4 VERY BIG STARS
*I do apologize for the length of this blog. This is about a show on for 7 years so there is a lot to write about.*
"There really is an Allison DuBois. Really......."
I have been captivated with this show ever since those words graced my television screen graced right before the series premiere in 2005. I have to say possibly one of the finest network television shows ever. Fine acting. Superb writing! Some of the most imaginative storytelling to be on the the small screen in years. Genuinely creepy at times. The DuBois family is one of the most wonderfully weird television families ever written, making the Addams Family look like the Cleavers. Honestly, I do not personally know another fan of the show besides my dad and myself. I so hope that people read this blog and then go onto Netflix and watch all seven seasons. I really cannot see how anyone with half a brain could not be disappointed with this show. I say again though, you have to possess a brain to even half-way enjoy this unbelievable program.
Patricia Arquette portrays Allison DuBois, a medium and profiler who actually exists. She is married to man named Joe, an engineer, and has three girls. Although, their names were changed in the series. Also, as in the show, she resides in Phoenix, Arizona and does often work with law enforcement like the Texas Rangers, as shown in the pilot. Arquette was a brave, but smart choice as Allison. Arquette was famous for playing trashy, criminal types (True Romance, Stigmata). She played the soccer mom role to a T, caring for her family as any mom would but also possessed just enough raw edginess to deal with the crazed lunatics of her job.
I urge you not to go into this program and think it is some cookie cutter police drama about some soccer mom trying to put some excitement in her life. I like to call many of the episodes deliciously demented. "Medium" deals with some of the most violent predators, psychotic serial killers, and out right sadistic crimes ever shown on network television. The writing and story ideas are so very smart, some of the smartest I've ever seen. They really try to make the DuBois family as real as humanly possible. They live on top of each other in a regular 3 bedroom home. They certainly have their share of money troubles. Allison spends most of the show's run driving an old Volvo station wagon. The only difference is she and her very patient husband have the ghosts of murder victims and serial killers coming in and out of their lives, often coming into their home or even possessing her body all together. But the majority of her visions come through in her dreams, which is how every episode starts off. I spent most of the 129 episodes feeling so sorry for Joe. He should get a medal, living in a house of 4 females, all of whom share the gift. He and Allison have a dynamic that only a man married to a medium can have. They get into knock down drag out fights just like real couples, except not all of the arguments are over the usual family things. There are also many episodes where Allison wakes up with one or more of her 5 senses missing or as someone else completely through possession. For example, in About Last Night (Season 5, episode 4), Allison is possessed by a young hispanic woman who needs her to saw off her hand from her dead body and use the fingerprint to gain access to a computer which will help solve the dead girl's murder.
Her kids are a very important part of the show, also dreaming or seeing things normally linked to a case she is working on. However, at times it could be a totally different storyline all together. In one episode, the youngest Marie, talks to a voice coming from the home alarm system which is of course connected to one of Allison's cases for the Phoenix District Attorney's office. The oldest, Aerial, is featured in a groundbreaking episode (Season 6, episode 20 Time Keeps on Slipping) where she keeps losing time, so much that she sees her life way in the future as a married woman with a child of her own. Bridgette, the precocious middle child seems to have the significant dreams. In Season 3, episodes 1 and 2 (Four Dreams), Allison and Bridgette both dream about the same case, just in different ways.
I was personally engrossed from episode 1 to the final, which was brilliant, yet heart felt, but closed the series nicely. Especially if you like anything supernatural or horror in nature when it comes to your movies, you will also love this show. "Medium" can be damn creepy at times, but far from creepy in a cheesy way. Between The Twilight Zone and The Walking Dead, there was Medium.
Thank you and see you at the next blog.
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