Medium 2.5: "Sweet Dreams"

Written by Moira Kirkland
Directed by Aaron Lipstadt

In which Allison has a dream about a childhood friend who moved to California, and in the course of trying to find out what happened, a case involving sexual deviance comes into play…


After a few strong episodes with effective use of a compelling hook, this episode was hard to classify. Overall, the mystery was intriguing, and it gave some interesting insight into Allison and her past history. But there were a number of scenes that were incredibly long and visually flat, and that took something away from the impact of the episode as a whole.

During the first season, a similar thing would happen. Whenever the topic turned towards sexual predation, a common enough element to violent crime, the writers would slow things down and linger over the resulting dialogue. The problem is not taking the situation and topic seriously; it’s taking it so seriously that the pacing suffers.

In a couple of scenes, I found myself becoming a bit bored, because the conversations were going on and on and there wasn’t even a score to keep it interesting. It was two people for several minutes, back and forth. Sometimes, that kind of thing will work, especially if it’s an animated discussion or critical to the characters. But when the conversations unfold at a slow and measured pace, it’s all about the investment in the characters.

For myself, I can only say that the characters weren’t compelling enough to maintain the intensity. I found it difficult to get into the story. While I appreciated how the whole package was put together, especially in terms of how Allison’s personal matters intersected with the case at hand, it just didn’t grab me the way the past few episodes have.

The difficulty, then, is figuring out whether or not it was the writing or my subjective mood. That’s a tough call. I think the decision to have more than one long stretch of dialogue wasn’t the smartest move, but I can understand what the writers were aiming for. And it’s hard to delve into uncomfortable sexual predation topics without taking a detached approach (like “CSI” or “Law and Order”). Allison, by the very nature of her ability, cannot detach herself from the direct impact of such crimes, and that makes striking a balance that much harder.

There were two things I felt were missing from the episode. One of them is probably a problem with the promotion of the episode: I was looking forward to seeing Allison as a young woman, especially since they went to the trouble of finding an actress who looked a lot like a young Patricia and also an older version of the girls. That side of the episode was a very small piece of the puzzle, which is unfortunate. (Oh, and the actress was hot, so I wanted to see more!)

The family life was also minimized because of the complexity of the case and the long stretches of dialogue. I’ve said it before: that aspect of the series is my personal favorite, and so I’m less likely to enjoy an episode if that element is not present. There were still many things to like, but in terms of my own preferences, this wasn’t the best.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 6/10