Medium, Season 6

MEDIUM, SEASON 6 (DVD)
Paramount Home Entertainment

Release date: July 25th 2011
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 916 minutes

Creator: Glenn Gordon Caron

Cast: Patricia Arquette, Migual Sandoval, Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark, Jake Weber, David Cubitt

Medium, Season 5 Review

One of the first things I loved about Medium when it first started in 2005 was how it portrayed the Dubois family unit.

No matter what grisly murders Allison (Patricia Arquette) encountered either in her dreams or at work with the District Attorney’s office, at home the bustling dynamic that existed with her husband Joe (Jake Weber) and three kids, Ariel (Sofia Vassilieva), Bridgette (Maria Lark) and Marie (the Carabello twins) was what her kept her grounded.

Season 6 of Medium, I’m glad to say, continues that tradition and sees that dynamic grow and change in a way that’s natural and feels as real to life as it could possibly be.

At the end of Season 5 we saw Allison undergoing brain surgery to remove a tumour, but the operation could also take away her ability to see things in her dreams. We pick up again with the episode Deja Vu All Over Again which sees her several months later recovering but not being able to dream at all and not having a job. Slowly the dreams start to come back to her, but she’s reluctant to tell Joe who seems quite happy to have a normal wife now and at least a proper night’s sleep.

Ariel, the oldest child, is now driving her younger siblings to school, helping them with homework and even preparing dinner. As the episodes progress we see more of her abilities surface. In Who’s That Girl she’s not only possessed by a dead stripper but facing jail time. Ariel becomes something of a chip off the old block and later on in episodes like Will the Real Fred Rovick Please Stand Up? and Time Keeps On Slipping we see her standing up to the deceased and flashing forward to the future where she’s married and has a daughter. These episodes take such surprising turns and Sofia Vassilieva displays conviction in her performance, delivering the dialogue so passionately.

Bridgette, the middle child, and Marie, the youngest, also get a chance to display some of their powers too. In Dear Dad… after running up a huge fine for unreturned books, Bridgette has to take a job at her local library to pay it off. While there she unknowingly uncovers an email fraudster. It’s also an episode that revisits Devalos’s (Migual Sandoval) daughter’s suicide and adds a new twist to events we thought we knew all about.

Things I didn’t like about this season were scenes related to Joe’s new job. They never moved the main story forward and were always depressing, but there’s not much for Joe as a character when he’s not with his family. It’s also a little strange that after so many years Allison is still shocked and surprised by her dreams, as if each time she wakes up from them it’s the first. What’s also odd is that she hasn’t gotten used to Joe, Devalos and Lee (David Cubitt) not seeing, hearing or feeling the things that she does – after all, that’s why she’s the medium.

While there are a couple of weaker episodes, there are many strong ones. Sal features a burglar alarm that talks to Marie, coercing her into being an accomplice in a neighbour’s murder and going as far as getting her to dispose of the weapon when it threatens to harm her family. Another Marie-centric episode is Dead Meat; she takes to shoplifting toys for Joe’s birthday present and is caught on camera.

The Halloween episode, Bite Me, gives a wonderful spin on Night of the Living Dead (1968). Allison has dreams in black and white which put her right into the movie and they’re somehow related to the murder of funeral director. Coincidently, the episodes also has her questioning if you can die in your dreams and receiving several injuries while asleep, reminiscent of Patricia’s first ever film role in A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 3: The Dream Warriors (1987).

In the series finale, It’s a Wonderful Death, we see something we’ve never seen before. Allison becomes the antagonist, the persistent ghost. When her tumour returns, Joe wakes to find her dead beside him and the only one she can reach out to is Ariel who does exactly what her mother did at her age to block out the voices – drink and run away.

Medium will always be a show that has a special pleace in my heart; great dialogue, strong performances and interesting storylines have made the Dubios family regulars at our home and with just one more season to go before I say a sad farewell, it will be interesting to see how the family unit adapts with the changes that Season 7 brings.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.

Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.

Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.

Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

Patrick Samuel ¦ Asperger Artist

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