Review: Medium – “The Future’s So Bright”
November 22, 2009 by Kona Gallagher
Here’s what I love about Joe DuBois: Life is just very difficult for him. He seems so put-upon and frustrated, but in a way that I just kind of find hilarious. When he begrudgingly goes to the doctor after Allison receives a visit from his dead father warning her about Joe’s heart, and is prescribed meditation, Joe looked as though he were about to smack the doctor and run from the room.
Though he ends up trying meditation in the end, he treats it as though its a secret drug problem or bizarre sex fetish that he needs to make up elaborate stories about in order to hide. In the end though, I like how his story, which really seemed to be tied up in the main plot of Allison being able to see how long people have left to live, ended up being much lighter. Rather than a portent of an early demise, Joe’s dad was merely giving him a much-needed leg up in the corporate world.
As for the main plot, it was a pretty solid episode. Lee has been relegated to a background player for the majority of the episodes so far this season, so it was nice to see him front-and-center for a change. We all saw the promo for the episode that shows Lee with a “1″ on his head, so when he shows up at the beginning with a much larger number, I was taken by surprise. Having numbers on peoples’ heads that indicate how long they have left to live is much more interesting to me when it’s fluid and dependent on circumstances.
The plot of this episode was also very fluid, which really works for this show. Suspects and motives changed throughout, but in a much more interesting way than the typical police procedural. When the Littleton brothers end up dead, everyone has to pretty much start from scratch, theory-wise. While I enjoyed the way this played out, Carver was introduced too late.
Part of the fun of watching a show like Medium is trying to guess who the killer is. If Carver had been around earlier, perhaps helping with the investigation, it would have been much more interesting when Allison has her vision about him. Again, if we had gotten to know him better, then the final scene with Allison seeing the “1″ on his forehead would have had a greater impact.
I was also disappointed in how the family aspect of Allison’s temporary gift was just glossed over with a simple, “I could never look at you or the girls.” Would it really be that easy of a decision? We don’t see Allison interacting with her kids at all during the episode, and Ariel doesn’t make an appearance anywhere. The episode would have been better served by Allison having to deal with the internal struggle of wanting to know her children are going to be okay and not wanting to find out anything bad.
Overall, it was a strong episode, but there were too many things that just sat in the back of my head and bugged me for me to be able to call it “great.” However, the opening scene with Joe’s dad scoffing at hybrid vehicles and extolling the virtues of American-made gas-guzzling SUVs, is especially hilarious given Allison’s newest purchase.
Image: CBS
Nice review, Kona. One thing that you mentioned that I noticed was that in the teaser last week, there was a part where we could hear Allison telling Joe that she couldn’t look at him or the girls with the glasses on, and there was even a scene in the teaser with the girls with the lights shining behind them, as if Allison were seeing them, but neither of those things was in this episode. Made me wonder if they did that just to increase viewer anticipation, or if was actually supposed to be in the show. I also thought it would have had greater impact if Allison had had to struggle with whether or not she wanted to know how much longer her long ones had to live. Like the scene in the bathroom when she started to put the glasses on and look in the mirror but she couldn’t do it. That would have added an extra element of suspense to the show. I liked that moment of “will she do it or won’t she?” and would have liked to have seen that played out a little more in the ep. I liked the suspense of the main plot because it kept me guessing. This was one of the most well written mysteries of the season as far as being unable to figure it out. But like you, I think the introduction of Carver came a little too late for it have much weight when Allison saw his number was up. I’m guessing the writers were trying to mix things up by having several suspects, because lately it seems that when they only have one or two guest stars and no suspects, then it’s a foregone conclusion who the perpetrator is. I liked that they mixed it up and kept up the suspense. Hope they keep that up.
I thought it was an excellent ep. This season so far is rockin’!
Agree I thought this was an excellent episode, loved the suspense of trying to figure out who the suspect was. I like these type of episodes the best. Great writing! keep it up!
I think this was the best episode of the season so far . I like the suspenseful ones like this. Plenty of guessing going on. I also like when Scanlon and Allison work together with Devolis too. They are a great team. Hope they keep making Rockin ones like this one.
Yes, I was a little surprised we didn’t see Allison a little more tormented by the fact the glasses could see how long the people that matter to her most would live, especially considering her character in the past.
When Allison thinks about looking in the mirror with the glasses on, I’m not sure I would have been able to resist. Bye rainy city!
Despite the lack of Marie, Bridgette and Ariel, I still enjoyed this episode a lot more than others were they have not featured so much because it wasn’t obvious who the perpetrator was.
A little part of me wanted to see Joe and Allison go to a party, I have been missing the abundance of fluffy moments.
And there was Joe’s dad, my favourite guest star. For some reason, any time he pops up I’m never disappointed.
Great episode–one of my favorites of the season! I also love to see Scanlon and Allison working together. Like it said in the EW review, even though I knew they couldn’t kill Scanlon off because he’s a major character, that scene at the end with the bad cop of the week kept me on the edge of my seat. Awesome scene!
I did get a little lost in relation to Mr. Bad Cop du Jour–I thought it was because the baby was crying or something, but it may be that like Kona said he just wasn’t introduced until later in the episode. But that’s OK because it was more suspenseful that usual! I somehow didn’t even notice the lack of the girls.
Loved Joe’s dad as usual and loved Mitch P as the meditating boss (hope he’ll be a recurring character)
This was the best episode of this season, excitement and suspense. I knew it was the cop as soon as he told the guy to get in the car., but it was still very suspenseful how it was going to unfold especially how Lee was going to get out of it. Lee has been pretty good with trusting Allison and her dreams lately. He even stayed home that day. I like these kind that keep you at the edge of your seat.
I didn’t notice the lack of the girls either because the episode moved so fast.