7735 replies to this topic

[Storm Shadow]

A chilling drama series inspired by a real-life story, will premiere on Monday, Jan. 3 (10-11 p.m. ET). Patricia Arquette ("Stigmata," "Flirting with Disaster") stars as Allison Dubois, a young wife and mother who has been struggling since childhood to make sense of her dreams and visions of dead people. She uses her gifts to help solve violent and horrifying crimes whose mysteries often reside with those who live beyond the grave. The series also stars Jake Weber ("U-571") as husband Joe Dubois, and Sofia Vassilieva and Maria Lark as their children, Ariel and Bridget. David Cubitt ("10.5") recurs as Detective Lee Scanlon.

"Medium" comes from Emmy Award-winning executive producer, creator and director Glenn Gordon Caron ("Moonlighting"), and executive producers Kelsey Grammer ("Girlfriends"), Steve Stark and Oscar winner Ronald L. Schwary ("Ordinary People"). "Medium" is produced by Picturemaker Productions, Inc., in association with Grammnet Productions and Paramount Network Television.

[yesman6764]

Essentially this is NBC's new version of its earlier midseason paranormal show The Others, but I don't see the end result being all that different, because:

(1) Paranormal/scifi stuff hasn't worked on NBC since Quantum Leap,

(2) Exec producer GGC's work over the last 15 or so years hasn't really quite recaptured the glory of his Moonlighting days (apologies to any Now & Again fans),

(3) I can't see Las Vegas fans sticking around for this. In fact, NBC hasn't really found a successful Monday 10 PM EST companion show for LV and FF, mainly because of.......

(4) Two words: Ho. Caine.
Yes, we TWoPpers hate him with (yawn) the intensity of a billion stars all going supernova simultaneously (/yawn), but what do we TWoPpers know? OK, there will be a time when non TWoPpers will agree with us on him, but I just don't see that time around the corner anytime soon. By the time it finally does come, it'll be too late for this show.

Overall, I think I see a dead show here.
Four and out.

[The 2nd Evil]

Sounds like Tru Calling meets The 6th Sense if you ask me.

I'm willing to give it a shot.

Here is the NBC page with a little preview

[xyzzy]

I didn't care about this show until I saw the commercial, which kind of freaked me out, I must admit. I hate Patricia Arquette though.

This kind of reminds me of that movie that was co-written by Billy Bob Thornton called The Gift. The story was loosely based on his mother.

[DianaM]

I hear that NBC is really high on the show. It originally got an 8 episode order and the network recently ordered an additional 5 for a total of 13 episodes. They must like what they see to do that.

One thing Glenn Caron is not is cookie-cutter. Moonlighting, Now and Again. I'm looking forward to it.

[Warden]

I didn't care about this show until I saw the commercial, which kind of freaked me out, I must admit. I hate Patricia Arquette though.

If it's the one about the bad dream, I found it a little comical in the end. I don't know if it will be able to mix comedy and suspense if that's where they're going.

[Mr. Excitement]

yesman6764 writes:

(4) Two words: Ho. Caine.
Yes, we TWoPpers hate him with (yawn) the intensity of a billion stars all going supernova simultaneously (/yawn), but what do we TWoPpers know?

Quite right. TWoP is a bizarre parallel universe where Alias has more viewers than Everybody Loves Raymond and JAG combined. CSI's almost narcotic grip on viewers is not going to be broken anytime soon.

Overall, I think I see a dead show here.
Four and out.

I agree, if only because Caron's tendency towards writing on the fly and going over budget keeps him unemployed for a reason (his last show, Fling, became so unwieldy a production Fox killed it not only before it aired, but midway through filming its episode order).

[Arena]

CSI's almost narcotic grip on viewers is not going to be broken anytime soon.

Just to be clear it's CSI: Miami you are talking about. CSI has a TWoP following that won't touch CSI: Miami with a stick.

Count me as someone who didn't care for the idea until I saw the commercial. I also like that her husband is a rocket scientist.

[Actionmage]

Loved the commercial! It was kinda funny. Now I have another reason not to tune into CBS on Mondays! (Miss ya, Rory!)

Patricia Arquette is someone I'm on the fence about. She seems to have range, but lately she seems to be touted as the next big giggly blonde.

If the tv hubby is indeed a rocket scientist, they'll have me at hello! I love quirky series(just sat thru all the GREG THE BUNNY eps last night) and they hardly ever last or have an easy go at the networks. (Now And Again)

Ah! Jake Weber! IIRC, he was the doctor in American Gothic! Love him! I am locked in for the pilot, at least.

[DianaM]

I'm sure the series will be quirky and interesting. Not only do you have Glenn Caron, but you have Kelsey Grammer and Rene Echevarria (he was one of the producers of The 4400 on USA).

Can't wait.

[NickChick]

I saw my first preview of this last night with the sound down during the commercials and my first impression was, "Didn't they already do this with Profiler?" I'm intrigued that they got PA to commit to an hourly series, but I agree that the CSI: Miami train isn't slowing down (it's even up significantly this year, I believe), so we'll see what sort of commitment NBC has to it as to whether thet juggle it to find it the best home -- I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually ended up on Sci-Fi or USA (since NBC seems to be sharing more content)...

[depthfunction]

What's funny is that I usually go for the paranormal dramas: I watched Buffy, I watch Lost, I watch Joan of Arcadia. But the previews for this show just do absolutely nothing for me.

It's on NBC, huh? Well maybe that explains it.

I don't plan on watching.

[DebB]

I like paranormal dramas, too, so I do plan on tuning in. What inevitably happens with these things, though, is that they get cancelled after showing just enough episodes to get you hooked. Either that, or, like Kingdom Hospital, they just won't go away, and you just keep hanging in there praying it will get better. Lost is the only show I can think of that I've loved recently that isn't in danger of being cancelled.

I don't know if I'm all that excited about the show, even though I'm planning on tuning in. On one hand, it reminds me of Millenium, which I hated. On the other hand, it reminds me of Haunted, which I loved. So, I think it could go either way for me. But if I love it, don't expect it to stick around long.

[emzily]

I'll watch. Anything to take away from the horrid Horatio Cane and his Sunglasses of Justice. The last straw for me was when Speedle kicked the bucket. gag.

Random thought: Patricia Arquette's teeth have always bothered me for some reason. I'll still watch her though.

[bellyache]

I plan on giving it a try. TPTB must have some faith in it to go and order 7 more episodes before it even airs.

[valny]

Has there been any critics buzz good or bad on this show yet? I haven't seen anything on it yet.

Random thought: Patricia Arquette's teeth have always bothered me for some reason.

Ha! I kind of like her teeth, mainly because they're not perfect and she's never fixed them. Every once in a while I like seeing the non-perfect teeth in an actor. I haven't decided if I'll be watching yet, but I've always thought she was a pretty decent actress.

[DebB]

Has there been any critics buzz good or bad on this show yet?

It got a brief mention in Matt Roush's column in this week's TV Guide. The title of the article was something like "Hot Shows for the New Year". I can't remember exactly, and I don't have the magazine around right now. Anyway, it didn't really say anything about the show at all in terms of quality, only that sci-fi fans could tune it in, along with some other shows that I don't recall. It was really kind of a nothing article, content-wise. In spite of the article title, nothing in the article would seem to indicate that Roush had even seen the show himself, let alone thought it was actually good enough to recommend.

Edited by DebB, Dec 28, 2004 @ 1:55 AM.

[Warden]

More info on Medium and Patricia Arquette from Yahoo.

[DebB]

There's a brief review of the show in this week's TV Guide (the one with Cold Case on the cover). I'm too lazy to type the whole description but here are the highlights:

...the frazzled heroine of this refreshingly offbeat drama, which is only partially a thriller...Medium smartly blends domestic realism with the unnerving surrealism of Allison's paranormal adventures. Consider this the latest cult-TV alert. Watch it while you can. Matt's score: (0 - 10) 8.

Wow, I am actually interested in seeing this now, instead of just tentatively trying it out to see if it doesn't suck.

[Sandman]

Though I too immediately thought "Hmm. Blonde, crime-solving young woman with paranormal powers? Profiler 2: Arquette-ic Boogaloo? I'm willing to give this one a shot. What can I tell you? I love this genre. I loved The X-Files; I was one of about six people who loved The Others; I loved Haunted and Miracles. (I did not love Profiler. I have no real idea why. It just rubbed me the wrong way.)

Did I read somewhere that Jake Weber is an Englishman? Huh. I never would have guessed that, after American Gothic. (About which, by the way: Eeeep.)

[crystalsage]

The premise is good, but I hope they don't ruin it (as I believe they did) with Profiler when a serial killer stalked the profiler. Dumb. I'll give it a couple of episodes.

[Actionmage]

I've seen newer commercials talking about how the series is based on a real-life gal like PA's character. It shows the two gals, Patricia and the RL gal, on set and, well, that's kinda turning my enthusiasm down.

It seems like NBC promo monkeys are all 'See? This is an easily digestible crime drama, not some freaky genre thing you might actually have to think about and actually follow. Even though it sorta is and you sorta don't.'

Or I could be smoking the ABC promo monkeys' stash. ;)

[Amberosia]

I saw my first preview of this last night with the sound down during the commercials and my first impression was, "Didn't they already do this with Profiler?"

I will watch because I'm hoping it's what I thought both Crossing Jordan and Profiler were going to be. Here's hoping it's good, and if so gets a better run than my last adopted show Wonderfalls.

[SisterSpoon]

I kind of like her teeth, mainly because they're not perfect and she's never fixed them. Every once in a while I like seeing the non-perfect teeth in an actor.

valny, I love you.

Topic? I'll give this show a try.

[depthfunction]

My impression from the commercials is that they are trying to sell this as a crime show as much as a supernatural drama.

So it's trying to be the show that Joan of Arcadia has always wanted to be?

Tonight I have two choices: I can watch Medium, or I can watch a college football game that I don't care anything about. Hmm. Football sounds pretty good.

But I'll log on to TWoP later tonight to see what y'all think of it. :D

What surprises me most is that TWoP isn't even bothering to give this show a forum. That in itself is a bad sign.

[lynettefl]

I was not planning on watching the show, but it's been receiving good reviews.

Patricia Arquette annoys me, so I'll see...