We're Still Upset About How This Comedy Sci-Fi TV Series Only Got One Season

We all know that television shows come in all shapes and sizes. Some shows are pure action, while others are all heart or comedy. There’s something for everyone out there. Yet, even so, it isn’t every day that one walks across a show and realizes it is something wholly unique. Sometimes, those shows break records and gain an incredible following, while other times, they get left in the wind. Today, we’re here to talk about the latter, as this amazing show only ever got one season. We’re talking about The Middleman. The Middleman is an action-adventure show with comedy, sci-fi, and drama. It had it all, and it could have gone places.

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Unfortunately, its final destination was the cutting room floor. The Middleman was a TV series developed for ABC Family. The show was greenlit for one season, totaling 13 episodes. However, things didn’t go well, preventing a second season from coming our way. The show was ordered to cut the total number of episodes down from 13 to 12. In other words, one story got left in the wind.

What Is The Middleman?

The Middleman is an energetic show about a secret agency sworn to protect the world. It predominantly follows new recruit Wendy Watson. She had dreams of being an artist, but since she has to hold a stereotypical 9-to-5, she’s willing to save the planet during her working hours. Her boss, The Middleman, is responsible for showing her the ropes, and every adventure helps prove two things. First, Wendy is going to need a lot more training. Second, the world is a very strange place. In short, the show combines action and sci-fi adventure (as seen in Men in Black) with quippy banter and character-driven comedy. It’s smart, sassy, and unafraid to poke fun at classic tropes.

Overall, The Middleman played with an episodic format, establishing a quasi-monster-of-the-week scenario. This opened the door to a lot of antics, ranging from trout-craving zombies (“The Flying Fish Zombification”) to demonic puppets (“The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation”) and gem-devouring aliens (“The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum”). To put it simply, the show played with anything and everything, and it had a lot of fun doing so.

Outside of comical commentary on familiar scenes, The Middleman was rooted in drama. The core plot was deeply character-focused, letting The Middleman, Wendy, and Wendy’s circle of friends drive the plot. This created some off-the-clock complications, such as a potential romance between The Middleman (Wendy’s boss) and Lacey (Wendy’s roommate). Other characters, such as Ida, the sassy bot, Noser, the talented neighbor, and Pip, the art thief, flesh out the world in fantastic ways that simultaneously ground the series.

The Middleman played around with a lot of referential humor, teasing classic comic and movie tropes. So, it’s only appropriate that the show had deep ties with the comic book industry. The Middleman‘s original script, which was intended to be the pilot, ended up becoming a comic published by Vault Comics. Created by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine, the miniseries was released in three installments before the show aired. It would later include one final volume, covering the episode cut from the original run.

What Went Wrong?

When something we cherish gets cancelled, it’s tempting to look for a reason why. Some shows were set up for failure, with episodes getting aired out of order or worse. However, that wasn’t the case for The Middleman. It had decent reviews at the time, but it simply wasn’t drawing enough views for ABC Family to justify letting it get a second season.

Here’s the thing — The Middleman is smart. One could argue that it was almost too smart for its own good, as many jokes went over the heads of its intended audience. The show had a lot of references, and while inexperienced viewers certainly recognized that a reference was being made, if they didn’t understand the reference itself, that made the joke fall flat. In other words, the show probably would have done better on a channel with marketing toward a slightly older audience, as they would have gotten (and loved) the jokes.

To put it simply, The Middleman was cut before its time, as there was still endless potential for this cast of characters. While we’re grateful there are some comic book adventures worth reading, we will never get over how this series only got one season. We can only hope that some streaming service (looking at you, Netflix) will take note and revive the series. Even if the original cast couldn’t make it back, we’d love to see a revival of this unique adventure.

The Middleman can be purchased for viewing through Amazon and Apple TV.