Out of all the “paranormal” series out there on mainstream television, I have to confess that I find Medium to be the one of the better entries. Inspired by a real-life psychic named Allison DuBois, Medium gives us an entirely fictional crime drama so that viewers don’t fall asleep repeatedly. Our heroine of the series, Allison (Patricia Arquette), is a very happily married woman with three girls in Phoenix, Arizona. Employed with the local District Attorney (Miguel Sandoval), Allison is frequently haunted by dreams and visions — usually regarding murder cases and kidnappings. And, while many people have their doubts over the real Allison’s abilities, the on-screen Allison always manages to come through for us.
In season five, Allison’s daughters (Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark, and Miranda & Madison Carabello) begin to show either advanced or beginning signs of having inherited their mother’s psychic abilities. Meanwhile, her faithful hubby Joe (Jake Weber, who is excellent as always, but still needs to work on his American accent) is busy trying to get his start-up company off the ground.
Episodes range from the deadly serious to the extremely lighthearted (a hilarious episode in which Arquette switches bodies with guest star Jeffrey Tambor is practically on par with a big-screen comedy). Anjelica Huston returns from season four for an episode. The ever creepy David Morse shows up for a three-parter as an industrial tycoon who entices Allison to come work for him and share her dreams (“How To Make A Killing In Business”). And co-star David Cubitt still manages to do his best impersonation of Jason Statham, Vince Vaughn, and Jason Evers all at the same time (hey, it isn’t an easy thing to pull off).
Article comments
1 - Mediumfan
Great review! Can't wait to see the dvd set. This is my favorite show ever and I'm so glad that it's still on the air. Oh, and just as an FYI- CBS Paramount owns and produces the show (and has since the beginning). NBC was airing it until the end of season 5 when they cancelled it. And that's why it's now airing on CBS, so I'd say it's a safe bet that we'll see more dvd sets of this show from CBS Paramount, and hopefully a couple more seasons on CBS.
2 - Mike
Can't wait to get the dvd!
3 - El Bicho
"the series was dropped by CBS at the end of season five, only to be picked up by network rival NBC."
Don't know if you were in a rush to beat the BCer assigned to this, but you have it backwards.
Producer Glenn Gordon Caron, who also created Moonlighting, deserves a mention.
4 - Luigi Bastardo
Jeez. No, I wasn't in a rush to beat anyone on this. I figured the assigned writer had probably already published his/her take on it.
Thanks for pointing out my goof, folks -- I'll see if I can't have that corrected. :)