DVDFile

I’m coming to terms with the fact that I can enjoy watching Medium without actually loving the show. This writer has been a big Patricia Arquette fan for years, to the point where I’d watch anything she did just to watch her. But warming up to Medium has been tough for me.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s a lot about Medium that works well. I mean, at the top of the heap, there’s the obvious appeal of Miss Arquette. She has the kind of marvelous onscreen presence that is all too rare in media: She is equal parts every-woman and fantastical goddess. Medium understands this Arquette-appeal and does a good job of exploiting it for all it’s worth. As Allison DuBois, a psychic who has an uncanny connection with the dead and works as a consultant with various law enforcement agencies that utilize her I-see-dead-people gifts, Arquette scores as mother, lover, and human being, showcasing her Allison as a troubled soothsayer of all things dead (and undead).

Yet throughout its seven seasons, Medium never kicked into high gear - and this Final Season set is the weakest of them all. Yes, when Allison has her moment where she sees when she'll die is a cool, emotional vision, but the episodes here are run-of-the-mill at best. Allison burns herself and her resulting skin graft starts to have a mind of its own in Talk to the Hand (ugh), a Nell-ish moment when Allison wakes up suddenly unable to speak in English (Native Tongue), and, of course, a whole bunch of episodes featuring Allison having visions of random things and trying to figure out what they mean.

With the Arquette factor, Medium had serious potential, but alas: It never made good on it. It's watchable, but not heartily memorable.