Medium: The Final Season

Few "law and order"-type shows leave one with a profound sense of knowing the characters' family lives like the back of their hand anymore. (This isn't the days of "Cagney & Lacey"-type programs, after all.) Few make the heartstrings pull when it's time to go off the air for good, but this one did. I have watched the show since the beginning of it's run, not always faithfully (especially when their time & day kept changing) but I have seen the last two seasons without missing an episode. It was an exceptionally well-crafted show, especially when one considers the premise- focusing on a psychic who works for the D.A.'s office, has a husband, three kids & lives in Phoenix, AZ. Not exactly thrilling, based on that bare description. But the combination of polished, powerful, talented & yet understated acting combined with more surprises in the plots than curves in a West Virginia back road kept this going for seven seasons.

I am single & child-free, but the family element of "Medium" is what made it most memorable for me. The seventh season left Joe & Allison at odds more often than before as career, age & family changes caused them to look at life anew. We saw Ariel head off to college (and her real-life portrayer head off the show, too). Joe's mother also left the canvas. Both actresses departed in ways that played out beautifully, but nonetheless sadly, for the viewer. Allison, Manuel Devalos & Joe Scanlon faced great challenges both in their work environment & in their personal relationships, and the tests thrown at them created much of the show's tension. Det. Scanlon became even more of a well-rounded character to me this year, as his weaknesses somehow also became his strengths. Devalos, who was sympathetic even when in the wrong, provided the program with a strong career anchor for Allison while also keeping her impulsiveness in check. Not a children's show in terms of graphic viewing, there were some moments that are cringe-worthy even to a horror-film-lover's mind, mostly when someone innocent was the victim of a crime.

But while this season had it's share of violence & scares, I am ultimately left remembering the warmth that permeated this creation from start-to-finish. It always left me guessing at who was the true villian each week, more often than not was thoroughly entertaining, and it certainly left me caring about the main characters within it. I will miss this gem of a program. It had that magical combination of heart, beauty, love, tragedy, horror & yet also the charm that only the rarest television show possesses. Those who worked on it these several years should be commended- your fans will miss your great work, but look forward to what you will accomplish in the future.

WOW!! That's what I have to say about this amazing series! I had no clue it would run 7 seasons due to being slapped around by NBC for its first 5 years. It premiered back in January 2005 as a mid-season replacement and its first 16 episodes were simply astonishing! Patricia Arquette played Allison DuBois excellent. It was almost if the dead were omnipotent! Every where she looked she saw a dead person good or bad, lost or confused and tried to at first block them out by drinking! After NBC canceled the show in May 2009 (although it was outperforming their other shows) CBS picked it up for its remaining two seasons.

Back to season 7 (the final season), was just simply amazing!! The writers, actors, directors and producers all worked hard as hell to produce one of the finest prime time shows of the 00's and 10's. Season 7 began right where Season 6 ended as Allison continued to recover from her brain tumor. Her eldest daughter Ariel went off to college this season and we got to see more acting from the middle daughter Bridgett. The first episode "Bring your daughter to work day" was a take on the film "Freaky Friday", that being said, Bridgett and Mom switched places and it was nice to have a comical relief after all the sad ordeal that ended with season 6.

The series continued to get better with each episode. We got to see more details about Detective Lee Scanlon's life and how he and his deceased brother were treated as children, and his precious daughter Lee by Lynn whom he married. Another great episode was "The Match Game", in this episode we see Allison seeing hearts on people's foreheads and thinking they are matched and fate is working, but does it work for the greater good?!?

Personally, one of my favourite episodes is "Talk To the Hand" when Allison gets a skin graft and her hand goes wild. The coffin scene is absolutely funny even though this is a crime show, a bit of humour now and again always helps. "Where were you when...?" was an episode that left a chill in almost all who like Medium. It brought back memories of catastrophic events and after Allison thinks a mega quake is coming she later learns a bomb is in a parking garage.

As the season progresses, we learn Joe's mother is dying and this little detail goes back to Season 4 episode "Burn, Baby Burn" in that when Allison told Joe's mother that she would be alright after she confided in Allison that she had to stop by the Mayo Clinic on the way back to Michigan. I think that episode "Blood on the Tracks" was one of the saddest in the season. Laura San Giacomo made an appearance in "The People in your Neighbourhood". Laura is remembered for "Just Shoot Me" a 90s sitcom. This episode wrongfully accuses a convicted sex-offender of molesting her daughter. But, the question is who really hurt her daughter??

As the 2011 episodes approached after a long break viewers realized the show was coming to an end. We got to see Allison's brother back, but this time it was her real life brother David Arquette, the great actor from Scream! I think they should have cast him as her brother originally, but that's just my opinion. Allison and Joe had some troubles too in the remaining episodes over Allison going back to get her law degree and Joe getting his masters. I think we can all agree on the last episode unless you haven't seen it, which I won't say much, but it is very bittersweet! I hope the DVD has an extended version of Episode 13 like they did with Season 1 episode 1. I really think a Series Finale should be 2 hours not one! Remember that Kelsey Grammar just kidding, but seriously it should have been two hours to get everything in.

The good thing about Season 7 and the whole series was watching the whole family change. They were a true life family, faced hardships like everyday people do. They lived in a modest house, struggled with jobs and had plenty of ups and downs along the way. The daughters grew which was wild seeing Ariel go to college when you sit down and watch Season 1 as compared to season 7. She really grew up! Bridgett became more funny. I think Maria Lark has a comedic career ahead because of her whit and she just cracks me up. The littlest girl Marie grew up to become a good actress too. She didn't really have many roles, but in Season 6 we got to see her act in the episode "Sal" where she fell in love with the Alarm system the DuBois family installed.

Overall, I give the whole series 5/5 because for everyday people it dealt with everyday issues from the economy, the wars, crime, struggling to find jobs, money, and dealing with teenage children and young children. Jake Weber and Patricia Arquette had a great chemistry together and I would recommend that you order this today or go out and buy it June 21, 2011! Season 7 comes full circle and I for one am glad the show got a proper finale instead of just canceling it! It brought closure to the show and didn't leave us wanting more like some series that just end! I believe if CBS hadn't moved it to 8 pm on Friday nights and left Ghost Whisperer run for a 6th Season, then Medium would have got its full 22 episodes. Now that the Supernatural shows are practically gone, my question is what kind of shows will be next? As reality shows are starting to wane, it makes me wonder what the 2010's will have for us in the coming years! So get ready and get Medium the 7th and Final Season this year!! Au Revoir Medium!! Maybe Ariel's character will do a spin-off? We will see!

P.S. I forgot to mention Season 7 will be in Blu-Ray too!! I hope they release the other 6 on Blu-Ray as Well!! And for Patricia and Jake, I wish you two long and happy careers!! You both did amazing jobs making this series! Thank You both!

I'm not sure what happened here, I can't quite believe it and it saddens me to break it to those viewers who have loyally followed and derived enjoyment from this series as I have during its run, but the final seventh outing of this superb show ends on a deeply disappointing and deflating note.

To preface, I learned that season seven would be the final season after I finished viewing season six and was surprised to say the least, especially so since in my opinion there had been no decline in either the consistency or inventiveness displayed by the writers (notably Glenn Gordon Caron) throughout the previous six seasons. The idea that the network executives/producers of the show had decided to end the series on a high-note seemed premature, but perhaps laudable (considering how many television series out-stay their welcome to some degree). This is in spite of the fact that I personally hadn't observed any signs that this brilliant show was growing stale. But whether that decision was correct remains debatable, all I do know is that the final seventh season does little justice to the quality of the series as a whole.

Firstly, there will be disappointment for many with the thirteen-episode format (the fewest number since season four's sixteen). But as an avid viewer of `Medium' from the very beginning I clung to the hope that the potential for this (admittedly truncated) season given the wealth of material developed in the lives of the Dubois family in previous seasons would be fulfilled. There was so much possibility to pick up old story-threads and re-visit memorable characters from previous seasons, but the only storyline that's continued here in the final season is that of Joe's mother.

The majority of the seventh season is comprised of those episodes with the familiar formula that `Medium' has always executed so well, which is the contained, stand-alone murder investigations that often result in the capture/untimely death of the obligatory male offender with a unique motive and/or peculiar fetish. I suppose I can't complain that so many of these episodes in the final season take advantage of that formula which has proved so successful for the series in the past, I only wish that more episodes had centered on/explored the family lives of the members of the Dubois household.

...Mild Spoilers...

In the episode previously mentioned involving Joe's mother, entitled `Blood On The Tracks' (episode 10) there is an allusion by one of the characters that there are dark days ahead for Alison, as a result of which I expected a satisfying build-up to a gripping climax. Instead there is an episode involving Alison's brother, played by David Arquette- who please correct me if I'm wrong has never appeared in the series before- which consequently seemed to lack continuity, followed by a stand-alone murder investigation episode and ending with a time-travel episode that simply left me cold...

Episode 13- `Me Without You', the final episode of this series beloved by some many for its warmth and intrigue for six years is badly and unsatisfyingly constructed. It makes a mockery of all those storylines from previous seasons in which Alison travelled back and forth through time, learning new truths about herself and her loved ones as she made her journey. The best way for me to articulate my dissatisfaction with this episode is that I imagine the creator and writers began with the germ of an idea as to the note upon which they wanted this series to end, but the way in which they went about it tramples uncaringly on the lives of the main characters. The final scene is exactly how (knowing the characters of Alison and Joe as we all imagine we do) you would want this show to end, but it leaves a very bitter taste knowing how they and their loved ones arrived at that point.

Alison and Joe deserved a true happy ending. Perhaps it depends on your perspective whether they got one, but their daughters certainly didn't and therefore, for me, the ending just didn't ring true.