Joe Dubois met his wife at a séance. He was a regular and she was a medium. Thanks Jon Katz.
For those of you that are paying attention, reviewing “Medium” is a clear indication that my girlfriend had me watch this show. It’s a show centered around cops and the lead is a woman with supernatural abilities that allow her to solve crimes. Previously she has subjected me to “Saving Grace” and “Crossing Jordan”. Here comes the twist: I actually liked “Medium”. I was skeptical at first because frankly the first season was really awful. I mainly think it was because lead Patricia Arquette was trying to portray a weird psychic how she thought they would act. When she just started to act like a normal lady who happened to be a psychic the show got a lot better. Despite the completely ridiculous premise of the show, the Dubois family that we are centered on felt like a real family. At least for me, I connected to this unlike most stilted cop shows. That being said…
Oh God Allie. He's about to be negative again
I have two issues with the show. The first problem I want to talk about is the finale. If you want to watch this show feel free to ship this paragraph. Go on, skip ahead. I’m about to crap all over the finale like it craps all over the show. IN THE FINAL EPISODE JOE DUBOIS DIES IN A PLANE CRASH! That’s right. Supportive father and husband to a clan of crazy dream having psychics gets killed for no reason. Then Allison (Arquette) has a ridiculous dream about a Mexican drug lord and Joe running coke for him and being alive. It turns out dead Joe tried to make her dream something that would prepare her for his death when she woke up. It kind of worked. Joe comes to her and tells her he died in the accident. Then despite all of his family being able to see ghosts, he leaves them never to return. Then we see Allison alone in a nursing home surrounded by pictures of their 3 daughters grown and happy. She dies. Her young ghost meets ghost Joe 41 years later and they kiss.
Not happy
WHAT THE HELL!? What is the point of that? They answered the question no one asked. “Can Allison and the girls have a fulfilling life without Joe?” Apparently yes but why did they have to? What are we trying to prove? The man put up a with a lot of crap and finally gets to a point where he can successful in work and life, then he gets killed. I could live with that on the surface IF HIS WHOLE FAMILY WASN’T ABLE TO STILL SEE HIM! I get if ghost Joe doesn’t want to just hang around and remind everyone he’s dead, but maybe popping in from time to time wouldn’t hurt huh? Like before one of your daughter’s weddings or something? You never said bye to them. Don’t get me wrong it’s a sweet moment when ghost Joe meets ghost Allison and they embrace and say they’re together forever now. My point is that could have happened after they got to live and raise the kids for 40 years. Why kill him? To create drama for the last contrive episode? It was an awful story and the surprise death didn’t make it better. I normally don’t get worked about television like this but man what a dissatisfying ending.
My first issue took longer to discuss that I thought. I’ll keep number two brief. Allison is a consultant with the police department in Phoenix. Why? Because she has these dreams predicting horrible crimes and she tells them things in hopes of stopping them. Despite years and years of this, she suffers from what I like to call “Monk’s disease”. “What’s that?” asked one guy. Well sir, that is when despite an amazing track record of being correct, your associates doubt your ability to be correct every single time. Monk and his super OCD power finally got his recognition towards the end of the series when the captain realized he’s essentially the only functioning crime solver around. Apparently in the future Allison is even a big shot criminal justice attorney and her pals District Attorney Manny Devalos and Detective Lee Scanlon immediately doubt her psychic inclinations. It’s been like5 years of this guys. Do you realize that eventually she’s going to be right so just go along okay?
Honestly she looks the smartest even
The two chaps I just mentioned are Allison’s guys that the police department in Phoenix. Scanlon is normally the first one to call BS on her when she dreams about rape or murder. It’s definitely implied that without her Scanlon would arrests the wrong person 100% of the time. Either that or just not catch anyone at all. His boss Manny had to be convinced of Allison’s powers but eventually came around. He won’t go to almost any crime scene without her but his belief seems to decline as the series moves forward. I feel like Manny was in love with her the whole time but tried to push her off once he realized it wasn’t going to happen. You only had 40 years to swoop in man.
The Dubois’ had three daughters named Marie, Ariel and Bridgette. All three have vaguely inherited their mom’s supernatural powers. Early on in the series middle child Bridgette mimicked her mom’s dreams in the form of monkey cartoons. It may have just been the one episode, but it was some of the most hilariously twisted stuff I’ve ever seen.
They don't look all that messed up
The oldest Ariel goes through the rebellious teenage psychic phase that we all did. In the last season she was away at college. She has the rare television affliction of looking too young for her age. Most people in high school on television are 34 years old. In 2011 when the showed ended the actress Sofia Vassilieva was actually 18; a rare appropriate casting job by a network. Sadly in the finale in a flash forward she was supposed to be around 26 and pregnant, but it looked like a 13 year old with a pillow in her shirt. I’m sure she’s very happy to look way younger than she is.
I’m running long here so sorry other kids you’re getting lumped. Bridgette is the middle daughter and she’s what we call “comic relief”. She’s chubby, kind of dumb and always ready with a precocious comment. She does torment her older sister really well early in the series. She gets in some good digs. Once the youngest Marie gets older Bridgette turns her attention to beating her into submission. In the second-to-last episode she makes fun of the girl for not being able to spell. What a monster. Little Marie is pretty inconsequential really. Towards the end of the show when Ariel leaves she steps up, but she’s mainly used as an enigma to confuse Joe even further with the crazy he married into and helped spawn.
also not happy
It speaks well on this show that I didn’t have to get in to the real crux of the show in my review. Either that or it speaks to my lack of skill. Most episodes center around some kind of dream and the case involved. I would have liked the show even more if you take out the gruesome crimes and just focused on the family. I don’t want to see people get their eyes scooped out or women be cut open for their babies. Give me more psychic Dubois hijinx! Although since I’m reviewing the show it seems too late for that. The real take away I how easy acting can be. Jake Weber who played Joe was on network television for 7 years and he mainly just acted in scenes where he ate breakfast, changed his clothes and brushed his teeth. “Medium” likely set the record for “most scenes involving people going to/being in/or getting out of bed”. That’s a pretty good land mark to have. Take that Mr. and Mrs. Brady!
