MovieChat Forums > Medium (2005) Discussion > S3E12 The One Behind the Wheel, great ep...

S3E12 The One Behind the Wheel, great episode

posted 9 years ago by writetopcat
4 replies | jump to latest

I thought this was one of the best episodes I have seen so far. Alison woke from sleep and was not Alison. She was the wife of some doctor. She thought she had gone home with someone from a bar she had gone out to the night before.

For 3 days Joe was struggling with this issue. Alison went to the doctor's home, got the spare key, went into the house, shut off the alarm, and was discovered by the maid. She was arrested, but did not know the police. Det. Scanlon interviewed her.

Alison was put in a mental hospital. I will let you watch the rest to find out how it went. I just thought this was a great episode. It was different from the usual formula and really kept my attention. Great show.

Compared to the next episode, S3E13 Second Opinion. This episode has Alison back to her normal overly emotional, childish self. No matter how many times she goes through having a dream and initially jumping to the wrong conclusion only to later find out she mis interpreted all or some of it, Alison goes bonkers over her dream, driving Joe nuts.
Honestly I don't know how he could handle living with this woman sometimes. He is a very long suffering fellow.
Alison also gets nutty like this at work. REmember, she interned at the DA's office when she was studying to be a lawyer. So she knows about rules of evidence, and what can be done when there is only a hunch or a psychic dream to go on. But so many times she gets upset at her boss because he won't go out and arrest someone based solely on the dream she had the night before.

I think that is a weak part of this show. Alison could not be that stupid, not if she had studied law as long as she had. She would know better, but she acts like the DA is being unreasonable for not arresting people based on her psychic knowledge alone.

[–] inuimari 8 years ago

It wasn't one of my favorite episodes but I agree that this episode was really good.
I thought it was well acted and really sad; the rich wife seeing her own corpse and realizing her husband had killed her?

[–] writetopcat 8 years ago

the rich wife seeing her own corpse and realizing her husband had killed her?

Yeah, reminiscent of the scene from the movie Ghost where he sees his corpse and comes to realize he was murdered. "I had a life!" he shouts.
Same thing here. There is the realization she has that she was murdered, and by someone who was supposed to love her. It was really sad.
I like the way this show talks about life after death without being religious or preaching about it.
Personally I am certain the soul lives after it breaks free from the physical vehicle and enters the spiritual dimension. I used to take it on faith but I had an experience which cinched it for me. And it has made dealing with death a little easier for me.

Alison isn't religious and I think the show is better because of it; more people are willing to watch because they don't see a particular faith being pushed. I doubt there would have been a show if she was a religious person because the network would be afraid it would look like it was pushing a particular belief.

The one thing I didn't like about this series was the way they wrote Alison's character acting petulant when the DA or the cops would not arrest someone without evidence that would stand up in court. It didn't fit her character. It didn't even make sense.
The writers made her act as if she were unable to understand that the DA needed evidence in order to have the person arrested.
It is one thing to be frustrated because you know a person is guilty but you cannot prove it in a court of law. Alison had studied law so she understood all about that. That makes sense.
But what does not make sense is making Alison act like she cannot understand why the police can't arrest someone without evidence they committed a crime.
I don't know why the writers make her act that way.

[–] inuimari 8 years ago

Yeah, this show ain't no Touched by an Angel. It would have caused some unwanted attention if it was faith-based.

I always saw Alison "being petulant" was just a TV show convention; it's easier to tell a narrative that way. Medium isn't a Sundance film in which they explore the protagonist's frustration that her vision aren't readily accepted due to it not following a particular set of rules or how truth isn't what we automatically see. The writers relied on something that viewers can easily understand.

[–] writetopcat 8 years ago

I always saw Alison "being petulant" was just a TV show convention; it's easier to tell a narrative that way.

I get that. It helped them create conflict. First they put Alison in a situation in which she is alone in pushing her opinion and gets push back for it from the DA, the police, and others. Then things develop and the bad guy is eventually caught and Alison feels validated.
but in my opinion, they just went way too far with it with Alison. They had her acting absolutely childishly a lot of times.
And for a show which features a female lead, I thought it was a bad move.

Also, catching the bad guy didn't actually validate her position all of the time. The DA and the police often agreed with her or at least believed that she was right. But her position of "go arrest the guy now" when there was no evidence or anything they could charge him with was never validated.
Arresting someone for a crime with no evidence is the worst thing to do. Because the prosecutor will refuse to try the case, or if he does try it, he will lose the case due to lack of evidence.
Then the guy gets off. You cannot try him twice for the same crime. So even if you get proof later on, there is nothing you can do about it.