Introduction:
Medium The Complete First Four Seasons is based on the book Never KIss Them Goodbye, and is the TV version of the life of an actual medium Alisson Dubois, played by Patricia Arquette, who works for the court system in the the district attorney’s office, in Phoenix, Arizona, to help solve cases.
Main Cast:
Alisson Dubois - Patricia Arquette
Joe Dubois - Jake Weber
District Attorney Devalos - Miquel Sandoval
Plot:
At first the District Attorney is very skeptical of mediums, but Dubois is persistent, she needs a job to advance her career, and to give herself something to do. She loves her family, but needs to be more than a housewife and a mother. She aspires to be lawyer and feels some court room experience could benefit her; in turn, she can offer her paranormal experience to help them solve crimes. Alisson has had dreams and flashes of people in the other world; she also witnesses scenes of things to come in the future, and has done so ever since she was a child. What could be more important to district attorney D.A. Devalos played by Miquel Sandoval than an employee that can tell the future?
My thoughts
What I like about this series is how the characters seem so real. The husband Joe, played by Jake Weber, is an aerospace engineer, and PhD in mathematics, who was out of work for a long while. Joe is a loving husband and father. He is also a skeptic and will at times doubt Alisson’s ability. At other times he will try to work things out rationally with her when she "goes off the deep end". Though the couple can get into arguments over her ability, Alisson also knows that when she needs a level head and a supporting shoulder her husband is there for her.
You also see glimpses of real life where mom and dad must juggle the jobs to take care of the kids and sometimes that leads to arguments as well.
Alisson is not always right and that is what makes this show so real, but when she is right she saves lives with her flashbacks or glimpses into the future. To show the realism of this show, I liked the scene when Alisson drags a doubting Devalos to the desert claiming a dead body is buried there. Devalos has his team start digging and they come up with nothing. Alisson is determined that there is a body buried somewhere in the vicinity and refuses to Devalos give up the search. Sure enough, through trial and error they find the body and thus Devalos begins to accept that Alisson is an extraordinary woman whom he really does need on his staff.
In another episode Devalos uses Dubois’ gift to hand-pick a jury, and takes her recommendation over an expert in the field. He has to keep her ability a secret or else there may be legal consequences.
By the fourth season she has become a celebrity in her own right and the townsfolk pretty much know about her ability.
