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| Medium Appreciation #3: "Canceled one Day, Resurrected the Next, Medium finds new life on CBS...,"
The Story
Medium is an American supernatural and dramatic television series which premiered on NBC on January 3, 2005. Its focus is Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette), who acts as a research medium for the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney's office. The show is based on experiences from self-proclaimed spiritual medium Allison DuBois, who claims to have worked with law enforcement agencies across the country in criminal investigations.
Medium was created by Glenn Gordon Caron and is produced by Picturemaker Productions and Grammnet Productions in association with CBS Television Studios, originally known as Paramount Television and CBS Paramount Television.
Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette) is a strong-willed mother of three, a devoted wife and law student who has had the gift of being able to talk to dead people, as well as foresee events, read minds, and witness past events in her dreams. When she begins working for the Phoenix District Attorney, Devalos, she has a dream which relates to a murder in Texas, which convinces her boss and others working in the DA's office that her gift is real.
The real challenge is initially convincing her boss, D.A. Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) — and subsequently the other doubters in the criminal justice system — that her psychic abilities can give them the upper hand when it comes to solving violent and horrifying crimes, whose mysteries often reside with those who lie beyond the grave. Information on certain people or crimes come to her in dreams or visions in cryptic forms, and often do not mean what they seem to.
All of her daughters appear to have inherited Allison's gift, with Ariel (Sofia Vassilieva) and Bridgette (Maria Lark) also having visions or dreams, which usually occur when their mother is in a bind in searching for answers to her own dreams. In Season 3, Allison's youngest daughter, Marie (Madison and Miranda Carabello), begins also have a paranormal inclination. Currently, she has only been shown to watch a premium TV channel that the family does not subscribe to, as well as reading the mind of her optometrist in order to pass her sight test, and unknowingly using paper dolls to predict the future of her father's company. In Season 5, Marie had her first "dream", where she saw herself on stage with stage fright during her school's play. In earlier seasons, Bridgette never appears to be bothered by her abilities, but during season 4 she has some moments of frustration either understanding her visions or communicating them to her parents. Ariel usually has a harder time trying to cope with a gift she knows very little about.
Allison's younger half brother, Michael "Lucky", has the family gift too, but doesn't like to acknowledge it much, since it always seems to bring him trouble. Initially Allison believed the gift had skipped a generation and her mother had had no psychic abilities. However, she later discovered that her mother had always possessed the gift, but had done everything she could to repress it.
The second season episode "Sweet Child O'Mine" revealed that Allison and Joe's first child either miscarried or died very shortly after birth, a boy they named Bryan. In this episode Allison dreamed of Bryan as if he had never died and had grown up as part of the family.
Allison is often accompanied by Det. Lee Scanlon (David Cubitt), who initially did not believe in her "gift." Allison often bends the rules of the law when she is determined to stop a crime from happening about which she's had a vision. Additionally, Allison has helped and been helped by Captain Kenneth Push of the Texas Rangers (Arliss Howard), who is the first law-enforcement person to whom Allison revealed her gift and Cynthia Keener (Anjelica Huston) of AmeriTips. In season four, it was revealed that Cynthia had a daughter who was missing. After days of searching it had come to the attention of Alison and Cynthia that she was dead. Cynthia made a choice to kill the murderer of her daughter and do time in jail. Keener appeares in season five to help Alison on a case for the D.A. It was said that Cynthia has a couple more months to go before she was able to get parole.
Main Cast
Patricia Arquette ... Allison Dubois
Jake Weber ... Joe Dubois
Sofia Vassilieva ... Ariel Dubois
Maria Lark ... Bridgette Dubois
Madison & Miranda Carabello ... Marie Dubois
Miguel Sandoval ... D.A. Manuel Devalos
David Cubitt ... Detective Lee Scanlon
Tina DiJoseph ... Lynn DiNovi
Anjelica Huston ... Cynthia Keener (Season Four - Reoccuring)
Reception/Ratings
The series premiere received 16.13 million viewers and a 6.3 rating in the 18-49 demo against CSI: Miami's 18.17 million and 6.6 rating. Medium was a consistent performer throughout its first season and landed in the Nielsen Top 20 with an average of 13.9 million viewers. The series remained in its original time slot for the second season when the network announced its Fall 2005 schedule. Throughout the season, the series experienced a decline in viewership, pulling an average of 11 million viewers. Medium was renewed for a third season in April 2006, but was missing from NBC's Fall 2006 schedule. The series was slated to return in early 2007; however, in October it was announced that production would resume immediately for a third season start-up on November 15, 2006, replacing the time slot vacated by Kidnapped. Its move to the Wednesday time slot opposite CBS' CSI: NY and ABC's Lost lead to some ratings erosion, in comparison to the ratings success of the first two seasons, with year-end ratings for the third season dipping into single-digit millions of viewers. Despite the ratings decline on Wednesdays, the series was seen by the network as a reliable self-starter, building on its then lead-in Crossing Jordan. The ratings decline put the series on the bubble for renewal, but the series showed signs of life when NBC requested six additional scripts in April 2007.
Renewal for a fourth season of Medium was announced on May 7, 2007, with an undetermined premiere date and number of episodes. It was the seventh series to be renewed by the network, behind solid performers Heroes and Law & Order: SVU. One week later, the network announced that Medium would move to the Sunday 9 p.m. time slot upon its return in January 2008. News on the series' return did not come until December 2007 when NBC announced that the fourth season would begin in January in its original Monday 10 p.m. EST time slot, despite the WGA Strike of 2007, which forced the show to cease production, allowing for only nine segments/episodes to be filmed. Scheduling returning mid-season shows in timeslots where they were previously successful was a pattern for NBC during the strike: Law & Order returned to Wednesdays at 10 and The Apprentice was back on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m.
With the ratings improvement Medium demonstrated in its fourth season after returning to Mondays, it was one of the first series to be renewed in an early announcement in April 2008 from NBC regarding its 2008-09 season. Similar to the previous season, Medium was initially scheduled to move to the Sunday night line-up; however, a December 2008 press release revealed that the fifth season would air in the series' original Monday night 10 p.m. time slot.
After some ratings erosion during its fifth season, NBC renewed Medium for an abridged sixth season in early May 2009. However, within a week negotiations stalled over episode count and subsequently NBC decided not to renew the series despite the fact that it outperforms some of the network's renewed shows. Within 24 hours of NBC's cancellation, CBS, whose CBS Television Studios produces the series, renewed the show for a full, 22-episode, sixth season, placing it in the Friday at 9:00 p.m. slot between Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs. The first episode of the sixth season will air on Friday, September 25, 2009 at 9pmEST. The series began a syndication run on the cable network Lifetime on March 26, 2006.
Summer Hatius Game (by chicaanglaise)
Okay, this was a live journal meme I've done for other shows. Choose as few or as many as you want to answer! My answers to come soon, damn harddrive problems with my laptop which keeps causing frequent sudden crashing! Things to keep to discussion going over the summer hiatus. Maybe we could start with the first two for this week. I don't know, just ideas...
- Favourite Episode
- Least Favourite Episode
- Favourite Line
- Favourite Scene
- Favourite Character
- Least Favourite Character
- Favourite Guest Star
- Least Favourite Guest Star
- Favourite Season
- Least Favourite Season
- Favourite scene involving the Dubois kids
- Favourite Moment
- Most Romantic Moment
- Most Unexpected Romantic Moment
- Most Intense Moment
- Saddest Moment
- Sexiest Moment
- Scariest Moment
- Most Playful Moment
- Most Hopeful Moment
- Best Kiss
- Favorite Line
- Most Romantic Line
- Most Angsty Line
- Best Look Exchanged Overall
M e d i u m
F a n s:
Kelly_mv (#1st OP Starter)
Subject
Quaterley
Age-a-licious
Cherié £u£u
Ms. Fiction
LUSH
nun_with_a_gun
robinepowell
Merlin__Bodhi
darceybennett
Liliya
adambrodyluva
sugarplum
GenL
fate2doom
*Stacy*
BehrItAll
Jewls13
KaptainKristi
waywardkimberley
White Lady of Rohan
WBoverlay
KnightLight86
Nikki_K
thuggie8
-Kelly-
Piper25
laurengraham
Mio
Samii
mickal
Sissy
gilmorefan14
pink & white cookies
no limits
ursa major
LL4ever
TheMovieGrrl
Enigma
WildAtHeart
linn_lewisa
curlyshirleygurly
Clewless
Jacob1983
calivviefan
Ms Mars
Tasha245
Cris
piscesgirl389
lovinlauren
addicted2much
Aussie Gal
trucherrygirl
BooPea78
cantorgurl
greyocean
McAwesome (Second OP Starter)
+supernova+
Dommie
laurendbs
smunyang
CrazyKimmie
samira_86
J.R. MacReady (Third OP Starter)
ice_ice_baby
xandra47
Lovie
allybubba
laurendbs
Alijg
xmangokissesx
takeitgreen
street serenade
Leona1986
chicaanglaise
lari_hearts
so far so great
AuroraRuby
Miss Kenton __________________ || ♫ || ♥ || ♕ || ☎ || Ellis: “Nick, what the hell, you shot the Pilot!!”
Nick: “Well, he wasn't doing a very good job once he became a zombie, was he?”
Rochelle: “That's true. If I had to pick a low point in the flight, its when he stopped flying the chopper and attacked us.”
Last edited by J.R. MacReady : 08-04-2009 at 06:15 PM.
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