Not Eliminating The Middleman
<p>So, we&#8217;re at a some friends&#8217; place for barbecue this afternoon, and friends say &#8220;We know you don&#8217;t watch much TV, but you need to see this&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;This&#8221; turns out to be the pilot of <cite>The Middleman</cite> a peculiar and unusually intelligent TV series that ran for only 12 episodes in 2008 before being canceled.  The protagonist is a tough-minded female art student who gets recruited into a sort of &#8220;Men In Black&#8221; organization that deals with exotic problems &#8211; mad scientists, invading aliens, supernatural threats, that sort of thing.   Yeah, I know, yet another spin on Nick Pollotta&#8217;s <cite>Bureau 13</cite> novels &#8211; but this version has a sharp, surrealistic edge and the kind of script where no word in it is filler or wasted.</p>
<p>The writing style of <cite>The Middleman</cite> kind of got into my head.  Here&#8217;s how I know this: afterwards, we&#8217;re disrobing to go to the hot tub, and I looked at my piles of clothes and stuff and thought this:</p>
<p>&#8220;I carry a smartphone, a Swiss-Army knife, and a gun.  What kind of problem do you <em>want</em> solved?&#8221;</p>
