I inwardly groaned when I saw another show based on a superhero, this one from Viper Comics. So far television’s aired a mixed bag of programs in the genre, ranging from entertaining to boring. The Middleman, fortunately, falls under entertaining.

The following sentences contain spoilers. You are warned. The first episode, entitled "The Pilot Episode Sanction", introduces the heroine, Wendy Watson (played by Natalie Morales), and her oddball friends and coworkers. Recently graduated from art school, Wendy works a series of temp jobs to give herself time to paint. At her latest job she’s a receptionist for a research lab when a slimy blob of a monster breaks through the glass behind her, the room engulfed in flames. The Middleman (played by Matt Kesslar), wearing a business suit, shows up and kills the creature, Wendy unafraid and helpful. Impressed, the Middleman offers her an apprenticeship as his sidekick.

The next day at the temp agency Wendy, not trusting the Middleman, tries to find another job. The woman in charge fires her because Wendy’s lighter, a keepsake from her father, was found at the burned-out lab. Day after day Wendy tries to find work, to no avail. Finally, she has to take the Middleman up on his offer.

At the Middleman’s hideout Wendy meets Ida (played by Mary Pat Gleason), an alien robot stuck in schoolmarm mode and some gadgets of the O2STK, the organization that employs the Middleman. Still in shock, Wendy is immediately put to work. Her first case – to discover why all the mobsters are being killed.

The Middleman and Wendy, now also in a business suit, arrive at an Italian restaurant and gather clues. More and more mobsters die as they investigate. Finally they catch a gorilla shooting wiseguys. Incredibly the gorilla can speak fluent English and informs them he’s going to take over organized crime. Eventually the Middleman and Wendy trace the gorilla to a federally funded research lab where they discover the animal is being controlled by a female researcher.

The case solved, the Middleman rewards Wendy with the return of her father’s lighter, as he admits planting it for the police to find, so she’d accept his job offer. She forgives him and uses the experience for her painting.

There are two other characters, Lacey Thornfield (played by Brit Morgan), Wendy’s roommate and friend, in an illegally sublet apartment. She’s an artist who expresses herself in environmental protests. The other is called Noser (played by Jake Smollet), who cites song lyrics to anyone who enters the hall to the apartment. He plays a guitar as he sits in a chair. He’s always in the same place.

The Middleman’s gee-whiz, gosh darn profanity takes some getting used to, as well as his drinking cow squirt, aka milk. But he is entertaining, after all. Noser seems at the moment to be a throw-away character, but maybe that’s a ruse. In any event, the show is well-cast. The dialogue moves along at a fast clip and the costumes and set are colorful, but not cartoonish.

I recommend The Middleman and look forward to future episodes.