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GHOST WHISPERER |
Melinda Gordon - Jennifer Love Hewitt Jim Clancy - David Conrad Delia Banks - Camryn Manheim Eli James - Jamie Kennedy 
OTHER GHOST WHISPERER SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 THEY ALSO SEE DEAD PEOPLE Medium Haunted Afterlife Millennium 
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Birthday PresenceMelinda's son is born in difficult circumstances at the exact moment that the book of prophecies says he would be. Five years later, Melinda sees the ghost that has been coming to him on each birthday, a ghost who believes that he is her son and should accompany her into the light. Because the person being threatened is Melinda's child and because there is no explanation for it, the final season of GHOST WHISPERER appears to be going for something new, but as the story develops it becomes clear that we are back to the same template of a scary ghost who just has to have their story uncovered before there can be a few tears, a big bear hug and the living can go on happy in the knowledge that the dead have gone into the light. The addition of a new member to the perfect couple looks like threatening to provide even more saccharine sentimentality (we didn't think it was possible) and this final series could be the one that finally does for us from glucose overload. TopSee No EvilA friend of Ned's has her room trashed, apparently in response to her deleting a chain email that promised dire consequences for anyone who doesn't send it on. Melinda learns of a ghost who died as a result of deleting the email. This starts off intriguingly with the possibility of the cursed email, but as soon as the fact that a ghost was responsible for most of the problems it settles down into the same old pattern. The fact that the tearful goodbye featurest two ghosts instead the dead and the living is the only variation. This does introduce a ghost with stitched up eyes and mouth (beware anyone who is sensitive about their eyes) who looks like being a recurring character, but is otherwise unremarkable. TopTill Death Us Do StartEli's father dies and wants to know where his wife is. She doesn't want anything to do with him even though she died years before and is still hanging around. Digging into the past brings up some awkward and difficult skeletons for Eli to deal with about the night his mother died. The fact that the dead in this story are Eli's folks and that the two men in the love triangle are Barries Newman and Bostwick doesn't make the slightest difference to the adherence to the GHOST WHISPERER template. There are lots of red herrings to sort out before finally everyone gets together, talks it through and the dead go into the light after a group hug. Jamie Kennedy makes it all bearable with his funny performance as a son dealing with truths about his parents that no son should ever need to know. TopDo OverWhilst Delia is romanced, apparently by a man that she does not like, Melinda must dig into a case where a doctor made a mistake 50 years earlier, killing his patient. The identity of Delia's mystery man is so obvious from the outset that the whole plot strand is undermined, whilst some of the stunts that he pulls just would not work in real life. That said, one thing this show does not need is a little more love. The ghost story fits into the standard GHOST WHISPERER pattern and barely manages to maintain interest, though it does introduce a new ghost in the morgue who clearly is going to be around for a while. TopCause For AlarmA computer software magnate suffers from several mental disorders that limit his ability to deal with the outside world, but when a ghost appears to have invaded his high-tech security system, Eli brings Melinda in to sort out the case. This is another case of an intriguing start that rapidly falls victim to the GHOST WHISPERER template and there is a serious sense of deja vu since this deals with a previously unrevealed family relationship for the mystery. It's definitely a 'been there, seen that' episode and GHOST WHISPERER at its most repetitive. TopHead Over HeelsAidan's teacher at school is a member of a rich family of horseriders who lost their father to alzheimer's disease. Melinda sees a headless horsemen and it is clear that a family tragedy is still haunting them, but a tragedy that is of whose making? Another intriguing start with the Halloween setting and the headless horseman wandering around, but the tried and tested GHOST WHISPERER format comes into play, the mystery is solved and the light is crossed over into after a few teary eyed farewells. The only spark of interest comes in the final minutes as Eli learns some things about Aidan's not so imaginary friends that seems to be pointing towards the season plot arc. TopDevil's BargainMelinda is concerned about Aidan's story of 'Shinies' and 'Shadows', parts of spirits that she cannot see and something so scary that even the mysterious book has rewritten itself to hide from them. In the meantime, she has to deal with two important men who appear to be being haunted by a medical student who was also a stripper. If you wanted to see Jennifer Love Hewitt do a pole dance then this is the episode for you. The fact that there are strippers involved is about the only thing that marks this out from all the other stories that we have seen. There's a ghost, slowly it reveals itself and finally it goes away after a verbal hug. The Shinies and Shadows are intriguing, though, and we might be looking to this plot arc to keep interest from crossing over into the light itself. TopDead ListingA real estate professional is found dead in the basement of a building. His wife turns out to be the main suspect despite their projecting the perfect marriage. Melinda sorts it all out. When we say that this is possibly the most tedious and least believable GHOST WHISPERER episode ever there is reason to be afraid, very afraid. It's terminally dull, follows the show's format template rigidly and has the most ridiculous reconciliation that the show has yet come up with. Only Delia's desire for a golden key and the fact that Aidan has a girl ghost in his closet gets this anywhere near bearable. TopLost In The ShadowsMelinda and Jim's son Aidan goes wandering off with ghost who believes that she did something terrible and is now at the mercy of the shadows. Whilst the whole town searches frantically for him, the shadows begin to move in. How can a child in peril be so unengaging as this? Everyone looks concerned and the whole police force appears to have nothing else to do other than look for a child who has been missing only a couple of hours, but there is no real sense of threat to Aidan and the little that we now learn about the Shadows and the Shiny just isn't worth the effort. TopExcessive ForcesEli gets pulled over by a cop and Melinda sees a ghost in the cruiser. She learns that the kid was killed, apparently by the cop. As soon as she starts asking questions her own car gets towed and is ‘accidentally' stripped down for a drugs search. What is the cop hiding and is he the only one? After the shinies and shadows of the last episode THE GHOST WHISPERER reverts to type with this story that is the same as so many of the others with only the names and job titles changed. As such it is unimaginative and the mystery hardly catches the audience at all. There is even an actual hug in the crossover scene rather than the usual virtual hugs. TopDead AirDelia's son Ned plays a prank on his new college radio show that turns out to be a prank that previously cost a man his life. Melinda has to sort through all the lies and Coldplay songs to sort matters out. Only the names and the jobs change, all else remains the same. There is precisely nothing new here at all, the show staying firmly within the limits of its format. The only originality at all is that one of the major supporting characters (Ned) is being a bit of a git, but you can be sure that he learns his lessons by the end credits. TopLiving NightmareA man staggers into the Grandview hospital rambling about hurting someone and Melinda sees a woman being slashed on the arm by a knife. The man, though has only his own blood on him and is being haunted by two ghosts who claim that he cannot be saved and that he is not dangerous. Some more ghosts, another mystery to be solved before they can go into the light and another episode of GHOST WHISPERER that is hard to tell apart from any of the others. The old favourites of amnesia (sort of) and adopted children are trotted out and whilst the cast go through it all with utter conviction it really is hard to care about any of this since we've seen it all before far too often. TopDead To MeOne of Ned's university professors is stalked by a ghost that she takes to be her dead lover. When the ghost leads her to a new man, there is an instant attraction, but a past tragic event threatens to come between them. New names, new faces and the plot has a romantic tinge to it that is new, but just about everything else is exactly the same. It's almost impossible to continue to be interested in the replaying of the exact same plot all over again. TopImplosionMelinda takes on the case of a small boy and a group of soldiers. She tracks this down to an abandoned army base where there is a stack of live ammunition and bombs. The boy was playing there when he saw someone take a live bomb and then got trapped and died. That bomb is now being used to threaten Delia and only the Book of Changes will save her. The overarching mythology of this season gets a work out as Bruce Davison returns in the guise of Professor Bedford who is being manipulated by the Shadows to do their bidding in order to save the soul of his newly departed mother. This means that the story rattles through the usual format in the first half before moving on to Bedford threatening Delia in order to get the book. This second half is the more interesting and should have been a whole episode on its own since the siege is started and over before it gets a chance to really make any impact. TopOld Sins Cast Long ShadowsMelinda gets involved with a haunted house where the spirits of children are being held against their will, but by whom? Or what? A hoary old haunted house tale gets a bit of a makeover by adding in the presence of this season's baddies, the shadows. There is one good scare in the whole episode, but apart from that it is GHOST WHISPERER by numbers. Even Delia's rebellion against her son being in the ghosthunting gang doesn't last for long. TopOn Thin IceA comic book artist who comes to visit Melinda is being haunted by a ghost, a ghost who intends to make what the artist draw become reality, even if it means killing him. There are some visually impressive sequences in this episode where Jennifer Love Hewitt is rotoscoped (filmed and the film then drawn over to produce animation), thus dovetailing into the theme of the victim being a graphic artist. The fact that everything else is exactly the same as normal, however, means that there really is nothing else to recommend it. TopDead EyeMelinda has some unfunny visions of a clown, but it turns out to be a private investigator who was on the case of a female goldigger. Clowns are scary and not very funny and both of these facts are played on in this story, but the whole clown thing is a red herring that is dispensed with early on since it has nothing to do with the plot that emerges, except for making the motivations of the ghost and the haunted people all the more sickly. TopLethal CombinationMelinda and Jim hire a babysitter with great references only to find that she has a history of strange incidents with the children under her care. Things get more serious when a ghost warns Melinda that the nanny is a 'monster'. Just about every other permutation of haunted person has been tried, so this week we get the haunted nanny. Of course, Melinda first believes that the nanny is at fault, but it soon becomes clear that the ghost is at fault and is mistaken about the past...and stop me if you've heard this before. This is GHOST WHISPERER to the very core, which means that fans will love it that the tried and tested storyline is retained with only the names and jobs changed, but for everyone else it is just tediously familiar. TopBlood MoneySome spooky goings on in a farm barn lead Melinda to the unsolved case of a kidnapping, a murder and the lost ransom money. Just about every other permutation of haunted person has been tried, so this week we get the haunted nanny. Of course, Melinda first believes that the nanny is at fault, but it soon becomes clear that the ghost is at fault and is mistaken about the past...and stop me if you've heard this before. GHOST WHISPERER moves into MEDIUM territory as Melinda probes a crime and still finds a way to make all of the players come together in group hugs before moving into the light. The addition of the crime element doesn't add anything to the mix. TopDead RingerA woman who has just lost her father sells off his stuff to Melinda, but when Melinda sees he fiancé's ghost and announces the death just before the man walks in the door, it becomes difficult for her to help the haunted couple any further. A ghost that messes with Melinda's perceptions of her own visions so that she can no longer tell what's real and what's not? Warnings from the beyond that she needs to give up what she does for the sake of Aiden, something that Jim and she disagree about? These are themes and subjects that might once have gripped, but the main plot is so boringly familiar to all the others that have gone before that it is just impossible to work up any sort of concern at all. As for who the ghost really is and what it really wants all we can say is "an evil twin? Really?". TopThe Children's ParadeThe Shadows are coming for Melinda and she can no longer keep them out. As she falls under their influence the only hope of salvation is Aidan and the Shinies, but his parents have persuaded him that there's no such thing as ghosts. The season finale turns out to be the show finale, but it's not the best way for the show to go out although it might be the most appropriate. A story about children saving children and love being the way is possibly the only way that the show could possibly become more sugar coated than it already had. The sub story is about a group of kids in the hospital who never felt that they were loved and the Shinies are the souls of children who crossed into the light and for whom the power of love is equal to that of the sun. The main problem is that this is a two-part story shoved into a single episode. Melinda's slow decline under the influence of the shadows is mainly acheived through the use of extra eyeliner and Jennifer Love Hewitt not smiling, but is far too rapid towards the end as it becomes clear that time is running out. The big finale is hurried and muddled and the threat to Melinda is totally mishandled. Aidan asks the Shinies for their help and finds no resistance despite the fact that they are supposed to be scared. There simply isn't enough time to make the most of the potential that the plot has to offer. And if nothing else in the five seasons that this show has run made you want to vomit then the final two lines most assuredly will. Top |
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