Season 6 of Medium shakes things up

This is the season premiere of Medium that almost wasn't. NBC canceled the show, only to have CBS swoop in the next day and pick it up. In an unsuccessful effort to stave off NBC's cancellation, season 5 ended with Allison in a coma and her life and powers hanging in the balance.

Although we're not supposed to reveal major plot points in previews, I don't think CBS is going to come down on me for revealing that the main character on their show does, in fact, survive. Although the DuBois family dynamic is strong enough on its own to merit a family drama series, the show is still called Medium, so if Allison lost her powers and they never came back, you wouldn't have much of a show. So once you get past the fact that yes, Allison does live and no, her powers aren't gone forever, you can get into what's really interesting about the season premiere.

So many of Medium's episodes start off with Allison having a dream, and then after the credits, the DuBois family having breakfast and getting ready for work and school. While season 6 looks similar to the Medium we know and love, the dynamics of the DuBois household are noticeably different. For instance, the dream we open up with is terrifying, and does involve someone sitting bolt-upright in bed, but that person is not Allison. Breakfast time is also different, and there's a noticeable tension that wasn't there before.

To their credit, Medium writers didn't just make the coma storyline a convenient way to mess with Allison's powers — the effects are more far-reaching. Besides residual physical effects in Allison, the family has had to deal with her hospitalization and subsequent recovery, meaning that they have taken on new roles. Ariel, now being old enough to drive, has taken on a lot of responsibility. The way she deals with this responsibility is really only hinted at in this episode, but I have a feeling it's going to be a much larger storyline going forward.

Even though when we begin the episode, Allison is still recovering and is no longer working for the DA's office, there is still a case of the week. The way this case is solved and the role Allison's powers do or do not play in solving it indicate a possible change of the entire structure of the show.

I was not a fan of the coma storyline last season, and the way they ended on a cliffhanger. However, having seen the season premiere, I'm back on board. The writers have managed to shake things up in a way that was very necessary if Medium is going to survive past this season. However, the show is still familiar enough that loyal fans won't be disappointed. The groundwork has been laid for what will prove to be a very enjoyable season.

Medium season 5

Patricia Arquette stars as a young wife and mother who, since childhood, has been struggling to make sense of her dreams and visions of dead people.

Allison DuBois (Arquette) is a strong-willed young mother of three, a devoted wife and law student who begins to suspect that she can talk to dead people, see the future in her dreams, and read people's thoughts. Fearing for her mental health, she turns for support to her husband Joe (Jake Weber), an aerospace engineer, who slowly comes to believe that what his wife is telling him just might be true. The real challenge is convincing her boss, D.A. Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) -- and the other doubters in the criminal justice system -- that her psychic abilities can give them the upper hand when it comes to solving violent and horrific crimes whose mysteries often reside with those who live beyond the grave.

'Medium,' 'Southland,' 'Dollhouse" and 'Ugly Betty' square off on Friday nights

A battle royal is brewing in the least likely of places.

Four shows with established audiences -- " Dollhouse," "Ugly Betty," "Medium" and "Southland" -- will face off Fridays at 9 p.m. this fall.

Could the night where shows go to die reemerge as a day for appointment television?

Last year, when Fox decided to launch "Dollhouse" on Fridays, panic set in among fans of series creator Joss Whedon. "It's 'Firefly' all over again!" wrote one worried observer on the website Whedonesque. (Whedon's short-lived space saga "Firefly" worked the Friday shift in 2002.)

But despite mediocre ratings, "Dollhouse" survived, winning renewal following a creative surge toward the end of its first season. Now the show finds itself going up against stiffer competition, something Whedon calls a double-edged sword.

"On one hand, people could realize that Friday is potentially, if not a viewing night, a recording night," he said. "As opposed to, 'Oh, it's on Friday. It must be something they're trying to kill.' At the same time, I don't want competition! Why don't they put their bad shows there?"

In recent years, Fridays have been a dumping ground for cheap reality shows such as "Howie Do It" and "Supernanny" and low-profile rookies. If you can't remember "The Ex List" and "Crusoe," you're not alone.

But the night does have potential. CBS has grown two big fat Friday night hits in "Ghost Whisperer" at 8 and "Numb3rs" at 10.

Viewers might be jarred by "Medium's" jump from NBC to CBS, but executive producer Glenn Gordon Caron said he's excited about its move to Friday between "Ghost" and "Numb3rs." The two dramas thrived at the end of the week; "Ghost" averaged a series-high 10.6 million viewers last season, and "Numb3rs" averaged 9.8 million.

CBS viewers are generally older and "might be more inclined to be home on a Friday night," Caron acknowledged, but pointed out that the pair also became "conspicuous as quality scripted shows.

"They were filling a hunger for good storytelling in the middle of a night with a lot of reality and makeshift programming," he said.

Other networks now look ready to compete.

Whedon's speeding up the action on "Dollhouse" big time: When the show returns, robogirl Echo ( Eliza Dushku) has become aware of the many lives that have invaded her body, and she's on the hunt for answers.

The fourth season of "Ugly Betty" will kick off its Friday run with a two-hour episode introducing viewers to Betty's new look: new glasses, side-swept bangs and a more mature wardrobe. (Later in the season she'll lose the braces too.) "It's Betty 2.0. She's an editor now," executive producer Silvio Horta said, joking, "so we'll go from four-pattern outfits to, like, two."

Horta was initially bummed about being plucked from Thursday nights, but said the time slot is less relevant for him these days. "The people I know aren't watching the show live when it airs. I know that's not the majority of the country, but DVR seems to be where everything is going."
A bigger deal is maintaining the post-show water-cooler talk: Wilhelmina screwed over whom? Marc said what? Betty kissed whom? "That stuff is extra important. I'm hoping our core audience will continue to [follow us] no matter where the show moves," Horta said.

"Southland" executive producer Christopher Chulack, who helped run John Wells' "E.R." for 15 seasons on Thursdays at 10 p.m., said being bumped to Fridays worried him. The show, about the lives of a group of Los Angeles police officers, launched last spring to strong reviews, but its viewership slipped over its six-episode season. NBC announced last month that it was pushing its return to Oct. 23, weeks after the other Friday-at-9 offerings debut.

"Hopefully, the smoke will have cleared and we won't get caught up in the crowded promotional fray," Chulack said. With the original "Law & Order" as a lead-in, he thinks he's got a better shot than most.

He's also got a more patient network on his side. "NBC's trying different things. With Jay Leno moving to 10, the whole paradigm is shifting," Chulack said.

From The Los Angeles Times