TVSquad

(S04E10) I suppose one of the drawbacks of a suspenseful show like Medium doing a two parter is that while waiting a week for the second part, most viewers will have come close to figuring out what's going on. In this case, I wasn't too concerned with figuring out why Suzie Keener's roommate wasn't dead until I was stuck in traffic today and started thinking about reviewing the show tonight. Moreover, the previews made it pretty clear that Joanna was the mastermind of the entire abduction.

Luckily, this was all made clear in the first fifteen minutes of the show. What followed was my favorite kind of episode. The kind where we, the audience, know exactly what happened, and we get to watch the hero snare the guilty party. It was like watching a pretty version of Columbo.

In a world where TV kids are too often irritatingly sweet, Maria Lark is a pleasure to watch. As a parent of a nine year old, I am amazed at how she perfectly plays her role with believability and character. I know it's been mentioned many times by me and by other fans of the show but regardless of how compelling Allison's latest vision is, it's the other members of the Dubois family that I watch the show for. In fact, when Bridgette told Joe about her dream, I stopped caring about the psychotic girl and only wanted to see Joe get his hands on some solar energy moolah.

I was really going to try and get through this review without mentioning Anjelica Huston, but It's just impossible. First, let me say that I think Ms. Huston is a brilliant actress and a very elegant woman. However, her character on this show is annoying, unattractive and unbelievable. Do the producers purposely put her in unflattering clothes? Was it a choice to give her a the worst haircut possible and do they insist on keeping her time in the makeup chair at a minimum? I really hope so. Each week, I hold on to the expectation that her character will prove to be more than a two-dimensional foil for Allison and each week I am disappointed. The only thing worse than seeing Huston play the same record every week is seeing Allison make her deer in the headlights face while lurking behind her.

To make matters worse, after all the berating Allison has had to take from Cynthia, it's Allison who ends up apologizing. I suppose that's a big part of what makes Joe's dilemma so important. From his perspective, if Allison hadn't used her "talent" to get a job with Devalos, they would still be a happy family with him designing rockets and her going to law school. However, he knew he had to stand by her like a good husband should, especially after they ended up losing so much. Now, Joe has an opportunity to make a new life for his family and Allison doesn't believe in him enough to let him do it. We can all understand why she's hesitant, but, in my opinion, if you can't trust your partner 100% then why bother being married?

Regardless of the problems I had with this episode, I must admit that the last fifteen minutes were brilliant. Bridgette pointing out the white-haired man had me dying to know who he was and knowing that the blonde psycho killed her ex-boyfriend gave me hope that the ending would be unexpected. Once I saw Joe in the hospital, I expected to see the white-haired man show up with a check for his broken wrist, so that wasn't a big surprise but it was certainly pleasant. However, there is no way I would have expected Cynthia to exact revenge on her daughter's killer. Seeing her sitting on the steps with nothing left to give was extremely powerful and now that Cynthia is leaving the show, I almost feel bad for the mean things I said about her character...almost.