Typical supervillain horsefeathers. Can’t wait to hear this guy’s monologue. ‘I am the palindrome. Feel my power. Power my feel. Palindrome the am I.’ Peter Piping weirdos. – The Middleman
Author: R.A. Porter
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The Middleman recap: “The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome”
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Mad Men review: “Maidenform”
Reflections and appearances.
How we see ourselves is rarely how others see us. Sometimes the differences are small but sometimes they are cutting: a despicable woman seeing herself reflected in us; undeserved worship from a child; the judgment-free gaze of a dog. These cut deep, showing us the darkness beneath our public facades.
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EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Charlie Jade’s Michael Filipowich
Sometimes cool stuff happens when you’re not even looking for it. Like how Mike and Jason were looking for writers to expand the roster here on Pop Critics just a couple weeks before one of my favorite shows was premiering. And how even though Sci Fi saw fit to bury Charlie Jade after two episodes, we’ve managed to keep a nice little group of fans coming back each week to talk about the show.
A couple weeks back, Mike forwarded me an email he’d gotten from someone who’d worked on the show and wanted to thank us for taking an interest in it: Michael Filipowich.
We weren’t actively looking for another interview, but if we had been, he would have been top of my list. His take on 01 Boxer is…well…crazy. But after exchanging a series of emails with him, I’ll tell you this is about the most carefully crafted, well-planned crazy I’ve seen in a long time. He knew exactly what 01 was doing, why he was doing it, and what his endgame was. He took a character who had initially been written as a one-dimensional psycho and fleshed him out into the crazy, funny, scary dimension hopper we know and love.
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Charlie Jade recap: “Choosing Sides”
Well I may have killed a few people, I may have even enjoyed it. But you want to walk away from 10 billion people. And they’re all going to die without your help. Which one of us is a psychopath? – 01 Boxer
Remember a few weeks ago when Charlie and 01 got a minute or two together on screen and it sparkled? What do you think about an entire act of the two together?
I had a chance to interview Michael Filipowich a couple weeks back; we’ll be posting that Wednesday morning. In that interview I found out just how lucky we all are the writing chores changed hands. The first guys…well, here’s Filipowich:
They were always worried about putting Jeff and I together…I swear they said this – “we don’t want to blow our load too early.”
Yikes. Fortunately, tonight we got an episode designed to bring them together.
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The Middleman recap: “The Clotharian Contamination Protocol”
I’m so glad I got attacked by that tentacled ass monster back in the lab and that you framed me so that I’d have to be your sidekick. Because I am so proud to be a MM. I’m proud to know you. And I want you to know, that since my dad disappeared, you’re the closest thing I’ve had to a father. – Wendy Watson
It was a blast this week. Let’s go through the checklist:
- Mark Sheppard, check.
- An ambiguously evil corporation that looks like Apple, check.
- Tyler Ford dressed like a shifty talent agent, check.
- Nanobots, check.
- Vejar references, check.
- Many Doctor Who references, check.
- Even more Die Hard reference, check.
- Dubby’s very touching Code 47, check.
- Oh yeah. And WENDY WATSON IN UNDERWEAR!!!
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Mad Men review: “The New Girl”
You’re never going to get that corner office until you start treating Don as an equal. And no one will tell you this, but you can’t be a man. Don’t even try. Be a woman. It’s powerful business when done correctly. – Bobbie Barrett.
The boys in the office might think the new piece of eye candy sitting outside Don Draper‘s office is the new girl, but we know it’s Peggy. Peggy is Don’s protege, his wingman, and his project, but tonight she asserts herself as her own woman. It takes a kick from a former dancer, but she finally knows she has to treat Don as an equal.
That’s easier to some extent now that she and Don have both covered for each other and both helped each other through trying times. We have a much clearer picture of what happened to Peggy after last year’s finale, finding her in the hospital unable to accept or comprehend why she was there. Don’s words of advice, as true to his nature as any he’s ever uttered, could have been stolen from the hobo’s code.
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Burn Notice recap: “Rough Seas”
Last time you were in town you nearly got her killed. That’s not going to happen again. – Michael Westen
Oh man, oh man. I-I-I don’t think I can do this. Do I have to…what…no. I-I-I really have to go…can I just…why don’t you just…No. No. Okay, okay, okay. It’s okay. Fine. Michael’s going to be late so I’m…do I have to…okay. I’m Jackson and I’ll be going in a minute, I swear. Michael’s going to be right back.
The Recap
Michael and Fiona have a meeting with her friend to ask about the sniper rifle. What? No. He’s an arms dealer. That’s not good. He’s an arms dealer in the middle of a deal with some angry B-B-Bulgarians and he makes Michael be his bodyguard? That’s really not good. At least they make it out in time, even if watching Fiona drive the Saab to shake off that SUV made me a little woozy. It’s okay. They’re okay.
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The Middleman recap: “The Vampiric Puppet Lamentation”
Young Noser will be rent limb from limb to save you!
You really can’t get much more literal than that, can you Middlefans?
Tonight’s episode of The Middleman finds Wendy Watson fighting to save Middleman, fighting to save Lacey, fighting to save Noser, and fighting puppets. Seems a bit of a let down that her big fight of the night was against a couple of vampire puppet minions, but she sure did kick their puppety butts.
Nosiree, No Noser Here
We open in the illegal sublet Wendy shares with another, photogenic young artist as she and Lacey doll up for a party. TMI for Wendy and us as Lacey tells her she had a sex dream about Pip. In her recollection of the sex dream, Pip was dressed as the Middleman which should have told her something, but Lacey didn’t seem to realize.
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Charlie Jade recap: “Thicker Than Water”
Blood. Blood’s thicker than water. But then blood’s just a synecdoche for family. And what is family?
The relationship between a father and son, certainly is family. So is that between lovers. Two orphans, watching each other’s backs and surviving on the streets through cunning. That’s family, too. In a world where six companies control everything, company is family as well.
Back in “Devotion” we saw some of Charlie’s training with the Vexcor security forces. At that time, they were welcomed into the fold by a behavioral specialist: “Vexcor is your future. Vexcor is your family. And you are its sons and daughters.” The familial relationship is cultivated within Vexcor to ensure its employees treat Mother Company with the respect and sense of duty required.
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Mad Men review: “Three Sundays”
My father beat the hell out of me. All it did was make me fantasize about the day I could murder him…And I wasn’t half as good as Bobby. – Don Draper.
For those viewers completely turned against Don Draper after last week’s events, I doubt three weekends in church and some time in the confessional are enough. Particularly as it wasn’t Don asking forgiveness.
The confession from Peggy’s sister was more about indicting Peggy than seeking absolution, more about a jealous older sister complaining about her baby sister is treated by everyone else. Peggy lives with remarkably few repercussions from her actions, almost unheard of today, let alone in a conservative Catholic household of 1962. Her mother is proud of Peggy’s accomplishments and never touches on her failings, though she’s too happy to apologize to Father Gil (Colin Hanks) for Anita’s overcooked chicken.