The first few episodes of the season focuses on Allison not only regaining her psychic dreams, but also motor control over the rest of her body. Many of Allison's early cases involve people she met while in the hospital or at physical rehabilitation. In one episode, "The Medium is the Message," she takes on a murder similar to the the Zodiac killer who leaves strange encoded messages with each of his victims. This particular episode guest stars Fisher Stevens who is always a joy to watch act.
In another episode, a cancer patient that Allison met in the hospital dies in the middle of the night, and Allison's dreams point to the possibility of someone in the hospital helping her to her death, despite the fact that her passing appears completely natural.
The show hits the 100-episode mark with "Baby Fever." In this episode, Allison works to rescue an 11 month old baby, and for some reason feels the need to keep the kid instead of returning him to his parents. While a nice all-around episode, as far as 100th's go - there wasn't really anything special about it.
The next episode though, "Bite Me," was one of the season's more interesting shows. In this one, footage from the classic George A. Romero film, Night of the Living Dead (1968), is used as a backdrop for Allison's dreams. The crime she is investigating has to do with a dead undertaker, but how that ties into her black-and-white dreams is a mystery waiting to be solved.
Outside of Allison's daily crime-fighting, life goes on for the rest of the Dubois family. Joe (Jake Weber) has started looking for a new job since the previous season's invention storyline fell through. Eventually he lands a spot at an engineering firm working under a younger genius who sees employees as little more than a budgetary necessity. Instead Keith (Joel Moore from both Bones and James Cameron's Avatar) finds Joe's need to actually do work intriguing, especially since the rest of his employees seem to prefer getting paid to literally do nothing all day. The two characters' personalities eventually collide in a major argument, and unfortunately for Joe, it happens around review time, but after duking it out at a local arcade, their differences make them closer co-workers.
Meanwhile, the eldest Dubois daughter, Ariel (Sofia Vassilieva), is going through her last year of high school and has started applying for colleges around the country. This topic comes up several times, and Allison's odd dreams about her daughter's future are a recurring theme this season.
I have to say though, one of the better episodes this year is actually one of Ariel's dreams. In "Time Keeps on Slippin," Ariel keeps having gaps in her memory. At first, its only a few hours at a time just after getting to know a smart boy in her class, Liam (Michael Rady whom I know from Greek but has also been a prominent actor in the new Melrose Place). When years start slipping by and she finds herself married to Liam and with a daughter of her own, she starts to freak out even more. At first, I thought it was odd that this much older actor, Rady, was playing such a young character, but when the time slips take them 10 or 17 years in the future, the casting decision makes much more sense. Another nice bit of this show are the attempts to make Vassilieva look older by changing her clothes, makeup and hair. Unfortunately, it doesn't work most of the time and she rarely looks much older than her 18 years of age.
This season also features a two-parter called "There Will Be Blood... Type A" and "There Will Be Blood... Type B" where Allison is helping in an investigation involving families of victims who have their blood drained from them. The case gets stranger when they discover a homeless teenage girl, Jennifer (Vanessa Marano), who has psychic visions as well, except all of hers are about the killer, and from his point-of-view. Of course, this means she's never seen his face, which makes the officials a bit nervous about trusting her. The situation gets worse when the killer goes after her and Allison decides to keep Jennifer at her house until the murderer is caught ... much to her family's chagrin, of course.
There are several interesting featurettes included in Medium: The Sixth Season. There is, of course, a bit of footage from the show's 100th episode party, as well as a making-of featurette for "Bite Me." Both are interesting, but nothing too extraordinary. In the same vein is a featurette about the show's music, but there are two featurettes I found very enjoyable. One has Arquette interviewing the show's creator, Glenn Gordon Caron. In this half-hour talk, we hear Caron discuss everything from his first writing jobs on Taxi and Remington Steele to the show that launched his career, Moonlighting and the various other shows and movies he was involved in.
The other featurettte, "Non-Fat Double Medium," focuses on the twins, Miranda and Madison Carabello, who play the youngest Dubois daughter, Marie. Between interviews with the girls themselves and interviews with the cast and crew about their interactions with them, this becomes a very interesting insight into the show's daily life.
Overall, Medium's sixth season (and first on NBC), is one of the its better. While there are still some issues I have with chemistry between various characters, the stories this season's episodes put forth were really entertaining. While I can't see anyone who isn't already a fan of the show picking up this season, those that have been following it can rest assured it's worth the purchase.
