We solve exotic problems.

frederickm:

Watching The Middleman, and I’m realizing just how beautifully created the characters are.

Take a character like Lacey Thornfield, the confrontational spoken-word performance artist roommate of Wendy Watson. Her mother is Dr. Barbara Thornfield, MD. Ph.D., and after the first couple of viewings you wouldn’t understand how some artist living in an illegal sublet could be related, much less directly descended from, some workaholic doctor, and it seems kind-of out of place, like Lacey must be rebelling against her mom and that’s why there is the rift between them, but then you learn something like how Barbara couldn’t come to the last Art Crawl because she was disarming land mines in Bosnia, and you realize that Dr. Barbara Thornfireld, M.D. Ph.D., instilled this sense of social justice in her daughter, and while Lacey probably isn’t going to get an honorary degree in Abu Dhabi, she’s still going to fight the same fights that her mother is. 

It’s the same with the chemistry she has with The Middleman. They’re both just trying to fight the good fight, do well and do some good in the world.