Featured TV on DVD Review: Medium: Season Six

October 23, 2010

Medium: Season Six - Buy from Amazon

Season five of Medium saw the show canceled by NBC, but it was almost immediately picked up by CBS. This actually makes a lot of sense, as it is made by Paramount, which is part of the same media conglomerate that owns the CBS network. They put the show on Friday night, which is normally a death slot as far as ratings are concerned, but with Ghost Whisperer as its lead in, it thrived. Well, not exactly thrived, as it saw its ratings decline a bit, but that's true across network TV and with the new time slot, this drop in ratings is smaller than expected. It did well enough that CBS gave the show a full season renewal, but was the change in networks accompanied by a drop-off in quality?

The Show

The basic setup for the show has Patricia Arquette playing Allison DuBois, the titular medium. Although she doesn't talk to ghosts nearly as much as I remember she used to. Instead, she gains insight into the future through dreams. Her entire family has this gift, her mother, her brother, and her three daughters, which is something her husband has had to get used to.

For much of season five, Allison had a brain tumor, but she put off having the surgery when she dreamt it would remove her gift. The end of season surgery was a success, but left her in a coma for three months and when she wakes up her dreams are gone. She is also partially paralyzed on the right side of her body, but neither condition lasts a long time. That's not really a spoiler, as you know there's no chance the show would take away the psychic powers for the titular Medium. At the beginning of the season, when she is sick, Ariel, her eldest daughter, has to pick up the slack and starts to take care of the younger kids a bit more. Ariel taking a more center stage is is probably the best change in the season (I especially liked the early episode Who's That Girl). Although, Joe getting a new job comes second. A job with a difficult boss adds a lot more to the show than an unemployed Joe.

On the other hand, there are not a lot of changes this season, and especially since I just finished reviewing Ghost Whisperer, which has similar subject matter, tone, etc. Too often I would watch an episode and think I've seen it before, and I do not watch this show on TV, so this was the first time I had seen these episodes. Speaking of tone, this show needs more humor. One of the best episodes of the season was Bite Me, which had Allison dreaming she was stuck in Night of the Living Dead. It was also one of the most humorous episodes, and that's not a coincidence.

Compared to seasons past, Season Six is just as good, but for me it is starting to feel like more of the same.

The Extras

Extras on the five disc set are limited to five featurettes. This includes a 4-minute featurette on the show's 100th episode, which is too short to really matter. There's a featurette on Bite Me, in which they talk about being surprised that Night of the Living Dead was in the public domain. Really? That film and It's a Wonderful Life are probably the two most famous public domain movies around.

Those to featurettes are found on disc two, while the other three are found on disc five. The Mind Behind Medium has Patricia Arquette interviewing Glenn Gordon Caron, the show's creator. The Music of Medium is a 7-minute look at the music. Non-Fat Double Medium is a 6-minute look at Madison and Miranda Carabello, the twins who play Marie, the youngest daughter.

In total that's about an hour of extras, but no audio commentary tracks, which is disappointing.

The Verdict

Medium is a very reliable show, but that is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, fans will be pleased that not much has changed when the show moved to CBS. On the other hand, by Season Six, it is hard to be surprised by anything that happens on the show.


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