It holds up quite well. I think it's a little bit more familiar now (in the way that older The Simpsons episodes feel less original, or Holmes stories thoroughly by the numbers; the stereotypical in them is there because the stereotypes moved closer to them, not the other way around), but that's at marginal effect; it's still a great mix of straight-faced comic book bollocks and strong baseline emotional and moral sanity.

I don't think I ever saw it in this way, but in that sense it follows the Star Trek: The Next Generation model: you follow a core of ethical, cooperation-oriented, polymath characters as they deal with increasingly bizarre occurrences with professionalism, empathy, and a generally positive outlook.

There's no word on whether there'll be any DVD/2nd season/movie trilogy, but go check the MiddleBlog.

Art Crawl! Fic Crawl! Filk Crawl!

Why not all of them?

tigerbright has just created ficandartcrawl. The rules are simple: create something that Wendy, Lacey or their friends would have created, and post it on the comm on January 30. While Middleman-inspired, it's by no means a Middleman-only challenge. It's for Art! (the exclamation point and the implied 'whoo!' at the end are mandatory).

And what's better than art?

So pimp it out, BNFs, sort-of-BNFs, people with a lot of friends and people with only a couple of them; word of mouth, emailed links, little asides on chat porn. Pass the spirit of 'Art Crawl!' through and outside the Middlefandom.

And, as usually, remember to always ask yourself: What Would Wendy and Lacey Do?

From io9 (which means you've probably seen it already): Exclusive: Has The Middleman Been Cancelled?

Of course it's not a surprise. Sturgeon's Law is not only the law... it's an active IP portfolio balancing strategy.

Awesome:

* ( MiddleMan spoiler.Collapse ) I have a thing, ok?

* Danny Rand, in general.

* fandomsecrets (he said with a certain shame)

Not so awesome:

* movieverse!Wanted. a) Curved bullets get old fast. Wesley's powers are supposed to be wider than that. b) The whole "taking hit orders from a loom" thing is absurd, even by Hollywood standards. c) In a bizarre turn of events, Angelina Jolie wasn't sexy, and Morgan Freeman wasn't cool. I feel like the universe is upside down.

* Late Heinlein novels. There's much to commend in them, but there's also something subtly off-putting in there.

* There's only one issue left of Pax Romana, and I think it's going to be rushed. I'd love to read much more of it.

* Being unable to sleep at 5:15 AM ETA: 6:45 AM.

It's late, I have a full day tomorrow, and I've been needing more sleep than usual this year, so I really should go to bed.

On the other hand, I have the latest episode of Middleman.

I'm so easy, it's not even a game.

ETA: That was totally worth it. Now I sort of want to write fanfic about Greenland.