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.