I was so excited to see Tony Hale on this week’s episode of Medium. After his untimely demise on Chuck, I’m just waiting for the day when he gets another regular role on a series. Of course, it was obvious from the first three minutes that he was going to end up being a killer, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment at all.
In fact, Hale was so adorable, that I was really rooting for him and Jessica Hecht to get together. Of course, they turned out to be better matched then I initially thought, since they both enjoy strangling ladies in parks. Also, best match.com profile ever. Likes: The Sopranos; hiking; strangling young women with wires. Dislikes: Sitcoms that are canceled too quickly; Thai food; young women.
Before I get into the meat of the story, let’s talk about Joe’s lawsuit. This was the night of awesome guest-stars, because Paul Kinsey from Mad Men and Trina from Swingtown decided to sue Joe. I love how Marie’s dream ended up going into this storyline instead of Allison’s, because as weird as it is for a seven-year-old to be having a sex dream, it’s much more preferable to her seeing people being murdered.
It was also nice that they didn’t lie to Marie. They didn’t get into the graphic details, but they made sure to explain that what she saw wasn’t violent; it was something that people do when they like each other, and that it was “a distinct possibility” that they were just waiting for their clothes to dry. Heh.
I love the twist at the end with the doctor killing one of the women, but not the others — it makes Allison seem like less of an asshole for getting her murdered. But here’s my main problem with the way this episode ended: there was no accounting for the news media.
There is a serial killer on the loose in Phoenix. He’s killing young, attractive white women. This is the type of thing that the media eats up. Obviously, there’s going to be heavy media scrutiny on this case, so just imagine how this looks to them.
A well-respected doctor is murdered, and a prominent businessman is arrested. He is then released eight hours later, due to lack of evidence. Unfortunately for him, even though there was no evidence to hold him, his name and face are out there and his business is suffering due to the fact that he was arrested for being a serial killer.
However, the Phoenix police aren’t letting this matter die. Even though there is zero evidence linking this prominent businessman to the crime, the police continue to harass him, eventually getting him arrested for unpaid parking tickets and thrown in jail. He is subsequently murdered by his meth-head cellmate in the course of an attempted rape.
Sure, Allison knows that he’s actually the killer, but since ghosts can’t even be used in the court of public opinion, there is still zero evidence that he has anything whatsoever to do with these crimes. How is this not a complete PR nightmare for the Phoenix police department and the DA’s office?
I really don’t like the, “Well, the bad guy died, so I guess everything worked out,” endings that shows like Medium seem to be relying more and more on. It’s a bit of a cop-out, and it took away from what was otherwise a fantastic episode.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Oct 02, 2010 @ 14:04 EST5EDT
