"Medium"
Published January 08, 2005
I saw a mention of "Medium" starting this past week on teevee, about a psychic who helps solve crimes, "hooey", I thought, then I saw it starred Patricia Arquette, now I could check that out, maybe with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. I watched the pilot, which has Arquette playing a charming, pretty woman named Allison DuBois, who has a loving husband, three adorable little children, is studying to become a lawyer, and oh, yes, she sees dead people .... It's presented as a straightforward fact, but Arquette is so charming, humorous, straightforward and smart, it just gets glossed over.
In the pilot, she is interning at a DA's office, on her way to law school, but the dreams of missing children and dead people impel her to use her "gift", so she faxes police offices offering her help. She gets a reply from the Texas Rangers to help solve a case. The head Ranger is a short, angry, posturing man, but she quickly proves herself to him. It turns out the case involves a missing, presumed dead little boy, and they have a suspect in custody, a neighbour, but he'll be released in 10 hours unless they can come up with some evidence, since they don't have any. Allison talks to a dead girl, the suspect's sister, and concludes that he did it. She leads them to where she claims the body is buried, but lack of a warrant and a hurricane intervene. She confronts the suspect, a 17 year old, saying he was molested as a child, and is now part of a chain of evil, which needs to be broken. Telling the Ranger that he confessed to guy in the next cell, the Ranger confronts the cell-neighbour, gets him to confirm the confession, and the suspect is kept in prison to stand trial on capital murder.
Her good work done, Allison returns home to her family, and gets hired as a consultant to solve crimes with her "gift". The writing is clever, witty, crisp, Arquette is very good, and the whole production is bright and hits all the right marks.
- "Medium"
- Published: January 08, 2005
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Books: Crime, Video: Crime, Video: Television
- Writer: Jim Carruthers
- Jim Carruthers's BC Writer page
- Jim Carruthers's personal site
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Actually, teenagers don't watch MTV, and it isn't evil, simply because it doesn't think it is doing good. Allison DuBois and "Medium" are evil because they present what they do as good, without any consideration of right or wrong, just doing what they consider good, without any thought to consequences.
True evil always tells you to "have a nice day".
>>True evil always tells you to "have a nice day".<<
Actually, it usually tells me 'have a blessed day'.
The real crime in this show - which is defeinitely entertaining and well written - is putting Patricia Arquette in hideous beige lipstick which makes her look more like a walking corpse than the dead people she's talking to.
Dave
What would really make this been there-done that premise (CSI/Cold Case/Law & Order with a psychiczzzzzzzz....) interesting is if Arquette's character really was the true face of evil. We see her week after week manipulating the police and whoever for her own nefarious gains until X Intrepid reporter/police officer/whoever gets on her trail to stop her.
Now that at least sounds half-way worth watching, doesn't it?
"Millennium" came close, especially in the second season, particularly with ep about the demons meeting at a donut shop to compare their mis-deeds. But, Chris Carter hit the crack pipe, and the whole thing, along with X-Files just became a mess.
"Point Pleasant" which starts next week, sounds promising with the daughter of the devil washing up in New Jersey.
But the essence of true evil is in it's banality, and "Medium" has captured the essential spirit. And a note to the producers, if you are taking us all to hell, would it hurt to put a little effort into presenting Patricia Arquette a bit more smokin' hot?
I love the show medium!
You were losing me until you equated Dubois with pure evil ... then I couldn't help but to raise my eyebrows at what a good point you made. She really did play fast-and-free with due process to force a confession.
Very good call, very well written piece. I'll have to check out this site more often.
I love Medium because Jake Weber is soooooo sexy. I admit it... I watch t.v. shows for the eye candy whether I like the actual show or not. As for the real Alison Dubois - I agree. She's evil. Have a blessed day!
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Sounds like good, clean fun to me. I watched it, too. Just foolishness made up to entertain a brain dead public. One must watch it occasionally, else... be eaten by the evil it promotes. Sort of like watching an hour of MTV to see what the hell your teenagers are up to. Hmmm...I see a connection...Medium & MTV, both evil.