For Your Paranormal Viewing Pleasure -- Review of NBC's Medium

Television has a love / hate relationship with the supernatural element. Sometimes shows that have a horror, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal element do well, but mostly that die quickly. Whether this is do to being done poorly, failing to find the right audience, or just plain bad timing is anyone's guess. Perhaps they are sometimes too dark or not dark enough. Perhaps the "cheese" factor is a bit on the high side. The exact formula to create a "good" show with paranormal elements is elusive; it probably even varies from hour to hour or day to day. There have been some successful shows in this wide genre: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Supernatural, Angel, Charmed, ect. As you can see from this list, the shows vary greatly in context and content. Currently there is a television show that is successful, in primetime on a major network that deals with supernatural elements. It is in its third season, and has been renewed for a fourth. It takes an approach different from the above list altogether.

The show is called Medium and it stars Patricia Arquette, Jake Weber, and Miguel Sandival. It airs on NBC and has been holding its own in a tough time slot. It's worth checking out even if you aren't into the horror/occult thing, because it is a show that is done well.

Patricia Arquette, Ed Wood, Lost Highway, Little Nicky, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, sister to Rosanna and David Arquette, plays Allison DuBois, a medium and profiler who works with the district attorney's office as a jury consultant and researcher. The character is based on Allison DuBois, an author, medium and profiler who says she has psychic abilities and has worked with the Texas Rangers and the Glendale Arizona Police Department to help solve crimes and that she has acted as a jury consultant for the District Attorneys office on numerous occasions. There is of course controversy surrounding her statements of her abilities, but that doesn't really detract from the show. The real Mrs. DuBois states that the show is not a day to day accurate accounting of her life, but rather an accurate representation of it. It isn't meant to be a biography, but rather based on her life experiences.

I tend to look on the show as good entertainment. I don't look on the show as being true events any more than I look on Lost as a documentary. The storylines are usually good, but it isn't always the crimes or the cases that keep you coming back. The cast gels and gels well. You see Allison is married and has 3 girls, ranging from not in school to a 13-year-old. All of them have to some degree inherited their mother's ability. Husband Joe is an aerospace engineer.

Patricia Arquette is an attractive brunette woman in her late 30's. Turn her hair blonde and she becomes an attractive wife and mother of three trying to balance a demanding job and family, sometime successfully, sometimes not. The character is not a two-dimensional stock character. Arquette is very believable and her interaction with her on-screen family is an intricate part of the balancing act, that is the show. It grounds it and makes the supernatural elements both believable and jarring.

Jake Weber has the difficult but interesting task of playing Joe, loving husband of a psychic phenomena. He does a great job and has gained a following as something of a sex symbol. It would be easy to cast the husband as a one-note character, but that hasn't been done. Joe is protective and supporting of his wife, but we get to see him go from dismissing her premonitions and dreams as stress related, to believing in his wife. Yet he doesn't follow along blindly, he is always challenging and grounding his wife. He tries to keep her feet in the reality of now and not let the unpleasant things she deals with derail her. He also occasionally has the struggle to help her retain her identity. This has been the season of Joe, as he has had several episodes revolt around him.

We have seen more of the Dubois daughters this season also. Sofia Vassilieva portrays Ariel the eldest daughter. She also sees the dead, can pick numbers out of people's heads, and has dreams. She is also recently turned into a teenager, and we see the struggle for identity start with her, as well as learning to deal with her unwanted abilities and life in general. Maria Lark is Bridgette, the middle girl and so cute it's almost painful. In one episode the family was being sent away to protect them from a serial killer stalking Allison. Bridgett asked to go back into the house to get her helmet and softball bat in case she needed to whack the serial killer. It wasn't done cutesy, but had a natural element. The actress is a natural clown and it flows into the character she is playing. Bridgette is also has dreams and sees dead people. She also seems to pull thoughts out of people's heads. Miranda Carabello is cast as Marie the youngest. So far, other than watching kids pay-tv channels the family don't see while staring at a static filled TV screen, we don't know much about her abilities and she is young to do much.

Allison's boss is DA Devalos. He has the unenviable task of explaining where some of his information comes from. We saw him go from dismissing Allison's claims to backing her in a few cases where there wasn't much to collaborate her theories.

Detective Scanlon rounds out the regulars. David Cubitt plays the detective my wife assures me is hunky. He rounds out the cast and his character has had some good fleshing out this season with a good back story.

The show is written, directed, and acted well. The cast meshes well, and the mixture of normal home life, crime, and the paranormal blend well. This season has really seen the show blossom and expand and it is well worth your time to check out an episode or two. Check it out in reruns if it interferes with your regular viewing. I can sense that you won't regret it.