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A new series has just started here in the U.K. called "Medium", starring Patricia Arquette... and I enjoyed it so much* I thought I'd share my experiences with you..(*probably for all the wrong reasons)
The premise is hardly very original... psychic woman has special gift (but doesn't really believe it much herself yet), seems to know alot of details about unsolved crimes (very handy)... boyfriend wants to find out if it is all just dreams, or if her 'gift' is real, so they fax off various 'visions' to police departments over the U.S. and then the phone calls start flooding in... (and the series begins)... it's kind of like a psychic "Murder She Wrote" but worse...
Last night's episode was the pilot... and it has to be said, with a pilot as bad as that, it was a foregone conclusion that this series was always going to crash. The episode only lasted 45 minutes and I actually turned it off three times in total, but had the urge to tune back in just to see if it got any worse... it did...
As you know, films (and TV series) rely more and more heavily on the 'suspension of disbelief'... unfortunately, the amount of disbelief in this show requires more suspension than Roseanne Barr's stockings... silly to the point of being absolutely absurd, not only can she 'see dead people', but can interview them as well.
The first turning-off occured when Arquette is (for some unexplained reason) invited along with an investigator to interview another psychic. For another unexplained reason, she isn't paying attention and starts to doodle the letter 'F' on her pad, only for the psychic to proclaim (amazingly) that the murderer is in Mexico in (wait for it....) a town who's name begins with the letter F !!
Quelle surprise...! This is the epiphany that leads Arquette to really believe that she is a genuine psychic... ironically, the letter F wasn't far from my mind at this point too... 
The second turning-off came as she amazingly reveals to the chief cop (of the Texas Rangers) that she knows that he has a heart condition... this (of course) confirms to the cops that she is 'no ordinary psychic'... being a super-skeptic like me, what are the chances of a fat old Texan cop who probably spends most of his waking hours eating donuts and steaks having a heart condition??
The third turning-off (and this time, it's terminal), was right at the end. In order to get some guy in prison to grass on his cellmate, she instructs the police officer to whisper to the prisoner "I know about the kiss"... the prisoner is incredulous, saying "He told you about the kiss...?! Goddamn... well then, I'll tell you everything you want to know about him then..."... but at the end of the show, the cop asks Arquette, "So, tell me, how did you know about the kiss?"... to which she replies, " I didn't, it was just a shot in the dark!"... AHA!!! So she's not just a boring old psychic after all, but she has Columbo-esque hunches too... day-um, she good!
Anyway, did anyone else enjoy this show??
The premise is hardly very original... psychic woman has special gift (but doesn't really believe it much herself yet), seems to know alot of details about unsolved crimes (very handy)... boyfriend wants to find out if it is all just dreams, or if her 'gift' is real, so they fax off various 'visions' to police departments over the U.S. and then the phone calls start flooding in... (and the series begins)... it's kind of like a psychic "Murder She Wrote" but worse...
Last night's episode was the pilot... and it has to be said, with a pilot as bad as that, it was a foregone conclusion that this series was always going to crash. The episode only lasted 45 minutes and I actually turned it off three times in total, but had the urge to tune back in just to see if it got any worse... it did...
As you know, films (and TV series) rely more and more heavily on the 'suspension of disbelief'... unfortunately, the amount of disbelief in this show requires more suspension than Roseanne Barr's stockings... silly to the point of being absolutely absurd, not only can she 'see dead people', but can interview them as well.
The first turning-off occured when Arquette is (for some unexplained reason) invited along with an investigator to interview another psychic. For another unexplained reason, she isn't paying attention and starts to doodle the letter 'F' on her pad, only for the psychic to proclaim (amazingly) that the murderer is in Mexico in (wait for it....) a town who's name begins with the letter F !!
Quelle surprise...! This is the epiphany that leads Arquette to really believe that she is a genuine psychic... ironically, the letter F wasn't far from my mind at this point too... The second turning-off came as she amazingly reveals to the chief cop (of the Texas Rangers) that she knows that he has a heart condition... this (of course) confirms to the cops that she is 'no ordinary psychic'... being a super-skeptic like me, what are the chances of a fat old Texan cop who probably spends most of his waking hours eating donuts and steaks having a heart condition??
The third turning-off (and this time, it's terminal), was right at the end. In order to get some guy in prison to grass on his cellmate, she instructs the police officer to whisper to the prisoner "I know about the kiss"... the prisoner is incredulous, saying "He told you about the kiss...?! Goddamn... well then, I'll tell you everything you want to know about him then..."... but at the end of the show, the cop asks Arquette, "So, tell me, how did you know about the kiss?"... to which she replies, " I didn't, it was just a shot in the dark!"... AHA!!! So she's not just a boring old psychic after all, but she has Columbo-esque hunches too... day-um, she good!
Anyway, did anyone else enjoy this show??
