Review: Medium “Pain Killer”
October 12, 2009 by Kona Gallagher
Medium runs into the same challenges that any series in its sixth season runs into: How do you keep the material fresh? While Medium may be a family drama, it is, at its heart, a police procedural. There is a crime of the week, the main character helps solve it, and everyone lives happily ever after. So the idea is to work within the already-established framework to make an episode that is exciting and interesting. This season, Medium seems to be focusing on doing just that.
First they give Allison physical disabilities in addition to temporarily losing her ability to dream, then Ariel gets possessed, and in this week’s episode, “Pain Killer,” Allison doesn’t catch the bad guy. Well, that’s not exactly true: she catches him, he confesses, yet justice does not prevail. As frustrating as that is, it makes for an interesting episode.
Oded Fehr is fantastically creepy as the doctor who takes his “God Complex” a bit too far. The way he sees it, unlike his patients, he is a medical professional, thus, he is the only one qualified enough to decide whether or not a patient is too sick to live. Luckily for Allison, he decided that she was worth saving, as she was his patient a few months back while in her coma.
It seemed a little odd to me that despite how brazen Dr. Statler was, they still were unable to catch him. I understand that they didn’t have a lot of good evidence, but the dude confessed to Allison on multiple occasions. I would think that after the first time he admitted what he did, she would think, “hey, maybe the next time I go and see this guy, perhaps I should drop a little tape recorder in my pocket. A taped confession certainly would have gone a long way toward if not getting him arrested, at least not getting him hired at that hospital in Georgia.
In reading the comments, it seems as though a lot of you were dismayed by the fact that Allison found a friend who helped her through her recovery, just to have her die. From a narrative standpoint, it makes perfect sense that Rosemary died– it’s the catalyst for the entire story. However, it would be nice if Allison could find a friend who didn’t die on her. It’s nice to see her and Joe discussing her days, but I’d also be interested in Allison finding an outside perspective.
Excellent Episode
Great review as usual, Kona. I’m also loving the way they’re mixing things up this season. I like that they keep a good balance of the family and crime elements, although I like to think of it as a show about a wife and mother with psychic abilities who just happens to work with the police and DA to solve crimes. It’s hard to think of this as another “crime procedural”, when it’s so heavily rooted in the family dynamic. That’s what makes it so much better than all of the other procedurals out there in my book. There’s no standard format, per se, as to how the story is going to be told, whether it’s told as a family story that just happens to intersect with her job (like this episode) or a crime story that happens to impact her family (like the season finale last year). I love the way the writers always manage to meld these elements together so intricately, like Bridgette’s cartoon dreams from the season 3 premiere, or Ariel’s visions of the dead teacher in last season’s “How To Make a Killing in Big Business”. There is absolutely no other show on television that can do what this one does. That’s why it’s the best thing on TV, imo.
Occasionally the bad guy gets away with it and we have seen it before on this show. Personally, as a doctor, I love to see doctors talking trash about administrators.
true they do get away occasionally. Medium is a very well written show and I love it and after a few years the stories start to repeat. We are in the six season and the shows conyinue to deliver fresh stories. I just wish we could get more of it. I always listen to my mother or my grandparents how they were on 32 33 shows and no repeats. If there was a show like that on tv today, tat would be Medium for me.
Hi:
I wonder if part of the series team has changed.
Does it have the same wrtiter?
I’m furious they did not catch the doctor! I hope they will in a future episode. I mean, its absurd to just let him get away, what kind of example is that? Completely shocked. I was left with a strange cold sensation in my chest after the end of the episode. It may even affect my sleep
Let’s face it – Oded Fehr is always good – even when given marginal material. He had a great script here, and great actors to work with, and he made a seductively evil character – one who had a noble exterior and a truly wicked interior.
It would be very enjoyable to see him reprise this roll.