I've mentioned this before, but I see last night that yet another person-who-talks-to-the-dead show premiered, this one on Lifetime. To quote the shorthand so popular in IMs these days, WTF??

It's called Lisa Williams: Life Among The Dead. It's not a drama, it's real (I guess). She's a real medium who talks to the dead.

Sigh.

How many of these shows are on the air right now or have been on the air recently? There's Medium, over on NBC and Ghost Whisperer on CBS. The people on Ghost Hunters and similar shows are always looking for ghosts and trying to talk to the departed. The woman on Cold Case doesn't literally talk to the dead, but she always sees a ghost of the victim at the end of the episode. And John Edward...is he talk show still on the air? I saw him the other night on cable, communicating with "the other side." Even shows that aren't about talking to the dead have major plot points that use the device, like Lost. And even Dead Zone, while he doesn't talk to dead people, he still solves crimes by using that psychic power to see who is going to die. Last year, Tru Calling had the heroine hearing the dead talk to her.

Still to come: NBC"s Raines, with Jeff Goldblum as a quirky detective who talks with the dead to solve crimes. Oh great.