GHOST WHISPERER: 5.09 “Lost in the Shadows”
What a terrible episode.
I really wanted to like this episode. I was looking forward to seeing Madison Leisle, Julia, return. She stood out in the Sally Stitch episode as someone to keep your eye on, and as someone very ominous.
Unfortunately, that just didn’t happen.
And it wasn’t her fault. In fact, I’d say with what she had access to, she did a good job handling her role. But I blame the writing. And Connor Gibbs. My God, that child can’t act.
Seriously. Everything he said was so one-sided. And I don’t mean biased. I mean, it’s as if you were looking at something that was supposed be a 99-sided die, and you were just stuck on one side that had a little square on it. And you just thought, is that a square? Or a square? Maybe it’s a square! For a hour.
For a kid who knew he was breaking his parents’ rules but supposedly for the good of another, he seemed to show no emotion at all. He wasn’t happy to help someone. He wasn’t confused to be blindfolded. He wasn’t scared at the shadows attacking Julia. He wasn’t mad the shinies couldn’t help (we’ll get to that later). He wasn’t thrilled to see his parents return. He was nothing. He was a painted square on a 99-sided die that isn’t being used properly.
But we can’t just blame an eight-year-old for the horribleness that is this episode (and yes, he does look eight, not five, and I’ve always thought so). They really didn’t build this episode up at all.
Sure, we knew about the shinies and the shadows. But other than gagging Melinda, we haven’t really discovered the danger behind them. This is the first time we’ve seen a ghost scared of them, and for being such a “big” episode, I think we needed to see that much earlier. Carl was clearly the best moment in the show, as we actually saw fear in him. But at the same time, what does showing a ghost all the bad in their lives really do to them? How is that dangerous?
Plus, the audience hasn’t grown to like Aiden. There was no fear in the entire episode that Aiden would be gone forever. First, I didn’t care if he was. Second, I wasn’t scared for him. Which brings me to another point:
They didn’t establish Julia as an opposing, negative force. Beyond two sinister looks and a hissy fit against Melinda’s help, we have no reason to think that she’s a bad ghost. And since every episode has that “turn” at the end, you could guess that she’d be good all along. Which she was. If we had spent more time seeing her at the hospital, seeing how she acted around her parents, or even seeing her with the other ghosts she wanted to protect, it all would have made more sense.
And what about those other ghosts she wanted to protect? How was she helping them by hanging around? Will we find out later? Is it just a moot point? Is the Sally Stitch person one of them? Bah!
And as for the shadows and shinies, I’m bored. There hasn’t been a threat yet, and the first time we’ve seen the shinies (who, for faceless being, sure had eyes and noses), it was lame. I felt like I was watching The Haunting–yeah, the bad one starring Catherine Zeta Jones.
Overall, the episode was weak. I just feel like with a few tweaks and some major character buildup, it could have been an effective episode. I mean, even building up the characters more and pushing this off until later in the season could have worked.
And hiring someone other than Connor Gibbs. I don’t think there’s anything we could have fixed about that performance.
I really wanted to like it; I really did. The episode was almost more disappointing than usual, just because I really wanted it to work.
Nice burn. Looks like the quality the show continues to go down the side of a hill on a skateboard.
Ha! Nice burn yourself, JC.
I totally disagree. I love that people have nothing better to do than bash others, especially a child! You’re bashing the little boy that plays Aiden, but you are complaining about his lack of this and that…those are the lines written for his character not what he is. Jeez, wake up it’s TV. You want a burn, get a life and have some respect not only for the kid who probably spent 10 hour days working on this episode, but for the show in general. ps, find your skateboard and go for a long downhill ride.
To be fair, I do blame the writing on a lot of this. I do say that Connor Gibbs is not a very good actor (something that I’ve been saying over the course of the season), but a lot of this episode was because of the lack of buildup for the characters. That being said, I think that Gibbs, while a child actor, could still have delivered the lines given to him–and the actions–in a more believable manner. We see it all the time with child actors, and as much as I’m tired of seeing Dakota Fanning in everything, she really did set a new standard in how great children can be in acting roles. Add in some new faces–like the little boy in The Middle–and you’ve got some great competition. Sadly, Aiden had no emotion behind anything in this episode, and while, yes, the lines come from the writers, it’s a combo effect from the acting as well.
I really wanted to like this episode, and I don’t mean to just bash the actor. Like I said, combo effect with writing and buildup as well. I certainly don’t blame the child for the downward slide of the show, and I’m sorry if my review came off that way. Perhaps my tone was too negative. But I did feel this episode was hard to watch and I wasn’t invested in the characters as much as I should have been.
I had a problem with last year’s gimick with the not dead husband. I don’t trust shows that do the skip ahead thing. I watched the first episode this year and then stopped watching altogether. Now that Medium follows Ghost Whisperer it shows the defects in the stories.
Medium has grown with the family and we care what happens to them.
It’s a sad commentary that these two shows have the most loving and suportive men on T.V. Most shows are still in the old rut that marriage is boring and there is no conflict after “I do”.
[...] my disappointment in last week’s episode, it took me a while to watch this episode of Ghost Whisperer. But in a surprise twist, I actually [...]