Medium

I caught the "encore presentation" of the first episode of NBC's midseason replacement show Medium, and I think I am contractually required to say that it is either "Well done" or "Rare" and based on the first episode, I'd have to say it's the former. Patricia Arquette stars as Allison Dubois, a Phoenix woman trying to balance a career--preparing to go to law school and an internship with the DA's office prepping crime scene photos--with being a wife and mother to her three young daughters. Oh, and all her life, she's tried to ignore all the dead people talking to her because she is a very powerful medium.

Her husband, a rocket scientist, is a little unsure of this ability and so she tells him about a case in Texas and he faxes details to the Texas Rangers, who are surprised because she seems to know things that haven't been released to the public. She flies to Texas where she shows them where the body is buried. Of course they can't dig it up because they can't get a warrant based on the word of a medium, and then over night, "the biggest storm to ever hit Texas," which was named Hurricane Allison, washes away the field where the body was. Something about that seemed a little wrong, and the contempt held for the rubes who inhabit Texas seemed a little too thick; however the scene where she is taken to visit with the teenager suspected of molesting and killing a ten-year-old boy shows that there must be some smarts behind this show. I'm intregued by how the show seems to know that using a medium is not valid evidence in court and that having someone who can sometimes read people's minds working for the DA's office might not exactly mesh with the accused's constitutional rights.

She returns to Phoenix where she finds out that her theory about a crime proved to be correct and so she is offered a job as a crime scene consultant for the DA.

Now this morning, I find the website for the real Allison Dubois. As it says on the cover of her book Don't Kiss Them Good-Bye, "The true story of the woman who inspired the NBC television show Medium." Also on the cover is a quote from her friend Kelsey Grammer, who I noticed last night was creditted as a producer of the show.

Its regular timeslot is on Monday nights at 10:00 (9:00 central) or whenever you want to watch your TiVoed copy. Oh, wait TiVo is neither a noun nor a verb. Sorry, that should read "watch your DVRed copy."