OHHHHHHHHHH BOY! Where to begin on this? Well it stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as a medium, a la James Van Praagh. Actually he’s the producer on the show. I wonder if he’ll make small cameos like he did in this summer’s mini-mini-series (it was that small) "Living with the Dead", which was his semi-autobiography. Praagh could be spotted playing the organ in a church. You could miss him if you blinked.
Ok back to the review at hand. JLH stars as Melinda Gordon, a medium living a seemingly perfect life. She has a loving fresh brand-new husband unit, a small store with Aisha Tyler playing her employee and good friend Andrea Moreno. From the pilot she seems to be the plot device for Melinda to explain what goes on when she has her super-natural dilemmas.
Melinda, we learn in a short back-story presentation, has had this gift since birth and so does her grandmother and together they work to connect the dead to the living so they can say their goodbyes and go in peace. And it was a sweet scene, in the church, with a younger and confused Melinda transmits a widow’s husband’s last words of goodbye by whispering them in her ear and the new widow weeps with joy.
Then we cut to what is the most vomit-inducing opening credits scene I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s just horrible. It has pictures of JLH with horrible Barbie doll clothes and horrible Barbie doll hair and it just sells the show horribly. From all the promos and ads, I only got the feeling this would be Medium crossed with Touched by an Angel. A goody-goody show with a loving heart string tugging message at the end of each episode. The opening just makes it worse. But I keep watching anyway.
At her wedding, Melinda is dancing with her new hubby when in the window, a person’s breath appears and the tracing of an invisible finger, draws a compass rose. This is the first clue. The couple goes home, to their new home, a very old house in dire need of rebuilding. The couple itself is simply unbelievable. A just-married couple should be hornier than a ten peckered owl and yet we don’t even get a feel for chemistry between the two.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ronald Vaughan
Hey, keep reviewing "Ghost Whisperer" !
I missed some of those fine points you
described...interesting...
The show has both plus and minus points
...but if I weren't a JLH admirer (and
having written a parody song about her
in the movie "Mayor of the Sunset Strip")
I would not be watching it...
James van Praagh tries hard to convey
the occult/psychic stories, but he's no
Peter Hurkos (deceased real-life psychic).
One has to wonder: just HOW
far-out can these occult stories get
before the public won't like them any
more?
With the glut of such programs,
though, this one gets "A" for
effort...Somehow it got to #1 in the
network ratings two times in a row...
I hope this isn't a fluke!
2 - JELIEL
Ronald, I wish I could. but I'm busy watching a lot of shows and reviewing them all to my liking would take up all of my free time and some of my sleep time. There's just to much on this year.
Plus going back to work after 8 months on leave, is taking it's toll on me. I had gotten used to waking up at the crack of 3 or 4 in the afternoon... ugh!
I will definitly try to get my hands on Mayor of the Sunset Strip and see what this is all about =)
3 - Ronald Vaughan
Thanks for your comments, and hope you
enjoy "MAYOR OF THE SUNSET STRIP".
By now, GHOST WHISPERER has inexplicably
made #1 FIVE TIMES IN A ROW (ONE WHOLE
MONTH)!!
And speaking of Peter Hurkos...he made
for hire secret predictions for me on
May 15, 1973. Including one that I'd
get to know an "actress-singer-musician"
...this is a secret I'd kept for years
but now has been told (in Britain's
"Bizarre" Magazine, #99,page 99).
Are ALL Dutch people psychic? Well,
van Praagh sure has stumbled on SOMETHING that draws a big audience...
the show however, should be 30 minutes..
it drags on sometimes...and where's more
comedy relief?...it's sometimes a bit
"dark" with too much drama...
4 - Ronald Vaughan
Recently, "Ghost Whisperer" has dipped into
bizarre violence...I'd hate it if this show
suddenly dropped into a rut of trying to BE
the JLH movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer"
EVERY WEEK!
What counts is the COMPASSION and SOPHISTICATION
angle of the characters....VERY weird guest-star
(or is that GHOST-star) characters are OK to
serve a purpose...but not as a steady thing!
5 - Justene
Yes! One ghost that can cause violence and interact w people can fly but it's starting to be a weekly thing. Ugh. Flies in the face of that whisperer thing.
6 - Ronald Vaughan
"GW" seems to have stablized its format...However,
how long can quality scripts be written?
I can appreciate the work that goes into this
esoteric show...but how many episodes like "The
One" could be filmed? Above-average,but not
possible to do every week?
Jennifer Love Hewitt is doing a GREAT job in
spite of the difficult task. Now, the only
worry is to not fall into the rut of repetitive-
ness.
You've got to hand it to James van Praagh...he
certainly IS a master story-teller with an
ASTONISHING track-record of success!
7 - Ronald Vaughan
And I'm worried about changes made to the show.
Such as "killing off" a supporting character...
which seems to have happened in the cliffhanger
episode. (If it ain't broke, don't fix it, goes
a popular saying.)
Then, there's that matter of the "sophomore jinx".
Can GW succeed where Joan of Arcadia failed?
8 - JELIEL³
Yeah well getting killed off in a show about a medium... it's like Buffy/Angel, you always come back
9 - Ronald Vaughan
Also, CBS seems to have made a 2nd mistake...that
is, changing the day of repeat shows....so that
"GW" has fallen to 74th [sic] place, and CBS-TV
has finished 3rd in the current ratings (ABC is
now 1st).
I don't know whether this bodes ill or not.
But "GW" returns on September 22---exactly one
year after it started. The only thing one can do
is wait for the ratings to come in then....
10 - Ronald Vaughan
CBS seems to have slipped!
Though #1 in some areas,NBC seemed to up them
on this Friday night...
I personally was disappointed in the fact that
"Andrea's" character was killed off. The intro-
duction of Jay Mohr's character was good...
but the "bloom might be off the rose" for "GW"
and it's going to have to avoid the "sophomore
jinx" that stopped "Joan of Arcadia" cold....
11 - Ronald Vaughan
And by now (Oct.13,2006) this show has more or
less dropped to #2 in the ratings (instead of
staying #1).
The Oct.13 show I found to be like ONE LONG
COMMERCIAL...because it concerned the ghost
of an "autistic" male followed by TWO COMMERCIAL
advertisements...one for "depression"; and one
by JLH herself, for The Help Group (you know,
they sometimes have that "Teddy Bear Ball")
BUT that charity is about so-called "autism".
A growing number of people (including Mr. Tom
Cruise) feel that subjects like that are merely
LABELS about people having problems in living,
and NOT valid diseases. One does NOT have to
believe in Mr. Cruise's other views to acknowledge
that.
When a show has a topic that is then later echoed
in a commerical ad within the show, this is get-
ting to "blur the line",so to speak...and isn't
that a conflict of interest? I see it as in poor
taste.
"Ghost Whisperer" needs to avoid over-commercial-
ism as well as cheap horror effects. If it doesn't
then what COULD have stayed a fairly good ghost
show could wind up on the cancellation heap!
12 - Ronald Vaughan
I still have one other valid gripe against this
show. Despite some good stories,and good acting,
the show usually is TOO LONG!! After a full year,
I still feel the same about this.
It should be 30 minutes (except for certain episodes that need that extra time.) The action
sometimes moves too slowly.
13 - Ronald Vaughan
Recently,"GW" had a musical theme...a 3-way
conflict between a rock-musician son, his
classical-loving (and rock-hating) dad-ghost,
and jealous ex-band-mate ghost!
This episode was above average...but,by now,it's
evident that the new characters are showing
signs of wear...for example, Jay Mohr,a
comedian,attempting a "straight" role...
sometimes just doesn't work and comes off
wooden and two-dimensional...Oddly,this episode
once again has "GW" back at #2...because the
opponent show "Deal or No Deal" beat it out
this time...
14 - Ronald Vaughan
A recent "GW" show once again,featured a
commercial idea (a drug for "depression")
INSIDE a story line (thereby creating another
conflict-of-interest),similar to my complaint
of Oct.14,06 . Seems like every few shows
they do this. Not good---as also are implications
that a main character ("Jim") is about to be
killed off!
I heard that CBS is a major funder of some of
those drug companies! Also,not good.
The show's currently rated #1,but goofing
around with the story line and characters,
could unfortunately end that.
"Ghost Whisperer" was a good idea to begin
with; but I'll be that,by its last show,it'll
be totally different from what it started out
with!
15 - JL
Deal or No Deal is a crazy show. Common!! Ghost Whisperer and Deal or No Deal is 2 different shows. A gameshow and a drama. Why not have a competing same format show.
I'll go for Whisperer
I hate Howie Mendel...
This fall GW will face Men IN Trees... which will be a falling trees... after a big Whisper.. ahahahaha
16 - mariana
i love ghostwhisper it is my favorite movie i lovvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeee it
17 - Maxy
Ghost Whisperer is essentially a vehicle for J.L.H's boobs. The final three episodes of the series were supposed to finally satisfy critics who were calling for a developing storyline..instead what we got were story lines and characters from that would have made B-movies look good. The final few minutes of the final episode of Season Two where her paramedic husband sits back and watches her "die" while a bunch of children "bring her back to life" by laying on hands was too much to bear. Ghost Whisperer should have stuck with its Touched by an Angel format and left well alone. Mediums on the other hand manages story lines and realistic characters well...without resorting to soft porn shots of the female leads boobs!
18 - Ronald Vaughan
Unfortunately, "Maxy" is becoming right...and
"GW" is mutating into total nonsense...as
opposed to other "occult" series...
So...has "GW" really "jumped the shark" (passed
its finest moment)?
If so---then JLH staying on could actually hurt
her career!
19 - Ronald Vaughan
Jennifer Love Hewitt makes this show watchable, but as of October 12, 2007 (and re:my previous comment) I do believe that "GW" has indeed
started repeating itself.The bloom may be off the rose:
That episode was similar to the first show (involving military soldiers). Either the ghost of a dead soldier;or a living soldier haunted by ghost soldiers.
Oddly,"GW",on the Oct. 12 recent episode,slid to #2 in the ratings. "GW" had been #1 since its premiere.
The concept was a good idea,but certain aspects of the occult can only see so much murky speculation and no more. (Have shows like this reached the saturation point? There are several by now!)
20 - Christopher Rose
I hate this type of show, which preys upon people's feelings of hope, fear and love.
21 - Ronald Vaughan
Occasionally,this show does still have some
bright moments.
The Halloween episode was,for some reason,above-
average. Despite the fact that it repeated:
(1) reference to madness
(2) reference to locking people in a burning
building
The story---that a whole town went mad from
ergot (bread mold,that can be used to make LSD)
poisoning "worked" because it was plausible.
Rescuing the "Melinda" character from a cave
was done well.
Also, I sense that more work went into this
episode because it was for a special occasion
(Halloween.) First and last episodes of the
season are of course,certainly to be of a higher
quality...
But "GW" now has first-time competition: the
game show "Deal or No Deal". And then,there's
the probablility of an entertainment-business
strike at this moment.
22 - Ronald Vaughan
The 11/16/07 "GW" episode featured yet another
death in the woods!
Gee, I count about at least a dozen so far...
that "woods" set ought to be made a tourist
attraction or something as part of a "Ghost
Whisperer" ride,LOL!!
23 - Ronald Vaughan
I made my OWN prediction a while back. That "Ghost Whisperer" would go off the air suddenly, like its predecessor, "Joan of Arcadia", in the
midst of success.
With the unlikely entertainment strike in full swing,"GW" is indeed scheduled to go into terminal repeats in January,2008.
One wonders: is there some kind of REAL "karma" involved here?
24 - Ronald Vaughan
On December 28, "GW" is going to repeat "The
Curse of the Ninth" (that "musical" episode
from last season.)
I heard that,with the strike being prolonged,
the last new episodes of this show will air
in January,2008. Then,it would go into terminal
repeats and be cancelled.
25 - Ronald Vaughan
This show got an unexpected reprieve. Somehow it managed to get renewed, after the Writer's Strike ended.
BUT, it's become a goulash of confused ideas... some may now ask,what's the continued appeal of this show?
Who knows what'll happen next with this program?