Joe treats Allison so horribly - Medium (2005) Discussion

[–] jcsmith23 11 years ago

He's supposed to be a flawed character to make the whole thing more believable, but the repetition of that does get old. So does the chain of dream-tell DA-DA says I don't know what to tell you, I need more-gets more... Very formulaic.

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[–] laballatician 11 years ago

I don't blame him. Living with Allison would be exhausting! Never getting any sleep. Some days she'll wake up acting like a crazy person. Or deaf. Or screaming that they're dolls.

I think he did better than most would.

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[–] Lolo1976 10 years ago

Yeah, but you think he'd eventually get used to it! Between having three young children and a psychic wife (whose job is to solve crimes), shouldn't he expect to be woken at strange hours? Face it, Joe - you're not going to get a full 8-9 hours of beauty sleep every night.

And does he have to ALWAYS announce what time it is? "It's 2:30am, Allison; who's calling?" Hmmm, maybe the DA or Detective Scanlon? Just a guess. ;-)

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[–] OhNooos 11 years ago

I know what you're talking about and yet I also see a stellar side to Joe. He alternates being a crabby cakes who resents Allison going back to work and totally being skeptical and non-supportive of her situation with being supportive, loving, caring, and generous. Honestly, I know plenty of people who are conflicted and inconsistent to the same degree. Overall, I love Joe. I believe that he has a good heart and is steadfast. Those are two HOT qualities.

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[–] Montserrat23 10 years ago

Like you I really love Joe. I think it's not easy to be the husband of a woman like Alison. He has to wake with a start in the middle of almost every night because of her wife's dreams, then he nicely comforts her and he gives her advice. I think he's a good husband; first he's faithful which is not the case of everyone, then he listens to her and he supports her views most of the time. Allison is annoying sometimes, because everything has to be about her (of course!) and Joe's often like the "fifth wheel on the wagon". I totally support Joe, he's great with his wife, he's honest and true and he's a very good dad, loving and caring. I love the actor too, he's got charisma and he's charming, classy and very good-looking in a kinda romantic way.
Way to go Joe!!!

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[–] zooymtoo 10 years ago

Like you I really love Joe. I think it's not easy to be the husband of a woman like Alison. He has to wake with a start in the middle of almost every night because of her wife's dreams, then he nicely comforts her and he gives her advice. I think he's a good husband; first he's faithful which is not the case of everyone, then he listens to her and he supports her views most of the time. Allison is annoying sometimes, because everything has to be about her (of course!) and Joe's often like the "fifth wheel on the wagon". I totally support Joe, he's great with his wife, he's honest and true and he's a very good dad, loving and caring. I love the actor too, he's got charisma and he's charming, classy and very good-looking in a kinda romantic way.
Way to go Joe!!!

This^^!!
I think most people loved Joe than the contrary.
No one is perfect and that's what made Joe so real.
He put up with a lot from Allison (what did you say about everything being about her?) but there was never any question that they loved each other.

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[–] writetopcat 9 years ago

I also think Joe was a great husband, very patient, long suffering, and supportive. Did he complain about being woken up sometimes? Sure, and so would most people. Especially when Allison acted like she did. How many times did Allison have a dream about a murder where she did not know where it took place, who the people involved were, or any other details which could lead police to look for the body, or try to prevent it happening (in those cases where she felt it had not happened yet)? Allison would tell Joe what she saw in her dream, Joe would tell her that without knowing more there was nothing they could really do, and Allison would look at him in outrage as if she could not believe he wasn't trying to do something. Joe would say "what?", and Allison would roll her eyes and then glare at him.
Joe had to put up with a LOT of that. Personally I thought he was very patient and longsuffering, and still very loving toward her.

The Allison character was often self absorbed and inconsiderate of Joe. Everything was all about her, her feelings, her dreams, what she wanted others to do. She acted fairly childishly quite often. She had interned for the DA before working as a consultant, but she still could not get it into her head that the police could not just go out and arrest people without any evidence. She would roll her eyes every time DeValos had to tell her this again and again.

I guess the writers needed a way to add more drama to the episodes and having Allison act this way was one way they could do it. I felt like they used that trope too often though.

But Joe was a great husband to Allison. After a few seasons the writers had him get tired of the constant crap from Allison and things got a little rocky with them at times. That made it more realistic I think.

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[–] GordonGartrelle (1268) 5 years ago

Joe is a saint because Allison is always at a 100.

But most women love to gab to their husbands, wake them up in the middle of the night because of a dream.

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[–] EffOne 10 years ago

I actually think the guy is very, VERY patient. Let's not forget on occasion Allison woke up completely illogical and hysterical and on other occasions, posessed by someone else entirely. Not to mention the fact that Allison was very difficult to handle a lot of the time as well with a lot of her moral-highground *beep*

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[–] Catdubh 10 years ago

Yes, I am with EffOne; Joe is VERY patient with Allison. Joe should be slated for canonization, seriously. Allison wakes up, ALL the time, startled from horrific dreams, and then proceeds to wake Joe! He's a wonderful father, constantly picks the slack up when Allison has to "run off", in the middle of the night or the wee morning hours, chasing visions from her dreams.
If anything, Allison mistreats Joe on occasion, and at the very least is as selfish as I've seen a character, in years. Don't get me wrong, I think Allison is great but she is VERY selfish.

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[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] EffOne 8 years ago

Yup, considering just what a massive challenge being married to Allison would be for reasons already stated, I think the guy is far from "Horrible" to her.

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[–] mastersslave74 10 years ago

I think it is abusive the way she interrupts his sleep every freaking night

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[–] fuzzykids 10 years ago

I think both him and Allison are believably flawed. They have a perfect marriage, for two imperfect people. They are by far my favorite couple that have been in a tv series.

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[–] ElxDiablo 10 years ago

^^^^^^^^^
THIS

Basically we have Joe often being glib or lacking compassion for the predicament that Allison's visions/dreams put her in...or trying to rationalize things away rather than just listen. At the same time we have Allison often expecting Joe to drop everything so she can pursue something she's had a vision/dream about, and kind of takes that support for granted.

Despite conflicts that arise, they still can come together and be loving and forgiving too...not to mention be great parents.

Even though it's a supernatural themed show, the family dynamic is portrayed so realistically that it makes the entire show believable. "Believably flawed" is the perfect description of their relationship...and that coupled with the very down-to-earth portrayal of their home life sets this show apart from all others in the "supernatural" genre.

It pulls the viewer in and makes you believe that in spite of the incredible events, that it could actually be real (although I'm making no judgments about the real Allison Dubois...merely about the ability of the show to suspend disbelief in its audience).

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[–] fatalframe80 10 years ago

It's pretty funny because he was what turned me off on the first episode (still wondering whether to continue or not). If I remember correctly in the pilot she had her hands full, was trying to do a lot of stuff. He was sitting at the kitchen table with the kids while the tv was playing a news report of a brutal killing and she kept asking him to turn it. Then when she went to do it he turns it off with the remote right next to him. It just seemed like such a jerk move.

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[–] Stenian 10 years ago

Huh?

He's one of the most lenient husbands ever. I've always said this. He only was "out of character" in that episode when Allison sleepwalked. I was like "wtf, who is writing this?", because he seemed so rude. But as a whole, he's a very nice gentle husband.

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[–] littlenightmusic-15077 10 years ago

^^^

I felt incredibly sorry for him in that episode.
She's standing in the middle of heavy traffic, screaming at people ... You just never know from day to day or night to night what you are getting with her.

No wonder he always looks so tired.

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