Ghost Whisperer is one of those shows that’s pretty episodic. For the most part, you can come and go as you please, and you won’t be too lost. Unless you try to understand what’s going on with Jim/Sam. That one’s a bit of a headache even for people who watch it every week.

But what they’ve been doing of late is even more annoying. Rather than have any real character growth and development and progress within the context of each weeks’ stories, they’ve just tacked on these scenes at the end to take care of that for you. Last week, after the ghost went into the light, we got “Oh my god, I’m pregnant!” in an unconnected epilogue. This week, we got another major development the same way.

Read the rest of this entry »

(Season 4, Episode 11 – “Life on the Line”)

We’ve been at this “new Jim” thing for awhile now and I’m just not all that into it. Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t think the show needed a dramatic change in the dynamics of its two leads anyway. I’ll admit, when I heard Jim was going to die, I kind of liked the idea of him being dead and an earthbound spirit. We could learn so much about the other side that Melinda only gets to glimpse.

They even teased us with a hint of some of that with Jim seeing his brother and the light and everything, but then they came up with this Jim/Sam Quantum Leap ripoff idea, and here we are. They’ve turned Melinda into a kind of weird stalker and Jim into something that isn’t quite Jim. Maybe it’ll grow on me, but I think I’m going to have to declare the Jim/Sam tangent as a fail. While I’m at it, I’m going to categorize this week’s ghost story a fail as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

(Season 4, Episode 9 – “Pieces of You”)

I was on board the idea of killing Jim to shake up the show. I thought him being a ghost who hung around Melinda and helped her out from the other side was nothing short of brilliant. It would allow us to learn more about the other side and what the ghosts experienced there. We would get the emotional torment of Melinda not being able to get any closure or move on because Jim was still there.

We’d get to see their love transcend death and become something far greater, though much more morbid. And we got that … for exactly one episode. Now we’ve got Jim 2.0 and it’s Eric Green from Jericho. While it’s nice to see Kenneth Mitchell getting some regular work, playing the mirror image to Jim’s Dr. Sam Beckett isn’t much of a gig. Not to mention that the whole situation is just too weird.

Read the rest of this entry »

CBS

(Season 4, Episode 7)

Thanks a lot, guys. That had to be one of the most gut-wrenching hours on television in recent memory. Jim and Melinda had what is quite possibly the most perfect romance in the history of television. Their love for one another was absolute and complete, and it was the heart and soul of this series. When that heart was ripped from Melinda’s chest with Jim’s accidental death last week, the question became where do you go from here?

We know that Melinda can see earthbound spirits, and we knew that she’d seen Jim at the moment of his death. But it raises so many complicated questions. Of course, it would be difficult for Jim to leave Melinda and cross over. Since he can still interact with her because she can see him, how can he possibly understand that the best thing to do for her is to move on. We know that ghosts are often confused shortly after death, and as lucid as Jim seemed tonight, I think he’s still a little fuzzy on some things.

Read the rest of this entry »

CBS

You know what, we can’t even talk about this up front. I can tell you that Ghost Whisperer was all new Friday night. I can also tell you that Jamie Kennedy was barely in it and the episode was a hell of a lot stronger for it. I’m sorry, but Jamie Kennedy doesn’t work at all for me.

Beyond that, I’ll tell you that this is going to get all kinds of spoilery so stay on this side of the jump if you haven’t watched the episode, or aren’t ready to deal with it yet.

Seriously, this is my last [!!SPOILER WARNING!!] warning! No bitching allowed after you click that link.

Read the rest of this entry »

CBS

I know I’m a week late on this, but this is the cusp of the next new episode of Ghost Whisperer and I’m still reeling by that premiere. In the last season finale, we were left with a doozy of a cliffhanger: six people, five shadows. Jay Mohr’s Professor Payne pointed this out to Melinda and we panned up to a shot that not only showed the five distinct shadows, but also offered a nice down-shot of Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cleavage (I refuse to believe this wasn’t intentional).

Oh my god! What could it mean? Is somebody dead? Whose shadow is missing? Is Jim dead? Payne? It was an amazing cliffhanger leaving fans reeling and speculating throughout the summer. So of course everyone tuned in last Friday to find out what it all meant. Is Delia dead? Her son? Melinda!? And then the show started … and everyone was there … and nobody was talking about it. WTF?!

Read the rest of this entry »