Pulse TV Flashback 01/11/2005: Mr. Coogan’s So-Called Television Column

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Inside Pulse launched on August 9, 2004, and has covered the world of television for over a decade. Every day, we take a look back at what was happening in the world of television 10 years ago, as reported right here at Inside Pulse!

Mr. Coogan’s So-Called Television Column

Patricia Arquette communicates with dead family and friends of people she meets. It’s as if the spirits follow these people around and she can see and speak to them but no one else can.

OK…I’m interested.

She also can learn intimate details about a person or see what a person has done in their life simply by talking to them or even reading a questionnaire he/she filled out.

Wow!

She has vivid dreams and sees events that happened that no one else has seen or knows about.

And this is all part of a television series? It sounds kind of like a kinder, gentler X-Files but equally intriguing!

She uses her abilities to solve crimes and help the local D.A. prosecuting cases.

Shit! Now it sounds like Law & Order from the dead! That sucks!

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It’s hard to imagine a television series devoted to such mystical and mysterious topics as communicating with the dead and reading minds would devolve into something predictable and procedural, but unfortunately, NBC’s new offering, Medium does just that. For those looking for something new, fresh and interesting, there might be better options out there as the networks ease into the mid-season point of the 2004-05 TV season.

Despite its fairly complicated ideas and the definite need of the audience to suspend all disbelief to understand it and enjoy it, Medium doesn’t have a complex premise. Arquette plays Allison Dubois, a wife and mother of three in her mid-30s in suburban Phoenix looking for a point to her life. She began law school and ended up taking an internship at the local district attorney’s office.

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