The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse

But first, some background.  Back in the summer of 2008, a spectacular show debuted on ABC Family.  That show was The Middleman and if you haven't seen it, you should grab a copy of the DVD and start watching it ASAP.

Middleman: You know how in comic books there's all kinds of mad scientists and aliens and androids and monsters, and all of them either want to take over or destroy the world?
Wendy: In comic books, sure
Middleman: Well it really does work like that
In the first episode, The Middleman recruits Wendy Watson as his sidekick/middleman in training.  Together they fight evil, so you don't have to.  Wendy is a struggling artist who lives with fellow artist and best friend Lacy Thornfield.  They have a highly unreasonable loft apartment (which the show comments on regularly) and get into all sorts of art-related shenanigans together.  Their friend Noser lives in the hallway and knows more about music than you do.

The Middleman packs as many cliches and pop culture references as it can into every single episode.  They're seriously a ton of fun to watch.  You probably won't pick up on all of the references, but you will catch a few more each time you watch it.

Sadly, the show only got 12 episodes.  The season finale was never produced; instead a comic book was released to tie up all of the loose ends.

The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse is that comic book.  And it does a very good job of tying up all the loose threads that were left over from the TV series.  There is, of course, an evil mastermind with an intricate plan to take over the world.  And, of course, the Middleman and Wendy Watson show up to save the day.  We also find out the Middleman's real name (!) and the identity of his one true love (!!!).  The story also makes nice use of the fact that comic books don't place a restriction on the special effects budget (which is something the eighth season of Buffy took way too far).

The comic book also includes a nice rundown of all the cultural references that were made over the course of this story.  It's a handy guide for people who will never pick up on every little detail by themselves.  Thanks to this, I learned that the exterior shot of Middleman HQ is actually a building in Denver (at the corner of 17th and Blake).  If I hadn't procrastinated and had bought this book last year when I was still living in Colorado, I would have been able to totally geek out and get outside of picture of said building.  That'll teach me to put off material acquisition.

Seriously, though.  If your life is lacking Middleman, that needs to be fixed now.  Buy the DVDs.  Buy the comic books.  You'll be glad you did.

PS  The comic book even includes a Wilhelm scream, a sound effect that was used in every single episode of the TV show

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