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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.

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  • Burn Notice recap: “Bad Blood”

    I’m Jimmy Glynn. Mike asked me to talk to you rats about tonight’s episode. There was a wicked awesome monsoon in Phoenix earlier that knocked out satellite coverage, so this is a little later than usual.

    The Recap

    Mike takes Carla’s crossword puzzle and tracks down his new wrangler, Victor. He looks like a fruit in a flowered shirt, but he pulls a .22 on Mike pretty damn quick. He hands Mike a cellphone and tells him he needs to keep it with him all the time.

    Mike knows while he’s working with Victor, things are gonna be dicey for his ma, so he sends Sam to stay with her. When Sam gets there, he thinks some mook’s setting up cameras, but it’s just a friend of the family helping Madeline out with her VCR. A mook who needs help from Mike. That’s where I come in.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Identity”

    What makes you who you are?

    Does your identity come from what you do? Where you come from? Something else? I met a girl one night, a friend of a friend of a friend, and asked her what she did. She told me she “tried to do one thing a day to bring her joy.” Now, the pragmatist in me wanted to kick her out of my car. But the guy looking to get lucky said, “that’s a beautiful answer.” Did she answer my question?

    Tonight’s episode asks that question several times.

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  • The Middleman recap: “The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown”

    Crack wise all you want about my Eisenhower jacket Dubby. But I wear it because it’s named after a man who led soldiers through harsh times against the darkest of evils. This jacket says something about…about me. The man I choose to be.

    Middleman 2008 is all about honor and duty and pride and sacrifice. He watches westerns and believes in true love. He drinks milk and eschews obscenities. He’s a throwback to a simpler time. But that’s not the job, that’s the man. So when Middleman 1969 – a suave and slimy Kevin Sorbo – is thawed out to face off against his arch-nemesis, there’s more than a little tension the Middleranks.

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  • Mad Men review: “The Benefactor”


    Matt Weiner is a stickler for historical verisimilitude. Whether it’s the shade of a woman’s hair, the length of her skirt, or the night CBS aired an episode of The Defenders. “The Benefactor” aired in the spring of 1962, and its three regular sponsors pulled their ads for the night. The episode was controversial at the time as it presented an unequivocal argument for the legalization of abortion, and it set the show on a course to presenting more issues of import.

    For Harry Crane – the always wonderful Rich Sommer, it meant a $25 raise and promotion to the head of the new Television Department at Sterling-Cooper.

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  • Burn Notice recap: “Scatter Point”


    My name’s Joseph. You’ll have to forgive me if this recapitulation of tonight’s episode does not meet your normal plebian tastes. Michael Westen asked for the best and I can give no less.

    The Recap

    Michael and Fiona continue to surveil the mail drop where Carla’s post office box is located. A long, boring process with which I am happy not to be involved. An older woman collects the mail and Michael follows her to a nondescript building with no visible security. Ordering a pizza, Michael has the delivery driver behave erratically to explore a theory. The building is watched by a covert team. Later that evening, Michael mounts a webcam on a nearby building to monitor the comings and goings of the security team.

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  • The Middleman recap: “The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation”


    Tonight sees the return of Tyler, Wendy Watson‘s soulmate from “The Sino-Mexican Revelation”. He’s been getting some fuzzy memories back slowly, then received a paycheck for $14.73 from his 90 minutes working at The Booty Chest, the pirate-themed sports bar with the scantily-clad waitresses. He went by and found out he’d been flirting with a waitress…

    …Lacey Thornfield.

    Things aren’t shiny for Wendy.

    Who You Gonna Call?

    While scanning various frequencies, Ida picks up a call from nearby Reitman University. Seems a call came in from a sorority regarding ghosts.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Betrayal”

    See, I told y’all stuff was gonna happen, right? Holy hellfire! While this episode has some very nice character moments slipped in, it’s really all about story. A lot gets pushed forward, some ideas that had been dropped for weeks get brought back to the forefront where they belong, and we say goodbye to at least one old friend. Despite all the spackle the new writers had to use to hide the gaps between the old way and the new, this episode crackles.

    Before we jump in, don’t forget to check out our exclusive interview with head writer Alex Epstein.

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