In 2005 a new series premiered on NBC that caught viewers
fancy and tied into that desire to know what would happen in our futures if we
could. Our fascination with psychics had been a long one going back to people
like Edgar Cayce and Jeanne Dixon and moving forward at the time with John
Edwards. This series renewed that interest and took as its basis the real life
story of psychic Allison DuBois, a psychic who has aided the police on several
occasions.
Patricia Arquette stars as DuBois in the series. Having
grown up with these abilities but never applying them she tries to lead a
normal life living in Phoenix with her husband Joe (Jake Weber) and their three
daughters (Sofia Vassilieva, Maria Lark and Madison and Miranda Carabello).
Allison becomes an intern working for Phoenix District Attorney Manuel Devalos
(Miguel Sandoval) and while working for him has a dream about a murder case
taking place in Texas. Now the problem is how does she convince the law enforcement
people she works with that her visions are legitimate not to mention convincing
her husband as well? Of course she does eventually get them to follow up on the
clues she can provide and bad guys are caught. In the course of these events
her abilities are accepted and she helps with more cases than ever.
The thing is if they never accepted her abilities there
wouldn’t have been a series worth of stories to tell and especially a series
that lasted 7 seasons. And as a viewer you have to believe that the crime in
Phoenix would become non-existent with the way the DA and his team rely on her
abilities more and more often as it progresses. Plus they have to convince
anyone in other police departments in other cities of her abilities when she
dreams about those locations.
But this is television. We want to believe, we want to be
entertained and we want to hope that someone out there like this can help put
bad guys away behind bars. With the crime statistics in this country it would
seem a never ending battle. But again that doesn’t matter as long as the show
can be entertaining and this one was.
Arquette comes off as an everyday mom who has had these
visions all her life but who has finally found a way to apply them to help
others. At the same time it’s not just helping solve crimes that goes on here.
She’s making lunches for her kids, dropping them off at school and dealing with
their day to day issues as well. She has to comfort her husband when the need
arises and the pair here on screen present a loving couple that deals with the
same issues we all do on a daily basis be it bills or bullies or gossip
mongers. Arquette’s performance here brings the character to life in all of
these circumstances.
Weber does a great job as well as the beleaguered husband
who at first doesn’t believe and yet learns that what she claims is true. And
with the dreams and visions she has being those involving murder and mayhem
he’s the solid base she needs to stay grounded. Weber’s portrayal of that
supportive spouse is well done here. Even more so when it turns out that their
three daughters also are in the midst of developing the same psychic
connections.
While the series did well enough when it was on it was often
up against some of the stiffest competition there was. It battled against the
CBS juggernaut that was the CSI franchise in one form or another, the hottest
shows on at the time. It later found itself up against LOST and the phenomena
that that was and then LAW & ORDER: SVU but it carried on. The series
lasted 5 seasons on NBC and then shifted over to CBS for 2 more seasons before
finally calling it quits.
This box set contains all 7 seasons for fans to go back and
enjoy all over again. And if you never got around to watching any more than
occasional episode you can now join in from the start and follow through to the
last episode. Fans of Arquette will love having them all in one spot on the
shelf and those who have been picking them up in individual seasons can now
sell those off and take up less space there with this comprehensive collection.
Click here to order.
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