You may groan at the premise -- a young woman helps the police solve crimes through use of her psychic intuition -- but it's brought off with so much storytelling skill and so few voguish gimmicks that it might as well be the first show of its kind. [3 Jan 2005]

'Medium' is manipulative filmmaking, but it works. [2 Jan 2005]

Within the context of an overly familiar, murder-saturated genre, talented "Medium" creator Glenn Gordon Caron ("Moonlighting") manages to find some emotionally rich variations on the formula, assisted by Patricia Arquette's appealing performance as a suburban, crime-solving mom who sees dead people. [3 Jan 2005]

Medium doesn't get much help from Arquette, who gives one of the season's stranger and more off-putting performances. [3 Jan 2005]

The best that can be said about "Medium" is that it has a little more pep than similar shows and a sense of humor. [3 Jan 2005]

Unfortunately, Allison is such a passive heroine that it's hard to get too involved with her, and Arquette doesn't bring much life to the role. Moreover, the episodes made available are virtually devoid of supporting players or any workplace tension to augment her relatively staid (by TV standards, anyway) home life. [3 Jan 2005]

It never rises above the mediocre level, although it certainly sinks below it occasionally. [3 Jan 2005]