For a TV series that features a psychically sensitive woman who sometimes communicates with ghosts in dreams, or sees murders recorded on non-existent DVDs, Medium sure seems real. Which may be why my wife and I like it so much. We've watched it on television for the last couple of years (I think we missed the first season) and it hasn't failed. I'll admit, in general I've enjoyed the first 20-minutes or so and then fallen asleep - which might be another reason I like it, the wife can enjoy, I can snooze, everybody's happy. Then the third season ended with a grand-slam three-parter featuring not one but two up-slumming guest stars, Neve Campbell and Jason Priestly, and I became an active watcher.

Obviously there is a strong paranormal component to Medium's mystery stories, but it can hardly be compared to that other supernatural show featuring a bouncy Fox alumnus (the delectable Jennifer Love Hewitt). While Ghost Whisperer features pulpy spook-shows and Hewitt's décolletage, Medium features often somber and grimly realistic morality tales filled with no-nonsense, naturalistic acting and smart writing.

The show's strong underpinning is the family unit and an intractable sense of the everyday. Not since The Bob Newhart Show has a couple been shown so much in bed, doing what married couples mostly do in bed, griping at each other and sleeping. It's this ubiquitous framing device that resonates strongly. Each time our medium, Allison Dubois (perfectly underplayed by Patricia Arquette) starts from a disturbing dream it points out how most couples spend more time sleeping together in bed than engaged in any other form of contact. (Though I'd be hard-pressed to put up with such regularly scheduled sleep disruption.)

Episodes operate something like mysteries without traditional sleuthing, usually Dubois begins by having terrifying visions of some sort, which often meld with a concurrent story line that delineates criminal misdeeds. Eventually Dubois' cohorts, including Phoenix District Attorney Devalos, (Miguel Sandoval) see that her visions constitute the truth, and the crime is solved. The pleasure comes in with the quality of these mostly nocturnal visions; within the dream framework one is never sure of what one is seeing, which jacks up suspense and fear in consistently stylish fashion.

Even more enjoyable is the realistic family atmosphere created. Dubois operates within two families, her own home family, and her work family. Essayed expertly by Jake Weber, husband Joe (who gets his own very dramatic story-line in season 3) acts as a realistic foil - there's no ridiculous According To Jim or Yes, Dear stupidity, but there is a down home grasp of marital dynamics that rings true. Dubois' three daughters act both as comic relief and carry story lines of their own, as they begin to exhibit propensities similar to their mom's unique traits. On the other hand, her work family holds together the more outrageous aspects of Medium, (the supernatural ones) in particular, Miguel Sandoval as the DA radiates a calm, no-nonsense, grounding vibration without which the series might spiral out of control. The result is a rare supernatural mystery series that has the intelligence, class and legs to go the distance.

The DVD

Video:
Medium: The Third Season episodes are presented in their Widescreen versions, enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. In short, they look awesome, and if you've been lucky enough to see them in their OTA HD broadcasts on NBC, you'll know what you're getting: just fantastic, sharp images, amazing detail, lush colors and moody dark areas that are all top notch. Extras also look great, either presented in sharp 1.33:1 ratios, or non-enhanced 16 x 9 ratios.

Sound:
Audio is also exemplary, episodes and extras are in either Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround Sound or English Stereo Surround Sound. The audio won't push your system to its limits, but 3-D and stereo placement is clever, as one would hope from a series that aims to create suspense, with nice ethereal use of music and sound effects.

Extras:
Extras include Cast and Crew Commentaries on three episodes. The commentaries are lively and entertaining, generally splitting between episode-specific topics, the ethos and intentions of the series, and amusing behind-the-scenes anecdotes. I would have enjoyed a few more commentary tracks - I guess the Simpsons DVDs have set the bar pretty high in that regard. Deleted Scenes are available for seven episodes, and are the usual mixed-bag, some that make you feel like you're getting that 'something special,' others deservedly lost for pacing reasons, etc. Nowadays, unless I'm getting bits of excised gore or cruelty from some horror movie, deleted scenes hold little appeal to me (unless you can view them in the context of the work as a whole). A five-minute featurette, Drawing on Dreams, details some of the work and thought behind the animated cartoon Monkeyheads that plays an important role in the two-part season opener. A six-minute featurette, Directing with David Arquette, outlines his work on one of the series' more amusing episodes, and is amusing itself as it explores the sibling relationship on set. Acting is My "Racquet" is a totally silly eight-minute examination of actor Miguel Sandoval's delight in all sports 'ball and racquet' related. From ping-pong to tennis; he seems to love them all. The Story of Medium, Season 3, at 18-minutes, verges into EPK territory as clips and interviews let viewers know what goes on in the first few episodes, and looks at the overall story arc for the season as a whole. A six-minute Gag Reel provides genuine laughs. You can judge the merit of any project by the quality of its Gag Reel. One begs for more from Medium, for all the right reasons. Lastly The Making of Medium, Season 3 is an insightful 25-minute featurette that mostly uncovers the secrets of the special effects used in the series. Of particular interest to me was an up-close look at a dramatic car accident sequence.

As far as a package of extras for TV on DVD goes, this one is about average. Everything is given with care, I'd just like to have seen a bit more of it, particularly commentaries. I'd also have liked a more thorough delivery of episode information, as with HBO dramas, such as original airdates and episode capsule-overviews on the menu screens (though such overviews are present on the DVD cases).

Final Thoughts:
The grounded-in-reality Medium works because the supernatural elements are neither taken for granted nor especially highlighted, they're just a bizarre part of one woman's life, and the people who surround her are accepting, skeptical and supportive as they try to work and live with her. Intelligent and naturalistic writing carries over into performances, ensuring that while you watch these extraordinary lives and occurrences, you feel like they could be surrounding people you might know. Medium is occasionally pretty scary, and often disturbing. While the stories act somewhat like mysteries, they're generally not solved as such, considering Dubois tends to receive her information from beyond, as opposed to stuff coming to her via deduction. In a sense this makes Medium very TV friendly, as viewers' minds aren't taxed too much, however, viewers' intelligence isn't taken for granted either. Fans of supernatural TV should already be on the Medium bandwagon, as it's an excellent show combining mystery and terror with strong doses of family-based reality. Not all of the episodes might stand up to repeated viewings, as once you've learned the secrets, obviously, the mystery is gone. A few more extras and possibly a more complete packaging/ presentation (as with most HBO series DVDs) would make this set almost perfect. Nonetheless, it's thoroughly entertaining watching, and for fans who would like to take their time re-watching episodes, catching up on those they've missed, parsing out some of the subtleties or just enjoying the lead actors' performances, Medium: The Third Season is Highly Recommended.

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