I think my favorite commenters are the ones who take offense to a complaint I may have against a show they love and write something along the lines of, “well if you don’t like it, stop watching it!” Forgetting (I guess) that the reason I am writing about it and probably watching it in the first place, is that I am assigned to do so. With that said, I will never complain about Medium again.
It’s not that I think the recent complaints I’ve had about this show (of which I am a fan, by the way) are unwarranted, it’s that now I’ve come to the realization that the show, because I complained about it, is now trying to kill me. How else could you explain the “To Be Continued” at the end of last nights season finale?
I’m all for cliff-hangers, but a TBC for a season finale? Isn’t that just kind of annoyingly redundant? But beyond that, it was a really shitty way to end the season, especially because NBC canceled it. Yes, I know CBS picked it up like a day later, but if they hadn’t, then the last episode of a really good show that we have been watching for the past five years, would have ended with Allison in a coma. A COMA. Like it’s Days of Our Lives or something.
The episode itself was pretty good, but quite frankly could have fit anywhere in the season. It didn’t really have that season finale feel, and certainly wasn’t what one would want from a series finale. One of my favorite things about Medium is the DuBois family dynamic, which aside from the few scenes about the lunchbox notes, was all but absent from this episode.
Yes, Allison’s tumor created some extra drama, but let’s face it: the stakes were low. We know that she’s not going to die, and we know that she’s not going to lose her ability to dream. Without those things, you don’t have a show. Unlike Izzie’s brain tumor on Grey’s Anatomy, it’s very difficult to get invested. Izzie Stevens can die and the show will go on. Allison DuBois cannot.
So maybe that’s what the To Be Continued meant. If Medium got picked up for a 6th season, then Allison lives and everything goes back to normal. If it got canceled, then I guess all of the fans were just supposed to assume that Allison died of a stroke. I understand that everyone behind Medium isn’t in love with NBC, the network that jerked them around before ignominiously canceling them, but that’s no reason to punish loyal fans who have stuck with the show since the beginning. If they want us to follow them to Friday nights on CBS, they should probably have worked a little harder to end season 5 on something other than an insulting note.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Jun 02, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
When I saw that at the end, I decided that NBC did it just to shit on CBS. To be continued my ass. NOBODY puts that at the end of a season, for craps sake! I refuse to believe it was put there by the writers. In spite of their silly usage of the ploy all season (and, really, aren’t they ALL continuations? It’s not like she has a new job and family every week), I will not believe it was them.
That said, I was annoyed at yet ANOTHER episode where she dreams her family is killed. Really? Two in one season? Is that necessary (unless they’re REALLY going to kill them)?
Hopefully CBS will provide some direction that was sorely missing this year, in what I consider the worst season of the series.
For pity’s sake — when will Allison learn to just wait until the next dream before going off on everything and everybody.
EVERY time, each dream adds more context. Each show I watch just make me think she’s more and more stupid.
EVERYONE in her life should know by now that it takes at least 4 or 5 dreams for her to get the full picture. Investigate, sure. But don’t take the first or second dream as gospel — they never are.