Product Description
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Melinda Gordon communicates with earthbound spirits,
ghosts who cling to the living because they have unfinished
business that prevents them from moving beyond the familiar plane
of existence that we call life. Inspired in part by the work of
famed medium James Van Praagh and of Mary Ann Winkowski, a
real-life communicator with spirits, GHOST WHISPERER explores the
spiritual side of life and death as Melinda navigates among the
dead and the living in her sometimes chilling, sometimes
heart-rending and sometimes amusing attempts to act as an
intermediary between the ghosts and those they haunt. Jim, her
husband, worries about the emotional toll this work is taking on
his wife as they embark on a new life together. Melinda recently
has revealed her gift to her new friend, Delia Banks, a single
mom who works in Melinda's antique shop. However, Melinda fears
the consequences of drawing Delia into this unconventional world.
Melinda also shared her secret with quirky Professor Rick Payne,
an expert in occult beliefs and history who thrives on helping
her gain ins into the more baffling paranormal phenomena she
encounters. For her part, Melinda accepts her unique abilities as
a blessing and sometime curse, but always helps her clients,
alive or dead, find emotional closure.
.com
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Season One
Ghost Whisperer is not a show for cynics (or anyone who hates
everything with the word "whisperer" attached to it). Though half
of the show s to make your creep, the other half works
just as hard to make everything warm and fuzzy. Ghosts walk into
Melinda Gordon's life the way snappy dames walked into Sam
Spade's office, hitting her up for aid with a hard-luck story and
a whole lot of strings attached. Her job is to help them untie
the emotional knot that's keeping them earthbound--which usually
involves, in one way or another, telling a still-living friend or
relative how much the dead person loved them. Whether it's a
Vietnam vet who never met his son, a standup comedian who
committed suicide, a bride who died on her big day, or a
poltergeist child, in the end Melinda--assisted by her hunky
paramedic husband Jim and vaguely useless best friend
Andrea--will find a way to lead them to the light. (Ghost
Whisperer is evasive about its theological implications, but
Melinda's black-hatted nemesis from the season's end has a
distinctly devilish air.)
Keeping a foot in both worlds as Melinda is Jennifer Love Hewitt
(Party of Five, Garfield), an actress who doesn't seem entirely
natural; between her cartoonish physical dimension (the show
isn't shy about displaying her bosom), her fake eyelashes, and
the seemingly molded contours of her face, she's like a
life-sized doll. Unfortunately, this quality lends a similarly
plastic feel to her telegenic smile and earnest looks of
compassion. The scripts are strictly middle-of-the-road tv fare,
with obvious turns of plot and heavy-handed emotional crises, but
the special effects conjure some eeriness. Extras include docs on
the show's development, the lovely opening credits (based on the
art of Maggie Taylor), and the paranormal investigators whose
work inspired the show, along with a handful of episode
commentaries and deleted scenes. Fans will not feel cheated.
--Bret Fetzer
Season Two
The second season of Ghost Whisperer--that cornucopia of
spookiness, warmhearted crescendos, and cleavage-emphasizing
outfits--strengthened the show's basic formula with tighter
writing and engaging new characters. After an opening episode
that resolves the first season's cliffhangers (with a
black-hatted baddie and a beloved "earthbound spirit" in peril),
our heroine Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) launches
forward with three new friends: Dr. Rick Payne (Jay Mohr, Jerry
Maguire), a prickly, sarcastic professor of the occult; Delia
Banks (Camryn Manheim, The Practice), a skeptical but warmhearted
realtor who helps Melinda run her antique shop; and Delia's son
Ned (Tyler Patrick Jones), a rebellious but goodhearted scamp.
More significantly, the ratio of creepy thrills and beatific
resolutions has been recalibrated to crank up the thrills. Which
is good news--while helping ghosts find the light may be
Melinda's reason for being, those happy endings are more
satisfying when preceded by y special effects and
what-will-happen-next chills. On top of that, the show's creators
carefully weave in a season-long story arc that culminates a
three-episode conclusion (which, naturally, leaves plenty of
questions open for the third season to investigate) involving a
rival ghost whisperer whose motivations are not so selfless as
Melinda's. Clearly, the show's fans were hungry for more of
Melinda's stoic, hunky husband Jim (David Conrad); not only does
he get many more rtunities to be unflinchingly supportive, he
gets haunted by a supermodel and has a best friend who starts
dating Delia. Stories range from a vengeful cheerleader to a
phantom dog to an old boyfriend of Melinda's, who even in death
hasn't gotten over her winsomeness. Most often people are haunted
by family members and lost loved ones, who--though they knock
things over, possess the living, and generally raise a
ruckus--are almost always seeking forgiveness or to pass on sage
advice. Through it all, Melinda summons her pluck and marches
into danger wearing what seems to be an endless supply of flowy
coats and low-cut party dresses. Ghost Whisperer is a
love-it-or-hate-it show, and those who love it do so
passionately. The show's creators reciprocate with an abundance
of extras, ranging from earnest episode commentaries and
behind-the-scenes docs to a series of "webisodes" of an internet
serial about a bicycle delivery guy learning to cope with death
to a peculiar "Jennifer Love Hewitt Speed Painting Video." --Bret
Fetzer
Season Three
The first thing you'll notice about the third season of Ghost
Whisperer: More special effects! In the opening episode, a street
collapses into a black, yawning crevasse. Eternally dewy Jennifer
Love Hewitt stars as Melinda Gordon, who speaks to the dead with
a firm glint in her eye and an abundance of cleavage (though the
costume department is a tad more discreet this time around). With
the assistance of her hunky husband (David Conrad), her skeptical
best friend (Camryn Manheim, The Practice), and a wisecracking
professor of the occult (Jay Mohr, Saturday Night Live), Melinda
helps ghosts cross over to the other side. But woven through the
entire third season is Melinda's investigation into her own
family secrets (featuring Martin Donovan, The site of Sex, as
Melinda's mysterious her), culminating in a high-stakes season
finale that's much more satisfying that season two's fairly
forced conclusion. Mind you, this season is unlikely to convert
viewers who prefer their ghost stories without warmhearted
resolutions (almost every ghost just needs to tell someone how
much he/she love him/her), but there are some clever twists and
setups: A dead photographer creates pictures from the afterlife;
a mother actively cultivates being haunted by her dead son
because she's afraid he's too young to cross over on his own.
Several episodes reveal how the town of Grandview is built on the
ruins of an older city, which is--surprise!--full of unhappy
ghosts. This gesture towards cultivating a mythology smacks a bit
of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The X-Files, but who doesn't like
a haunted underworld? The more the show leans towards spookiness
and sprinkles the earnestness on lightly, the stronger it is.
Fans will be pleased with the abundance of extras, which include
commentaries, webisodes, making-of documentaries, backstory about
Melinda, and an entertainingly snarky interview with Mohr. --Bret
Fetzer
