Medium (TV series)

Medium is a TV show set around the character Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette), who is a psychic. She has the ability to see dead people, and often has dreams of the future or the past. She's also the mother of three young daughters, who are developing psychic abilities as they grow up. Her husband Joe (Jake Weber) is the suffering normal person of the family, having to deal with all this while trying to succeed at his job in aerospace engineering.

Allison works as an intern in the office of District Attorney Manuel Devalos (Miguel Sandoval). He comes to believe in her abilities, and approximately Once an Episode she helps solve a murder or other criminal case. Even with psychic powers there is still some drama and mystery, because dreams are often cryptic, dead people sometimes lie, and psychic evidence is not admissible in court.

Medium's series finale aired on January 21, 2011.

"Allison: "Is this about Amy Amson? You're on the hot list she's not on the hot list?" Ariel: "That is so unfair you can do that" Joe: "That is so cool you can do that""
 * Abusive Parents: "Very Merry Maggie"; Scanlon's.
 * Action Girl: Subverted. In one episode, Allison seems to be fighting off a group of muggers as if she were Xena. But in fact everything after the initial confrontation was a dream she had after actually getting beaten up.
 * Actor Allusion: In "Bite Me", Bridgette, watching Night of the Living Dead, mentions a zombie movie marathon on TV, to which Joe responds "They're not running the one where everyone gets trapped in the mall, are they?" The one in question is Dawn of the Dead, whose |2004 remake featured Jake Weber as Michael.
 * Also, the first episode featuring Anjelica Huston as Cynthia Keener involves a dream where a young child has turned into a mouse -- just like in The Witches, where she played the Grand High Witch.
 * All Just a Dream
 * Ambition Is Evil: When Devalos is tapped to become mayor of Phoenix, he wants to know his wife's best friend's husband Benito, a very ambitious but politically weak councilman, won't use their wives' personal information against him. Benito implies that he will (he knows about both Ariana's suicide and ) so Devalos counters with.
 * Amnesiac Dissonance: "A Changed Man"
 * Arbitrary Skepticism: Except perhaps not always so arbitrary, especially since Allison's abilities have proven at times to be fallible. Yet, she still often treats them as if there's no way that she can be mistaken.
 * This almost gets into outright deconstruction territory. Joe's extreme skepticism and inhumane insistence that Allison think things through almost fall into irrational... except for the numerous times he is dead right, which ironically gives him just enough credibility to insist on doing the same when it will not work. Likewise, Devalos' and Scanlon's skepticism is not so much doubt rather then "We believe you, but we have to dot the i's and cross the t's."
 * The "B" Grade: Causes the teacher some very Disproportionate Retribution when
 * Babies Ever After:
 * Bad Future: Subverted, at least two futures seemed to be very good -- Allison is a successful attorney without psychic powers and Ariel is Happily Married (Allison is also District Attorney and Scanlon is Chief of Police) -- but at a price, of course:.
 * The series finale future seemed pretty good
 * Beard of Sorrow: Joe appears to grow a lovely example at the start of Season Six. Naturally, it's all a dream.
 * Bilingual Dialogue: Allison gets a case of faulty Translator Microbes that make everyone sound as if they're speaking gibberish (she can still speak and read English) except for a professor who speaks Navajo.
 * BLAM Episode: The entire plot of the episode "The Man in the Mirror"!
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Bratty Teenage Daughter: Ariel
 * Only some of the time, though. Allison and Joe are clearly happy that she's turning into such a mature, responsible young woman.
 * The mantle has long since been passed to Bridgette.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: An odd version. James Van Der Beek and Morena Bacarrin play brother and sister, but he kills her and his girlfriend gets plastic surgery to look exactly like her.
 * Bury Your Gays: A version of this is shown in "You Give Me Fever", where a boss actually gives a deadly fever to his employee-slash-boyfriend, in order to get money to produce the antidote, and the guy blows himself up to avoid anyone else getting the virus.
 * In the end, it turns out that
 * Cancellation: The last episode aired in January 2011. Fortunately things seem built to a Happy Ending
 * The Cassandra: Subverted, by this point everyone who matters (except Joe and his wrecked sleep cycle) takes Allison's visions seriously.
 * Catapult Nightmare: How Allison frequently awakens from her psychic dreams.
 * Channel Hop: NBC to CBS.
 * The Chess Bastard: Joe's (deceased) dad, who occasionally scares Allison in order to get her to do/cause something in a rather roundabout way. For example, he shows her the day he died of a heart attack, which causes Allison to note that Joe is almost the same age as his father and grandfather when they died of heart attacks. Although he's a lot healthier than his relatives, he goes to the doctor who tells him to try meditation, but during his first attempt on lunch break he's interrupted by another coworker While his "help" does lead to positive outcomes, it's also really annoying for Allison when she realizes she's been scared for no reason.
 * Another perfect example: Joe is offered the chance of joining a co-worker in forming a new start-up. It seems like a great opportunity until Joe's dad appears to Allison claiming that Joe leaving his job is a bad idea and tells Allison to say to Joe the words "Versailles is running on fumes", since he will know what it means. Joe doesn't know what it means either, until he finds out that one of the company's investors is called The Versailles Group. He gives up the project... only for Joe's father to appear to Allison again and say he made the whole thing up: he foresaw that the company would become a reasonable success but it would cause Joe to eventually have 70 hour work weeks and not spend time with his family. Joe's dad didn't want him to make the same mistakes he did. Once again, Allison was annoyed, but quickly got over it.
 * Charles Walker is this. In "Doctor's Orders", Walker He reappears in "Blood Relations" and almost nearly succeeds in killing Allison by
 * If there were some sort of sentient being in control of Allison's visions, they would certainly be this. She goes through unbearable psychological torture because she can't just see the tell-all dream she has at the end of every episode at the beginning. Not to mention the jeopardy this puts other people in as a result.
 * The regular cast has their moments to, perhaps most usually Devalos.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: Tons. Especially in Be Kind, Rewind where Allison becomes increasingly erratic as she experiences the same day over and over again:
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: Tons. Especially in Be Kind, Rewind where Allison becomes increasingly erratic as she experiences the same day over and over again:

"Angel: Be careful, bathrooms can be very dangerous places. Did you know, that 47% of all accidental deaths take place in the home, and that 61% of those happen in the family bathroom? [drops a bar of soap] Watch that soap! ]"
 * Creepy Child: "Very Merry Maggie"
 * Creepy Doll: "Very Merry Maggie"
 * Cuckoo Nest
 * Deadpan Snarker: Several, but Joe CERTAINLY takes the cake.
 * Deus Angst Machina: Being. Psychic. SUCKS.
 * Deus Ex Machina: Aside from Allison herself, "divine intervention" for already-dead foes has appeared twice.
 * Thrice-ish:
 * Disguised Hostage Gambit: Allison manages to avert one thanks to her dreams.
 * The Doll Episode
 * Driven to Suicide: Devalos' daughter Ariana
 * Dream Spying
 * Erotic Asphyxiation: "The Whole Truth"
 * Evil Counterpart: Allison has faced off against a psychic Serial Killer and a psychic Corrupt Corporate Executive.
 * Expy: Charles Walker has a very Jack-The-Ripper air about him. It's possible that was the inspiration for the character.
 * Freaky Friday Flip: "The Man in the Mirror"
 * And a more Freaky Friday incident in the season 7 premiere "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day".
 * Ghostly Possession: Has happened so far to Allison and Ariel. Also, an early nemesis of Allison's was a dead serial killer who kept killing by possessing people.
 * Gambit Roulette:
 * Glasses Girl: Marie.
 * The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry
 * Go Into the Light: Averted, as far as I know there's no mention of any light/afterlife for Medium's spirits, and even if they seem to be at peace (such as Joe's dad or ) they come back if there's something serious enough to warrant it.
 * One spirit did talk about Heaven and Hell. She made it to Heaven but couldn't get in until Allison helped her settle her affairs. She could sense Hell sucking at her feet the whole time.
 * Goggles Do Something Unusual: An episode has Allison finding a pair of mysterious sunglasses that reveal how many days person has to live.
 * Grand Theft Me: The episode "Man in the Mirror" where Todd Emory (Jeffrey Tambor) stole Allison's body.
 * Groundhog Day Loop: "Be Kind, Rewind"
 * Happily Married: Allison and Joe
 * Hot for Student: Indirectly causes a lot of emotional stress for Ariel:
 * The very next episode, Ariel starts losing time Futurama-style, jumping hours, then years into the future where she's Happily Married to a friend from high school and they have an adorable daughter.  Needless to say, after all that Ariel really, really needs a hug.
 * I Never...
 * I See Dead People
 * In the Blood: Not in the usual sense -- The name of a two-part episode that features
 * It's a Wonderful Plot: In the season 2 finale "Twice Upon a Time," Allison dreams what life would be like if she married her old childhood friend instead of Joe after being throughly embarrassed at a court hearing, which gives her a clue as to how the impossible appeared to be possible.
 * Jacob Marley Apparel: In "Will the Real Fred Rovick Please Stand Up?", the ghost of a mascot of a local college football team is still wearing a beaver costume, since he died during a game.
 * Jump Cut: Used fairly cleverly: a boy offers Ariel the use of his car as a napping area between exams; she begins to turn him down but in mid-sentence we cut to her waking up in the car. It's then revealed that this wasn't a jump-cut, is was literally how she experienced the moment, and her life starts jump-cutting further and further and further, well into her twenties. Naturally it turned out to be All Just a Dream.
 * Karmic Death:
 * Bob Sherman, the insurance salesman played by Kelsey Grammer in "Death Takes a Policy", who conned desperate patients into undertaking risky experimental procedures and profiting off their deaths and murdered his former business partner by staging an accident in the shower. The guy was such a Smug Snake Manipulative Bastard that Allison had visions of him as the Angel of Death). Near the end of the episode, he has apparently gotten off scot free and is relaxing in a tropical island...only for him to be visited by the aforementioned Angel of Death doppelganger:
 * Karmic Death:
 * Bob Sherman, the insurance salesman played by Kelsey Grammer in "Death Takes a Policy", who conned desperate patients into undertaking risky experimental procedures and profiting off their deaths and murdered his former business partner by staging an accident in the shower. The guy was such a Smug Snake Manipulative Bastard that Allison had visions of him as the Angel of Death). Near the end of the episode, he has apparently gotten off scot free and is relaxing in a tropical island...only for him to be visited by the aforementioned Angel of Death doppelganger:
 * Bob Sherman, the insurance salesman played by Kelsey Grammer in "Death Takes a Policy", who conned desperate patients into undertaking risky experimental procedures and profiting off their deaths and murdered his former business partner by staging an accident in the shower. The guy was such a Smug Snake Manipulative Bastard that Allison had visions of him as the Angel of Death). Near the end of the episode, he has apparently gotten off scot free and is relaxing in a tropical island...only for him to be visited by the aforementioned Angel of Death doppelganger:


 * Karma Houdini: There have been several, the most egregious instance so far being a
 * It's also at times subverted with gusto, like the aformentioned Navajo robbers-killer and the episode where Ellison gets a pair of shades that tell her how many days a person has left to live. The killer-of-the-week gets away from being prosecuted for murder, but turns out that the shades (who were of the guy he killed) show Ellison he only has a day to live before they stop working.
 * Killed Off for Real:
 * Let's Meet the Meat: Allison dreams of talking pigs, and after being tortured by squealing sandwiches feels compelled to save a pig named Barney from the slaughterhouse.
 * Little Miss Snarker: Bridgette
 * Living Lie Detector: In one episode where whenever someone tells a lie.
 * There are times when Allison sees what really happened in her head when someone is lying to her face.
 * Mama Bear: Allison Kung-fu's a bunch of muggers: "Don't you dare mess with my kids' pictures."
 * Medium Blending: (Pun not intended.) It turns out that, but all of her premonitions are in the form of extremely chilling (and violent) cartoons.
 * Mind Screw: Many of the dreams.
 * The finale. All of it, but especially the ending.
 * Modesty Bedsheet: Pretty much every other time Allison wakes up.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Patricia Arquette, and (for the 18-25 generation), Holliston Coleman.
 * Ellen Hollman, when she appeared in the episode Will The Real Fred Rovick Please Stand Up?. Also, pretty much a Star-Making Role for her in the United Kingdom.
 * Nightmare Dreams
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Scanlon delivers one of these to an abusive father in front of his (the abuser's) terrified wife and son.
 * No Rest for The Wicked:
 * Omniscient Morality License: Sometimes Allison's powers lead her to irrational/illegal courses of action... e.g.
 * Only Mostly Dead:
 * The Other Darrin: In the final season, they couldn't get the actor who originally played Allison's brother to come back, so they got Patricia Arquette's actual brother instead. Fitting, but a number of fans complained that he didn't look much like the original actor.
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: They can see the future, for starters.
 * Pregnant Hostage: "Joe Day Afternoon"
 * Product Placement: Episode 6.07: "New Terrain". The DuBois family rents a Terrain. Several characters extol the virtues of the car. When it aired, there were actual commercials during the breaks.
 * Rapunzel Hair: Ariel, who apparently cut it off after her mom recovered.
 * That's a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, as the actress had already cut it for a movie in which her character underwent chemotherapy.
 * Real Life Relative: Patricia Arquette's then-husband Thomas Jane shows up as the ghost of Allison's old high school boyfriend; and in another episode, her sister Rosanna Arquette plays a murder suspect. Her brother David Arquette has also directed three episodes, and once filled in as her brother.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: Ariel went to college because, well, her actress went to college. Surprisingly she claims more people recognize her from Eloise than Medium or My Sister's Keeper, where she had to shave off her hair to play a cancer patient.
 * Really Dead Montage: For
 * Refusal of the Call: Allison's half-brother Michael a.k.a. "Lucky" is in denial about his powers, though that doesn't keep the plot from finding him. Allison herself used to drink to block her powers when she was younger. In an episode from the final season, he ends up straightening his life out with some help from a ghost who takes over his body, but has to work with Allison to defeat the ghost's sinister agenda.
 * Reincarnation: Averted, what seemed like a case of this was actually just information overload from the ghost to.
 * Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Any dreams where time travel or alternate futures appear to be involved, such as Allison's vision of a post-apocalyptic world, or Ariel.
 * Or a literal episode where she's working on a murder and just so happens to reacquaint with a childhood friend and at the same time begins dreaming about when she first met him
 * Police Chief Ersatz: An unorthodox law enforcement officer in another county is clearly modeled after Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio, pink prison outfits and all.
 * Shout-Out / Homage: Allison finds a pair of sunglasses that show how long a person has to live.
 * "The lamb chops were screaming at me."
 * Will The Real Fred Rovick Please Stand Up? - referencing the famous Catch Phrase of To Tell the Truth
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: Bridget and Ariel, laid-back Joe and his drama-queen sister, would-be lawyer Allison and slightly Man Child-ish Lucky,.
 * Snap Back
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: When Allison hears the stirring opening strings of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" when she.
 * She also hears a cheerful song while watching
 * Y'know, just any episode with a featured song.
 * Star-Making Role: Ellen Hollman, in the episode Will The Real Fred Rovick Please Stand Up, well, to viewers in the United Kingdom anyway.
 * Take That: One episode seemed to be poking fun at Ghost Whisperer's concept of "step-ins", ghosts who take over recently dead bodies for a second chance at life.
 * Timey-Wimey Ball: If Doctor Who wasn't the Trope Namer, then this would be a close-runner for the title of...
 * Together in Death: The Series Finale
 * Too Soon: Part one of a plot involving a shooting at Joe's workplace aired the week before the Virginia Tech massacre and the Johnson Space Center shootings; the usual "Previously on..." segment was replaced with a note that "there's been enough shooting."
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Bridget and Ariel.
 * Unfazed Everyman: Inverted, since Allison's abilities are widely accepted as completely normal even though she's the only one (in earlier seasons) with these abilities. Anyone who knows about her secret, including her own husband, still makes wise-cracks about it.
 * Now that, Joe has become this even more.
 * Unlimited Wardrobe: The Dubois ladies seem to have a disproportionate number of sleepwear.
 * Vigilante Man: Kurtwood Smith ("Red") and Laura Prepon ("Donna")'s characters,
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist / Knight Templar: Allison's stalker, who thinks psychic powers go against God's plan. Allison tries to reason with him that maybe the psychics are also God's plan, but to no avail.
 * Allison herself walks the line between these all too often.
 * We Would Have Told You But: Scanlon does this to Allison when the psychic Serial Killer reaches her house, by making it look like the cop-cars meant to protect her were backing off. Then, after telling Allison it'll still be another ten minutes before he can come help her, Scanlon arrives seconds later to her rescue, revealing the whole squad had been waiting for the right time to do so all along and that telling her would have jeopardized their plan.
 * What the Hell, Hero?:
 * There's also the fact that
 * He has now, and Allison doesn't feel like they can be friends anymore, at least until Allison's stubbornness about the whole thing leads to Scanlon nearly being stabbed to death. Now, they seem to be taking it day-by-day. Then there's Allison's general sanctimoniousness regarding her powers, to which Joe finally busts out with this: "Do you know how many sentences you begin with the words 'I know'? 'I know he had a partner. I know he kidnapped that woman. I know taking instructions from a dead soccer coach isn't cheating.' What's it like, knowin' everything?"
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Ariel and Joe, and to a lesser degree, Hannah, play this on a few occasions.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Ariel and Joe, and to a lesser degree, Hannah, play this on a few occasions.