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It's funny. What I like best about The Mentalist – the absolute denial of psychic powers – is the opposite of the premise of Medium, which absolutely depends on the audience suspending disbelief enough to accept the heroine, Allison Dubois, as a psychic who, through the help of dreams and conversations with the dead, is able to help the Phoenix police and district attorney solve cases and save lives....

...Back to Medium, however. You see, I really don't believe in psychics. I think they are all, without exception, frauds. I have never heard of any who don't use their alleged "powers" for personal gain, whether financial or social, and I just don't think that God or the universe work that way.

However, I am perfectly happy to be in the audience for fantasy books, films and TV shows that have characters with powers that I don't believe in the real world. So while I have nothing but disdain for the real person on whom the series is based – a self-promoting fraud, in my opinion – that does not stop me from loving the fantasy series and the truly inventive writing that keeps finding new ways to use the supernatural premise to mess with the lives of the characters.

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Out of all the “paranormal” series out there on mainstream television, I have to confess that I find Medium to be the one of the better entries. Inspired by a real-life psychic named Allison DuBois, Medium gives us an entirely fictional crime drama so that viewers don’t fall asleep repeatedly. Our heroine of the series, Allison (Patricia Arquette), is a very happily married woman with three girls in Phoenix, Arizona. Employed with the local District Attorney (Miguel Sandoval), Allison is frequently haunted by dreams and visions — usually regarding murder cases and kidnappings. And, while many people have their doubts over the real Allison’s abilities, the on-screen Allison always manages to come through for us.

In season five, Allison’s daughters (Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark, and Miranda & Madison Carabello) begin to show either advanced or beginning signs of having inherited their mother’s psychic abilities. Meanwhile, her faithful hubby Joe (Jake Weber, who is excellent as always, but still needs to work on his American accent) is busy trying to get his start-up company off the ground.

Episodes range from the deadly serious to the extremely lighthearted (a hilarious episode in which Arquette switches bodies with guest star Jeffrey Tambor is practically on par with a big-screen comedy). Anjelica Huston returns from season four for an episode. The ever creepy David Morse shows up for a three-parter as an industrial tycoon who entices Allison to come work for him and share her dreams (“How To Make A Killing In Business”). And co-star David Cubitt still manages to do his best impersonation of Jason Statham, Vince Vaughn, and Jason Evers all at the same time (hey, it isn’t an easy thing to pull off).

( Special Features )