Charles Jensen | Writer

It’s time I confess something here, something I don’t tell many people, but I think you should know.

I devotedly watch Medium.

There are a couple reasons for this. First, it is the only TV show I can think of that takes place in Phoenix and I get a special delight when I hear them talking about streets that don’t exist, locations that don’t exist (take “Mesa University,” for example), or when nobody complains about the summertime heat (or sweats!).

Although I hate to admit this, too, I tend to watch a lot of shows that deal with the paranormal or the occult (X-Files, Buffy, Angel, Charmed, Supernatural, etc) but I promise I am not a nerk, geek, dweeb, etc. I mean, I also watch America’s Next Top Model and stuff.

Anyway, the show’s main character, Alison DuBois, is a real person! Here she is with Patricia Arquette:

The show’s premise—that Alison’s psychic tendencies are used by the Phoenix District Attorney’s office to prevent, locate, or prosecute criminals—is also true. She has a book, Don’t Kiss Them Goodbye, in which she writes about some of the mysteries she’s helped solve. What is not true about the show is that the real Alison does not receive her psychic impressions through dreams (although TV being a visual medium—pun intended—it makes more sense for Arquette to bolt upright from a scary dream that we witness rather than walking around her house saying, “I get the impression that someone is being murdered right now,” etc.)

Also, it is curious to note that I have never seen a saguaro cactus in any episode of the show, and they’re sort of everywhere around here, and they also only grow in the Sonoran Desert from Phoenix south into Mexico. Here is a saguaro, if you don’t know: