'Medium' recap: Dream a little dream of mom
Jan 15, 2008, 09:45 AM | by Alynda Wheat
Categories: 'Medium', Mini TV Watch
I had my fingers crossed for you, PopWatchers. Last week some of y’all were a tad spazzed about an incident we’ll refer to as The Boy in the Box. Gruesome it was, so I'd hoped this week would be better, that there’d be nothing deeply objectionable involving children or violence or sex—nothing like, say, a barely pubescent girl getting dream-raped by a freak playing a twisted version of Bad Cop. But clearly, I don’t run nothin’.
Maybe Medium is trying to work out some, forgive the expression, kinks (this is, after all, the network that gave us 14,572 iterations of Dateline's To Catch a Predator). Or maybe this is what the show figures it has to do to keep up with the likes of Criminal Minds and Law & Order: SVU. Whatev. All I’m saying is that it looks like we’re in for a seriously dark season 4, so get your minds right.
So what happened, exactly? (Sorry class, have to give the latecomers a chance to catch up.) While Allison was having her usual Dreams of Random Exposition, Ariel had a few dreams of her own (no, there’s no Bridgette or Marie in this episode—sometimes they exist, sometimes they don’t—anyway, pay attention). Ariel’s dreams were way more interesting, though, as they cast her as a girl named Casey, who just happened to be BFF with a blonde named Allison—yeah, Ariel dreamt about the Pretty in Pink version of her own mother. (No, this Young Allison was a different actress than the previous Young Allison. No, I don’t know why. Stop asking questions!) Anyway, thanks to the dream, Ariel snuck off to meet some boy we’ll never see again, got caught, had her own Dream of Random Exposition about the evil cop, and eventually got him thrown in jail—thankfully before he could kill his next victim.
I’m glossing over, here. Sure, we saw the cop’s attack on Allison’s friend coming from a mile away, but it was still awful. Give it to the Medium writers for getting us to feel the same stomach-sinking panic Ariel felt—like we, too, were stuck in a nightmare from which we couldn’t awake. Worst moment of the night.
Second worst moment: Realizing that Cynthia Keener (a.k.a. Maerose Prizzi, a.k.a. Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent, a.k.a. Anjelica Huston) might just be a raging, selfish rhymes-with-itch. When Allison explained that it might be more helpful if she actually, y’know, came along to interview people for cases, Cynthia sniped, “That would seem to rather defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it? I mean, this is supposed to be about me, not you.” Actually, Cyn, it’s supposed to be about the victims, but I can see how you'd get confused. As if that weren’t enough, the –itch hung up on Allison, then swanned up to her front door to fire her.
See, this is why they don’t let me out into polite society—I’d have smacked her. And while I was at it, Ariel, too, for calling her mom a liar during her I’m-sorry-I-got-busted-not-sorry-I-did-it hissy fit. (Sigh…I’m still learning to use my words.)
Then again, maybe Ariel’s had enough. Maybe now she’ll know not to mouth off, sneak out to see boys, or take unauthorized trips on municipal transit. And she damn sure better stop sleep-snooping in her mama’s bidness. For one thing, we got enough of that weirdness in Dreamscape, and have no desire to return (cute Dennis Quaid or no). But more importantly, where’s the fun in screwing up, goofing off, and generally having a naughty past if, in the end, you’re just gonna end up with psychic kids?
What about you, PopWatchers--Medium getting to be too much for you?
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