S1E1 Pilot

The episode starts like any cop drama. It leans into the dramatic immediately and you focus on the person speaking. Allison expresses empathy at the man speaking about finding his wife dead in their home.

After a pause, he touches Allison’s hand and describes cutting her open and how pretty her blood would be on her skin. As soon as the audience goes- UGH this is bad – [A]llison wakes up. [A] is confronted by her husband in bed asking if shes okay, but cross cut to the foot of the bed. There is a huge group of people and a man asks, “Are you sure you are okay?” A responds to them.

This is great for an opening sequence and I definitely felt the pull into the show.

Husband [J]oe shows interest and asks if she had any idea of where she was in the dream. The zoom in was an effective way to say this isn’t just a dream.

The next scene shows A at work looking at crime scene photos and shes describing what she sees in the photos informed by her visions.

I didn’t remember this after watching the whole show. The type of the show Medium is definitely ends up being different than this first episode.

Wow I completely forgot she was still trying to get her law degree in the begining, or at the least her “internship” at the DAs office.

Oh wow – A questioning if she can even be a lawyer because shes not objective. J already played down her abilities as just dreams. He’s then establishing his character. This set of discussions between A and J is a very effective way of setting up the dynamic they have at the start and their general character.

Example of healthy relationship: Joe supports her dreams for law school despite the money, her being a mom of three, and wants her to find fulfillment. Holy crap.

Okay now we actually meet a character that persists in the show. A fellow medium that A is instantly vibes with her. The connection between the two is critical to the development of A .

Medium woman she meets is super intense and really calls her out on all her fears about her gift. She’s struggling to accept the truths this woman is telling her. The woman offering her aid is super interesting because she does end up reappearing.

Back to mommy life. Joe’s attempt to check out some of the info that A presented to her over the last few years by faxing it to a tip line or something? actually got picked up by a texas ranger.

This man is also a reoccurring character that I totally forgot this is how we met them. She corrects him to be Mrs. GEBUS.

This whole interaction was weird. why does he have someone jog the notes to her. Apparently shes super duper right about something. Shes making jokes about his accent because he low key insults her innocence or credibility. Damn what a good microagression reflection.

This gif was too spot on for his whole look. He looks like the white hat to this black hat cowboy. Ranger is skeptical about her story about knowing it in a dream. She’s telling the truth though and he’s going to be the difficult obstacle to scale that proves to even herself that her powers are valuable.

She makes a oneliner joke about sex not being a crime. “Something happened in here alright, but where I come from it isn’t a crime *HEAVY WINK*”

Tells the texas ranger he’s wasting her time

they enter the house that she lead them to. She rolls in and just runs the show from the moment she gets there. We get shaking cam walk up to A from the hall. She ends up down the way and talks to a child on the bed about her brother. The sister who is dead tells Alison she saw everything.

She is so right that the texas ranger is convinced that she is full of shit and tries to shut the whole thing down. She just straight up is like – Do you wanna know where the body is?

She leads them to the spot. Tells them 3ft down, and he responds somehow the dogs didn’t pick it up.

Texas Ranger is yelling at her, and she straight up calls him out on all his bullshit. Then she sprinkles in a little about himself. He is taken aback. Then he basically says either you are right or I am going to charge you with accecssory after the fact [bad law example – he can’t charge her with anything? I think? unless that is something special about Texas rangers].

Oh this texas ranger doesn’t even believe it still, another man says hey why not try. Good law example- Texas Ranger main dude says that they don’t have a warrent.

He shows up late to her door while shes talking with J. She tells him she needs a minute. LOOK AT HER ASERTING HER NEEDS AND BOUNDARIES!

Lol. Captain push is this texas ranger. He hilariously starts unbuttoning his shirt. A is justified to question him. He tells her that she was right about his heart. He sort of shows his hand that he might, just maybe a little, believe her.

The Texas rangers come to her door in the early morning. There is a huge storm so she has to go home now- Hurricane Allison. Hum I wonder if that was actually a storm in recent times?

[Post note lookup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Allison So it was a thing, and was in the correct region too. How clever of the writers!]

She’s yelling her feelings in the car coming back from the airport. Her intense emotions flare to defend the victim and their body which could be lost in the storm. She’s mad that she can see so much but at the same time so little (because she didn’t know about the rain). J says her name and tries comfort her. She tells him to shut up and drive. She’s at home seriously discussing that she felt complete and like her purpose was met in those moments in Texas helping them with this kid.

She starts yelling at him about the fears she has about what he thinks about her. She thinks that he thinks shes crazy, and other mean thoughts. He says, “I didn’t say that” and he’s right. This is a whole thing that goes forward because she can read his mind if she wants. This ends up being a thing because she gets upset if he’s thinking negative things about her in frustration or being tired and grumpy moments. They eventually work out the kinks there because she (at least right now I think this) realizes that she’s guilty of thinking the same stuff about him in her tough moments.

She goes to speak to the pedo killer kid in jail. She just starts telling him her truths. He is very confused and says nothing as she just lays out his whole sad life story. She tells him she was hoping to hear his thoughts. Oh shit. She does. And its bad. The perp just gets up and leaves as she beings to tell him about the ghosts around him.

She talks about the cycle of abuse and asks the people following this guy around (because they hurt him in a direct or indirect way) to help her break the chain of the abuse. They tell her that this perp told the guy in the next cell everything.

He’s black. Shocker there. He says “Preverts” instead of perverts. Oh snap. So Allison told Texas ranger that he needs to tell the cell mate guy that he knows about the kiss. That gets the cellmate to open up about what he was told.

Allison gets the victory point. Texas Ranger finds out that she was actually just clever in that moment and it wasn’t ghosts. He trusts her now. WOOO FRIENDSHIP

End scene with her talking to the DA about how she definitely can’t be an attorney because she’s either a little psychic or psycho. He stops her because she was completely right about the crime scene she was talking about earlier. She is now a consultant for the DA and presumably helping with jury selection.

Brief scene at home where her family all congratulate her on her new job and tell her how cool it is and other nice, healthy, supportive things.

Next scene shes going to talk to…. DUN DUN DUNNNNNN………

The guy from the begining of the show. He’s got a look to him so he’s memorable – great casting.

That was it. What a good pilot episode! Solid structure and got me interested. Here we go Medium viewing #2.

Overall, I think that the main premise was laid out well for the audience. There is enough variation of characters to give the audience a chance to find someone they connect with. They make her power in-show-world believable. They set up a few key points about her and her husband that get decently explored.

OH I forgot to mention, the actress who later becomes the Mayor’s assistant was the main Texas Ranger’s assistant. I don’t think she had a speaking part, if she did it was less than a line. She was the focus of a shot though at one point when Allison was talking to the perp’s dead sister in her room.