TV on DVD

Medium does excellent job of keeping viewers engaged

Medium, the complete series
Medium, the complete series

What is it? Medium, the complete series, 130 episodes on 35 discs from Paramount Home Video

When? Now

How much? $84.98

Medium, as in something in between or meat that's pink in the middle? Try psychic.

Allison Dubois (Patricia Arquette) seems like your average, run-of-the-mill wife and mother. Her life in Phoenix with her three young daughters (Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark and twins Madison and Miranda Carabello) and her engineer husband, Joe (Jake Weber) is chaotic but happy. She manages to juggle family life with her job as an intern with the district attorney's office and her struggle over whether or not to go to law school.

But Allison is anything but ordinary.

She can see dead people. And talk to them. Then there are the hints at the past and future she gets through her dreams.

Not everyone believes she has an actual gift -- her husband has trouble coming to terms with it -- but her abilities make her quite valuable to local law enforcement, as her boss, District Attorney Manuel Devalos (Miguel Sandoval), discovers.

So, on the job, she delves into the darkest sides of humanity, assisting police officers and detectives such as Lee Scanlon (David Cubitt) in solving some pretty disturbing cases. At home, she tries to keep things as normal as possible. But as it becomes more and more clear that her daughters have inherited her abilities, that's hard to do.

In many ways, her "gift" is more like a curse.

How is it? Enjoyable. It gets crazier as the series goes on, which is not too unusual for long-running TV series, but the balance of the normal side of the family with the darker, crime-solving stories and the running supernatural theme means there's a lot here to entice people with a variety of tastes.

The acting and storytelling are solid so it's a pretty good show in which to get wrapped up.

What about extras? There are more than enough to keep viewers busy. There are multiple features on production, the real-life Allison Dubois (yes, she's a real person), Q&A sessions, interviews, gag reels and promo spots.

New this week: The Affair, Season 3; Animal Kingdom, Season 1; Paradise, Season 1

Next week: The 4400, complete series; Daniel Boone, Season 5; The Last Ship, Season 3; Rugrats, Seasons 1-2; Vega$, complete series.

Style on 04/23/2017

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