|
|
MEDIUM |
Allison Dubois - Patricia Arquette Joe Dubois - Jake Weber Manuel Devalos - Miguel Sandoval Lee Scanlon - David Cubitt Cynthia Keener - Anjelica Huston 
OTHER MEDIUM SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 THEY ALSO SEE DEAD PEOPLE Ghost Whisperer Haunted Afterlife Millennium 
|
And ThenA boy is kidnapped from a toy store and a big manhunt is underway. Allison has some dreams that contain clues, but with Devalos still on leave and Scanlon on school liaison duty there is nobody to tell them to. That is until Cynthia Keener from private detective firm Ameritips shows up. The new season of MEDIUM picks up exactly where the last one ended up. Allison’s secret is out and she is still persona non grata in the DA’s office. The frustration this causes her as she has clues to solving the case of the missing boy, but no way of acting on them forms the main part of the plot, giving Patricia Arquette a new direction in which to go with the character. She also gets a new female character to work off in the shape of Angelica Huston’s Cynthia Keener. Huston is a strong presence and has the guts to make her character a less than completely likeable one, instantly creating an impact that we hope means she will be around for a while. The crime in question is a bit nastier and more gruesome than most of the ones in the show, not least because it happens to a child, but that’s probably just the kick start to get the new season going. Written by Glenn Gordon CaronDirected by Aaron Lipstadt Top But For the Grace of GodAllison is dreaming about Ariel in a car wreck and is determined that her daughter won’t be going to concerts with boys just yet. Ariel dreams of her mother’s best friend when she was Ariel’s age and how they got around their parents’ strictures. None of this is helping Allison solve the case of a missing girl, however. This is a more standard episode of MEDIUM for the new season, but it does have more of the domestic side of the show since neither Allison nor Joe actually have jobs now. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the way that the dreams come together to solve the crime, create a bond between mother and daughter and solve a childhood mystery is a bit more contrived by most. Allison’s panic at her daughter’s future situation doesn’t feel real, especially when it is obvious from the mobile phone in the very first scene that this cannot be something that is going to happen in Ariel’s future. Written by René EchevarriaDirected by Peter Markle Top To Have and To HoldJoe has a real shot at a new job, but when he is invited with his wife to a party by the new employer, Allison finds that she is famous. Then they receive a call that the employers' daughter has gone missing and they need Allison's help in finding her. Allison, however, is only dreaming dreams of Paris. The actual crime here is so bizarre that it really unbalances the reality of the show. That and the fact that the moment Joe gets a sniff of a new job his would-be employer is involved in a kidnapping. It's a good deal more manufactured and manipulated than is usual and only the domestic side of the story works on any sort of believable level. Written by Robert DohertyDirected by Aaron Lipstadt Top Do You Hear What I HearA deaf girl is kidnapped and Allison suffers profound hearing loss. Cynthia Keener takes up the case of getting the kidnapped girl back, but the father seesm to find her advice less satisfactory than having her being advised by the deaf Allison. Some of the best episodes of MEDIUM have come from a single idea that is built up into the whole basis of the show. This one comes from Allison being deaf and the frustrations that brings to her. The completely silent sequences are startling and uncomfortable and add greatly to what would otherwise be a fairly standard police pocedural story with a solution that is predictable almost from the off. Written by Corey ReedDirected by Travis Donnelly Top Girls Ain't Nothing But TroubleLarry Wyatt is a man that Allison has crossed paths with a couple of times and never on a friendly basis. Now he wants to hire Allison to consult on the case of a man accused of murder, a murder that Allison initially believes he committed. Money rules the world and certainly has a bearing on the strength of our morals at times. Allison is broke and accepts to work with a man that she detests, but she has real problems dealing with the fact that she is helping to protect a guilty man. Of course, it becomes clearer that the man isn't guilty, but if he isn't they who is and why is he covering up for them. It helps that the accused man is the ever reliable William Sadler, but nothing much else about this episode rises above the average. Written by Moira KirlandDirected by Vincent Misiano Top AftertasteManny Devalos is prevailed on by the local senator to run for the office of DA once again and he calls in Allison to help with the campaign. She suffers problems with doing this, however, when she has a dream of the senator eating a homeless man. Some of the crimes that Allison gets involved with are really a bit too bizarre to believe and this is one that initially appears to be utterly ridiculous, but slowly settles down to be something that never quite becomes believable, but is at least utterly plausible. If you accept the initial premise then the rest does come to make sense and it is, at least, a change from the usual murder/kidnapping that the show deals with. The initial dreams are also up there with the more disturbing ones that Allison has had. Written by Craig SweenyDirected by Miguel Sandoval Top Burn Baby Burn- Part 1Manny asks Allison's help in exonerating a man who is accused of killing his wife, but she is dreaming about a dentist who apparently picks up prostitutes to mess with their mouths. Ariel, meanwhile, dreams of a suicide by petrol can that at least has some bearing on the case in question. The case has Scanlon and the acting DA on one side and Manny and Allison on the other, something that causes no end of friction between them. At the same time, Joe's mother shows up to lend them money and to spend some time, something that usually leads to much more friction than her work ever could. This is the first of a two-part story and so has a slower burn than others and more strands to play with. The scenes where the three ex-partners are bickering over the guilt or innocence of the man accused of setting his wife alight are both funny and dramatic at the same time, but will only work for those who have been following the show for long enough to know the working relationships that the three of them had built up over time. The level of performance remains as high as ever. The complexity that the case is allowed because of the longer running time means that there is less sense to play with at the beginning, but since it opens with the very dramatic and graphic self-immolation of a woman there is enough dramatic impetus to keep the story going. Add to that the dramatic news brought by Joe's mother and the presence of Anjelica Huston as the unapologetically acerbic Cynthia Keener and there is much for the fan of the show to get their teeth into. Written by Javier Grillo-MarxuachDirected by Leon Ichaso Top Burn Baby Burn- Part 2Whilst struggling with the secret that her mother-in-law has asked her to keep from Joe, Allison has more dreams that tend to suggest that the alleged wife-killer is both guilty and innocent and that the dentist is a killer and not the killer of the wife. It's all very confusing, which doesn't help her relationships with ex-DA Devalos, detective Scanlon or Cynthia Keener. The various strands of the case in this double episode finally come together to a satisfying, though not wholly believable, conclusion. Before that, however, there are some more scenes of conflict between the three ex-workmates and some nicely judged acid from Anjelica Huston to keep things on the bubble. The show is beginning to exhibit signs of struggling to find new ways to keep the format fresh and original, but it remains a pretty good drama with a core of very good performances. Written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach & René EchevarriaDirected by Vincent Misiano Top Wicked Game- Part 1When a young girl is kidnapped, Allison finds herself dreaming about another young girl who went missing - the daughter of Cynthia Keener. The dreams tell that she was locked up in a bomb shelter with another girl, but that there is hope of escape. All is not, however, as it seems. It was probably only a matter of time before guest character Cynthia Keener became the focus of one of Allison's dreams and so it is hardly surprising that she is hiding a secret pain. This being Anjelica Huston, though, that pain is recreated brilliantly and heartbreakingly as hope and horror and helplessness mingle together on the face of a woman who has struggled long to harden herself to it. It's a great performance that lights up an otherwise familiar retread of the MEDIUM formula. Joe's having his own dreams, a disturbing mix of Sports Illustrated swimwear special and child's drawing, that lead him to an invention that might spell the end of the Dubois' money problems, but might also spell the end of any hope of the kids going to college. And then there's the final twist, which should be predictable, but which comes as a huge surprise. Written by Diane Ademu-JohnDirected by Peter Werner Top Wicked Game- Part 2Now knowing that one of the women released from captivity was in fact a willing participant, if not the driving force behind the kidnappings, Allison and Cynthia try to smoke out her and a previous accomplice, but some criminals are just too careful The domestic saga of Joe being angry with Allison because she won't raid the college savings in order to fund his invention takes a very second place to the conclusion of the case of Cynthia Keener's daughter. This storyline allows Anjelica Huston to do some powerful emoting, but she keeps it firmly on the right side of overdoing it. This story will probably be the last that we see of her and that's a shame because we really got to like her spiky character. The attempts to bluff the killers out into the open is nothing new and has been done better in any number of police procedural shows, but it is perfectly competent, even if the manner of the crimes is a bit too far beyond the pale to really believe in. Written by Robert DohertyDirected by Arlene Sanford Top Lady KillerAllison dreams of a woman who romances men and then kills them for sport. When the woman is brought in for questioning, however, she is nothing like the character in Allison's dream beyond the face. Rosanna Arquette co-stars in her sister's show as the woman in Allison's dreams who may or may not be offing the men that she sleeps with. They don't share a lot of scenes together, but Rosanna is certainly attractive enough to get the men to go with her and plays the dual roles rather well. The final solution to the whodunnit, though, is a good deal less believable. Written by Davah Feliz AvenaDirected by Peter Werner Top Partners in CrimeAllison is concerned when FBI profiler Cooper comes back into town hunting a serial killer. Cooper previously killed a suspect, giving Allison cause to believe that he wasn't the first, but he manages to persuade her that he merely wants to catch this one. Until, he gets killed himself, that is. The big twist halfway through this story isn't really a spoiler point as it's shown in the opening sequence without enough mystery to obscure it, so when it happens it hardly comes as a surprise. The interaction between Cooper and Allison is hard to take to begin with since she so hated him and yet agrees to work with him at the drop of a hat and then comes to treat him as the most trusted associate. Cooper, at least, manages to stay true to form. Written by Robert Doherty & Craig SweenyDirected by Vincent Misiano Top A Cure For What Ails YouWhen a friend of Scanlon's girlfriend dies tragically, Allison has a dream that targets a pain medication she had taken. The drug appears to have been tampered with and thus the husband is implicated, but when other victims of the tainted drug are found, the net is cast wider. The solution to the police case in this week's story is pretty unbelievable. It was a lot more believable when it was used in Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. The road to the solution is the same old, same old. It is therefore fortunate that the plot strand involving Joe and his partner developing his invention brings in the possibility of a seduction to spice up a format that has been looking a bit stale around the edges recently. Written by Corey Reed & Travis DonnellyDirected by Arlene Sanford Top Car TroubleAllison dreams that her old car is about to explode and kill everyone, so Joe buys a newer secondhand one that he finds at an unbelievable low price. The reason the price was so low turns out to be that the wife of the owner of the car was killed in a carjacking in that very car and the vehicle seems determined to let Allison know what really happened. Haunted cars aren't that common in science fiction and fantasy and rarely turn up in horror either, so this episode feels a bit fresher than others of late and it does end on an ambiguous note that widens out the mythology of MEDIUM beyond that of human spirits. Can a car be possessed? Can it want revenge? Written by René EchevarriaDirected by Peter Werner Top Being Joey CarmichaelA drug dealer is murdered and Allison's dreams take her and detective Scanlon to one Joey Carmichael, a man who was shot in the head and has limited control over his hands. His twin brother, now that would be another matter since he was a very bad man, but his brother is dead. Sort of. Bringing in Miguel Ferrer to any show is never a bad idea and here he gets to play two characters who change over time and flashbacks so he has to try and make the performances subtly different with very little screen time and does a pretty good job of it too. The special effects where he appears on screen with himself are absolutely flawless. Much more flawed is turning Joe's business partner Meghan into a FATAL ATTRACTION stalker type. It really feels false and manufactured and you can't help but wonder if she has some sort of plan to cheat Joe out of his invention. As next week is the last episode we should soon find out. Written by Robert Doherty & Craig SweenyDirected by Arlene Sanford Top Drowned WorldAllison dreams of a baby being drowned after meeting a woman who hears water and a baby crying in her house when alone at night. When that woman kills herself, leaving a note to implicate her apparently loving husband, an older crime is uncovered. Joe's invention, meanwhile leads to a lot of money and a new job offer. The crime that Allison is solving in this last episode of Season 4 has a coincidence at its heart that is so hard to take that it becomes completely unbelievable. It also requires a woman to completely forget the most traumatic event that ever happened to her and the place where that event happened even when buying that house years later. None of this works even whilst watching let alone when thinking about it afterwards. The resolution of events with Joe and his business partner Meghan isn't exactly a surprise, though the subsequent job offer nicely bookends the story off and Manuel Devalos also finds himself with job developments that means should this be last episode everything is nicely tied up, but things are left in place to carry right on. Written by Moira KirlandDirected by Aaron Lipstadt Top |
|
|
If this page was useful to you please sign our 
