TVSquad

Zombies are everywhere these days. The walking dead have invaded Marvel Comics, Jane Austen books, and they'll soon be chomping on brains in a galaxy far, far away.

This Halloween, Patricia Arquette will face off against a classic undead army in an upcoming episode of Medium. That's right, Medium!

Show creator Glenn Gordon Caron said an upcoming Halloween-themed episode will insert Arquette's character into scenes from George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead film. It's part a dream sequence that would not have happened if the show had stayed on NBC.

I actually didn't even think about this when CBS grabbed Medium from NBC a couple of months ago, but how would the show appear on the schedule first? On the shelf until the fall? Would CBS wait until mid-season because they didn't have room for it in the fall? And how would they introduce the show to CBS viewers? Would they just start airing the show with new episodes?

Well, the answer comes tonight, as CBS airs a repeat episode ("Soul Survivor") of Medium at 10PM.

Of course, this was the series finale on NBC only. The show moves to CBS next season where it will become CSI: Medium Los Angeles. Or something.

Last night Allison had visions of her entire family being murdered. That didn't happen, of course, but she did end the season in a coma after having a stroke during surgery. My guess? She gets out of it next season, but not before some trippy thing happening while she's in the coma for an episode or two.

What did you think of this episode?

We told you about CBS picking up Medium after a deal couldn't be made with NBC, and it's interesting to note that NBC's web site acknowledges that this isn't the series finale, it's only the series finale on NBC. The episode airs this Monday at 10.

It's called "Bring Me The Head Of Oswaldo Castillo," and the clip below shows what goes on behind the scenes of the making of a Medium episode. Obviously, there might be some spoilers here, so proceed with caution.

Well, this is a rather interesting development, and a good one for fans of NBC's Medium: CBS has picked up the show after NBC canceled it.

You don't often see that happening, but it's been happening more and more lately (and this upfront week is crazy in general, with lots of renewals for shows we all thought were pretty much dead). CBS didn't just pick up the show, they got in a few digs at NBC too. CBS Television Studios produces Medium, and they say that "NBC's cancellation of Medium is inexplicable to us," and went on to point out that "the ratings don't lie. Medium outperforms many of NBC's renewed shows." They also talk about how NBC scheduled the show inconsistently.

No word yet on what exactly CBS will do with the show. Perhaps pairing it with Ghost Whisperer on Friday nights? (Note: CBS will not, however, pick up Knight Rider. Sorry, fans!)

You know what I love about Medium? The theme song/opening. We all know that theme songs and openings are pretty much lame nowadays. Some shows hardly have them at all, so it's good to see a show with a real theme song and an interesting opening sequence. Medium's is very old-fashioned and reminds me of shows like Night Gallery or The Sixth Sense.

Last night's episode was part one of a three parter starring Tracy Pollan as a "corporate intuitionist." I never thought I'd put those two words together in the same sentence, but there you go.

HBO has found the lead for one of their roughly 658 new "Hey, remember how we used to have good TV shows before we started giving you crap like John From Cincinnati? Huh? Do ya?" pilots.Thomas Jane (The Punisher) has been tapped to star in Hung, a one-hour dark comedy about a middle-aged high school basketball coach who figures out a way to use his best asset. Now, I'm no expert, but I'm guessing that the title doesn't mean that his best asset is his ability to tie a wicked hangman's noose.

Hung is a top priority at HBO, as new entertainment president Sue Naegle has made the spec script her first major purchase and first pilot pickup. Written by the creator of The Riches and directed by Oscar winner Alexander Payne (Sideways), Hung marks Jane's first regular TV role. He has, of course, previously made TV appearances, including a stint on wife Patricia Arquette's series, Medium.

(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.

(S04E09) "What could possibly give that woman nightmares other than someone named Dorothy dropping a house on her?" - Joe Dubois

Finally a show that isn't afraid to face the real issues men face today. Can't we just be allowed to have our swimsuit issue without being made to feel guilty?

I guess our collective suspicions about Cynthia Keener were right, although it isn't much of a shock. Her abducted daughter not only explains why she is committed to finding missing children but also why she's such a bitch.

(S04E03) "That's so not fair." - Ariel Dubois

Paris, 10CC, white wine, the only thing that could make this scene more romantic is a corkscrew through the hand. Am I the only one who immediately thought of the scene in True Romance when Patricia Arquette drives a corkscrew through James Gandolfini's foot? Good times.

Michael Gross looks good, right? He looks a lot older than Steven Keaton but he wears it well. Personally, I would be thrilled to see him as a recurring character, but I'm not holding my breath.

(S03E22) This has been something of a roller coaster week for Medium fans. There was the high of finding out that the show will be coming back for a fourth season. Unfortunately, that was followed by news that NBC is going to move the show to Sundays, waiting until the end of football to bring it back. That makes for an 8 month wait between now and our next visit with Allison.

The big finale followed a similar path. We got all those answers we were looking for in the Recapitator case. The fates of Debra/PD and Walter Paxton were cleared up. The fallout from Allison being exposed started, and took a couple surprising turns. Unfortunately, the episode suffered from some iffy story telling and an abrupt ending.

(S03E21) It's been a big week for the fine folks over at Medium HQ. Not only are they smack dab in the middle of their big three part finale, but they also got an early renewal from the suits at NBC. It wasn't as early as some shows, but having the network make the announcement before upfronts is still a nice vote of confidence. Now, hopefully they'll move the show back to Monday and give it that post Heroes slot next season.

But enough about renewals and scheduling. We have the next to last episode from season three to talk about. In a nutshell, I thought it moved both the Joe story, and the Paxton/Debra/Allison story, along very well. Unfortunately, it also suffered from a couple of problems. First, one way too long, and unnecessary, scene. And second, one missing character.

Medium has become the Yes, Dear of "psychic who sees ghost genre and helps people," a show that not too many seem to talk about but gets pretty good ratings and gets renewed every year. See also: JAG.

NBC has given the Patricia Arquette show a fourth season, a week before the official fall 2007 lineup is announced at the network's upfront presentation. NBC President Kevin Reilly praised the show as only a network executive can (and while you read the praise, replace the title Medium with any show that NBC has canceled in the past 6 months).

(S03E20) "Head Games" marks the beginning of the star studded, three part, season three finale. It was a good way to kick things off. There is a murder case for Devalos to prosecute, a new friend(?) for Allison, a new head doctor for Joe, visions that may or may not be correct, a new baby... just a lot going on. It's a good thing there are three parts to this.

Seeing as how the episode opened with Walter Paxton (Jason Priestley), let's start there. The dream within a dream open was very good. The head in the pantry came as quite a surprise, and led to a great Joe moment. He was so calm and forgiving when he woke up in the dream, but so frustrated and fed up when he woke up for real.

(S01E18) David Arquette stepped in to direct his sister this week and I think we have to say he did a pretty nice job. It didn't hurt that he was given a very fun script to work with. Much like we saw with Dr. Walker and Captain Push earlier in the season, we were again treated to an appearance of a recurring character. Allison's brother Michael (Ryan Hurst) is back. He was also featured in "Lucky" from season one and "Lucky In Love" from season two.

Truth be told, I think the interaction of Allison and her brother would have been enough to sell me on this episode. They were very good together. Two of their scenes stood out to me. The first one was the meeting with Tanya King (Cindy Pickett). Allison's reaction to Michael's "psychic" work was very amusing. Every time she gave a drawn out sigh I laughed.