'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Medium: Joe Day Afternoon
(S03E17) Ok, this was a really good episode, and Adam Goldberg was a nice bit of casting. I'll get to all that in a minute, but first up. Where the heck was Scanlon? I realize that the Medium world revolves around the DuBois clan, and the rest of the cast are merely players in the telling of their story. But this was a hostage situation. And there is nothing for "Detective" Scanlon to do there? The D.A. shows up, but we can't get our favorite detective on site? It didn't ruin the episode, but it did stand out as something that was missing. Lack of casting aside, I thought that team Medium delivered another winner tonight. They continued the trend of getting great guest stars as well. Adam Goldberg was terrific as Bruce. I'd put him just behind Mark Sheppard as my second favorite of the season. But then, "Blood Relations" remains my favorite episode of this go round. They kicked things off on just the right note with the strange DREAD opening. That, combined with Allison's cryptic dream really set the mood for what was to come.
The structure of the episode was well thought out too. Things like Bruce's little game with the forgotten access card being revealed when Kravitz let everyone know he had been fired. Or Ariel's vision where we learned the motivation for what Bruce was doing. Even Bruce laying out just what his caper was. As soon as he revealed his plan, with the money going to the Caymans, it was clear that he planned to kill all of them. It all served to keep things interesting.
I liked all of the scenes in the conference room. Goldberg was as good as expected, but Larry Miller managed to steal a couple scenes from him. He was the perfect choice for the smarmy, better than you, senior executive. Kravitz had quite the little story arc to him as well. It was interesting to see how his attitude changed after Aaron was killed. And he did redeem himself as his actions saved both Joe and Melinda.
Speaking of Aaron though, two things stood out to me where he was concerned. First, dang, that was a shocking moment. It caught me completely off guard after Joe's "you haven't hurt anyone." And second, did anyone else find it odd that we didn't get to see any of Allison's interaction with him? At this point we know enough about how that works to just take it at face value, like Devalos did when she asked for access to be able to speak to him. It just seemed like a natural scene to show. Not so much Aaron repeating to Allison what the viewer already knew, but maybe her helping him to deal with what has happened to him in some way. It wasn't crucial, but there was some potential there.
This was another strong week for Joe. He was cool under pressure and I really liked his logical reasoning argument to Bruce. Plus, when the stuff hit the fan, he covered up Melinda. That was also a really nice scene at the end with Allison and Ariel watching him sleep.
As far as Ariel goes, I find the visions of the children very intriguing. I think it's something that we will keep seeing more and more of as the series goes on, and I'm all for that. It works on both levels as we get to see how they will react to the ability, and how Allison reacts to them getting the ability. It's something that has been touched on before, but there is still plenty of room to explore.
Overall, another solid one in the books. A couple of quibbles, but they are more than offset by an interesting tale and some great performances
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