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Medium: not a typical drama by Billie Doux [Originally published on N:Zone in 2005] "Even among the special, you're special." The theme of "Medium," a psychic bringing criminals to justice, has been done to death. So of course, it isn't the concept that matters; it's the execution. And that's where "Medium" has a chance to shine. If anyone can pull it off, Glenn Gordon Caron can. He was the creator of two out-of-the-ordinary, critical favorites: "Moonlighting," and the short-lived but wonderful science fiction drama, "Now and Again." Caron's heroine Allison Dubois (Patricia Arquette) lives in Arizona, is married to a really nice guy, and has three daughters. There is a lot of low key humor, and Allison's family life is often center stage. Her husband Joe (the very likeable Jake Weber) is a rocket scientist; he is charming and supportive and they're very much in love. Their three girls are all adorable stairstep blondes. The too-good-to-be-true family life is a framework intended to show Allison as normal in every way, with one exception. Even though she's emotionally stable, happily married, and a good mom, Allison is very much the victim of her gift. She sees dead people, has scary prophetic dreams, and occasionally reads minds. She is often fragile and moody, and tired of not being believed; she identifies strongly with the dead people that she sees, and the victims of the crimes she unintentially witnesses in her dreams. In the premiere, Allison was considering a career in law until her husband faxed a description of one of her dreams to the Texas Rangers, and Allison was immediately plunged into the middle of a nasty murder investigation of a teenaged boy who killed a six-year old. Although the particulars of the murder were moving, the focus of the episode was more on Allison's frustrating and often amusing experiences with one particular gruff Texas Ranger who thought she was either a charlatan, or a member of the underage killer's defense team. The second episode was about a serial killer necrophiliac (bleah) but the focus was on Allison as a consultant psyching out a pool of jurors for the local D.A. (another wonderful actor, Miguel Sandoval), hoping to find a panel that would vote for lethal injection. This was an interesting direction for them to go; the episode was intriguing and definitely worked for me. The dead people on "Medium" look like the living people, and we often don't realize at first that they're dead: no gore like in "The Sixth Sense" and "Beetlejuice." The theory is that the dead are everywhere: hanging around your house, watching you sleep, trying frustratedly to get someone to listen to them: an uncomfortable notion, to be sure. The scenes with the dead are often disquieting, like when Allison wakes up in the morning in bed with her dead father-in-law, or talks with a girl no one else can see. There is a real Allison Dubois, we are told. I'm not so sure it matters. It may even detract from the story a bit, because a real Allison makes it harder for me to suspend belief. So far, I like "Medium." It's entertaining and different, and the acting and writing are quality. But I'm not bowled over or fascinated -- not yet, anyway -- and I'm not yet convinced Patricia Arquette was the best choice for this difficult role. But I'm certainly intrigued enough by the first two episodes to keep watching. C'mon, Glenn Gordon Caron. Work your magic. |
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