficult being a geek in this day and age. Between Moonlight and the Middleman, my geek girl heart is broken. I have to admit, the MM was one of those uncategorizable shows that walked the line between quirky, sci fi and ironic, not to say that’s a bad thing, as that’s what WH 13 does now. If it had stuck with that, I think the show might’ve remained. However, sometimes I felt Javier GM watered down his original vision to appear more ‘family’ like with the trout fish & evil boy band, etc. I came across a collection of MM comics and was surprised to discover that the episodes I enjoyed best – the pilot, Master Ping, etc. were the ones based on the comic. Either way, I still wish ABCF had picked it up for another summer season –
Bob, your hatred of television network executives makes you powerful–give in to it! Your “therapist” fears what you would become and is trying to hold you back.
*POST AUTHOR*
Suddenly I have a craving for trout and a tall, frothy glass of !!!!
Trout is essential for strong bones and good teeth, which is why there’s your recommended daily allowance in every spray of delicious Fatboy brand aerosol soup.
Milk saps your strength and robs your body of its essential natural oils plus I heard it was invented by Communists. Report any suspicious milk-drinkers to your neighborhood purification squad.