Fans won't need crystal ball to find Medium showings anymore

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Jake Weber and Patricia Arquette star in Medium. (NBC)

Medium fans, take note: If you've been following the Patricia Arquette psychodrama these past few seasons, you know you have to be almost psychic to keep up with the pre-emptions, schedule changes, rumours of cancellation and other assorted near-death experiences.

If you've been following the fall season announcements, you also know Medium will return this fall -- somewhat unexpectedly -- for a sixth season, but on a new parent network: CBS.

What you may not know is that CBS is now showing reruns from last season on Friday nights. Many TV listings don't reflect this. Now you know.

The move is intended to get Medium fans used to the idea that the program will air on Friday nights from now on, when it returns with new episodes on Sept. 25.

The move has caused no small amount of controversy behind the scenes, where Medium's original network -- NBC -- is complaining that since these reruns were originally made for NBC, CBS is playing dirty pool buy showing them now.

If you're a Medium fan -- and, judging from my emails, there are more of you than the ratings would suggest -- none of that matters, of course. What matters is that you can now see some of last season's episodes you may have missed the first time around.

And you can rest assured that -- for the first time in Medium's five-year history -- the show will not be bounced around the schedule like a ping-pong ball. Medium is on Friday nights to stay, win or lose.

In the meantime, tonight's rerun at 8 p.m. on CBS is a two-parter from April, The Devil Inside, in which Allison Dubois (Arquette) is being tormented by the dastardly dream stalker Lucas Harvey (guest star Tony Curran). Harvey's constant intrusions on her dreams are hindering her ability to help Det. Lee Scanlon (David Cubitt) and D.A. Devalos (Miguel Sandoval) solve the murder case they're working on.

A psychic's life is never simple, it seems.

Thankfully, life is about to get a lot more simple for Medium fans. It's going to air on Fridays from now on, and it's here to stay. For one more season, at any rate.

-- Canwest News Service

THREE TO SEE

Castle, featuring Edmonton native Nathan Fillion as a crime novelist who helps the local plods solve actual crimes, features a rerun from April, in which Castle quizzes a one-time jewel thief about a string of "high-end home invasions." As opposed to the low-end kind. (CTV, Friday, 8 p.m.)

Home invasions seem to be a recurring theme. On a repeat of the oft-overlooked -- but highly rated -- Numb3rs, numbers whiz Charlie (David Krumholtz) applies his math skills to help local plods solve a series of home invasions. You don't have to be a math whiz yourself to guess the odds that he'll get the bad guys in the end. (Global, CBS, Friday, 9 p.m.)

On the homegrown drama, Wild Roses -- not a home invasion. Thank heaven for small mercies. A rerun from March finds Charlotte (Clare Stone) getting a surprise visit from her birth mother, while Kate (Michelle Harrison) gets some unexpected help tracking down a wolf that has been killing livestock on her spread. (CBC, Friday, 8 p.m.)

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 20, 2009 E5