TVSquad

(S03E01/S03E02) I was surprised that NBC held Medium back when they announced the fall schedule. While it hasn't been a breakout hit, it has performed well in its first two seasons, and managed to garner some awards. I suppose the thought process was to launch all the untested new stuff, knowing that something isn't going to work out, and then bring Medium in to shore things up. Whatever the case, Allison is back, and with a two hour premiere.

The first thing that stood out to me about this episode was that it was co-written by Medium creator Glenn Gordon Caron and Javier Grillo-Marxuach. Javier was formerly a writer-producer for Lost and is a good hire for this show. The two of them put together a great story that managed to weave a few different story lines together into an interesting mystery.

The four dreams from the episode title were a great way to start the show. They set a tone and provided just enough intrigue about the coming story without giving anything away too soon. Of course, the standout in the dream sequence was the Monkeyheads. When I heard that Medium was going to have an animated dream sequence, I wasn't exactly sold on the idea. It seems like that has the potential to go off the rails and look very silly. They pulled it off though. It made sense for Bridgette to be dreaming in cartoons and the story of the cartoons tied in perfectly with the mystery. Even with no dialog they managed to impart information to such a degree that the big reveal of the mystery was actually supplied by the Monkeyheads. Well done.

Allison's Indonesian dream was good as well. It set up Clay's character and the motorcycle scene had a surreal quality to it that fit perfectly with the show.I came into the premiere having not read any of the pre-show buzz. Looking at the websites now, it seems that Clay being dead was given away. The cut away from the bus crash without any definite conclusion left me finding out that he was dead at the same time as Allison. That really should have been left as a surprise to everyone.

Other than the minor spoiler gripe, there was a lot of good stuff in the Clay part of the story. Thomas Jane is married to Patricia Arquette, so the two of them had great chemistry. More important for the show though was how the presence of Clay affected Joe. It was played well by Jake Weber and reaffirmed what is one of the really interesting parts of Medium. With all of the craziness in Allison's life, it is all grounded by her family. I especially like the way that they write Joe and Allison. Clearly they are in love, but it's no fairy tale romance. They bicker, and fight, and piss each other off.

Outside of the DuBois clan we got some setup for what I assume will be ongoing stories for Scanlon and Devalos. Scanlon's dream of going to the fun park and renting a son was very strange. Clearly he's not settled in his current life and I think we will see him either moving to improve things, or becoming more troubled because he can't. The Devalos diagnosis cleared up the oddity of his behavior early in the episode, but something like that obviously doesn't just go away. It should become an issue for the character to deal with from here on out.

Overall, a solid premiere, and something NBC needed. There has been a lot of turmoil on their schedule so far this season. Getting Medium back and plugging in some steady numbers for the time slot should help. Next week the show settles in at 10PM. Although, with the rumored reshuffling of shows, that may not be a season long assignment. Check your local listings, as they say.