My attempts to get through the first season of Ghost Whisperer stalled out for a long time because of a dreadfully dull and boring span of episodes. But I kept plugging away at the DVDs in order to get to Season Two, which brings Camryn Manheim on board — an addition to the cast that I’m actually looking forward to.
At any rate, it was a good thing that I did keep going because episodes 1×14-1×17 marked a decided turnaround in episode quality, and helped me understand why this show has become such a hit with fans. While I’m not going to start recapping GW here, I do want to share some random thoughts from this block of eps.
1×14 — Last Execution: Starting with this ep, Ghost Whisperer actually became a bit scary for me. Most of the time, the ghosts are just regular people looking to make peace with family members or whatever, but this one with the convicted murderer having to experience his execution over and over again was freaky! “Last Execution” was definitely one of the better episodes that I’ve seen thus far, and I liked that the father admitted he was the killer. Most GW spirits were wronged in some way, so I was fully expecting the father to have his name cleared after death. Needless to say, this was a nice change of pace.
1×15 — Melinda’s First Ghost: Abigail Breslin is such a great actress that she really made the episode for me. Again, this ep reflected the darker side of GW, with Breslin’s character looking downright ghoulish in some scenes. I also liked finally meeting Melinda’s mom and getting more of Melinda’s backstory in the form of flashbacks. Up to that point, viewers only had the Pilot episode as background, with a young Melinda and her grandmother explaining her “gift” and so forth. It was good to see the other side of the coin in terms of how much Melinda’s mom despised the power.
1×16 — Dead Man’s Ridge: Again, this episode had some rather scary sequences, especially in the beginning when Andrea thought she was being haunted. Personally, I think the show is enhanced by these types of scenes instead of always having the spirits be harmless entities, so I’m happy with the direction things are going in. Plus, I thought this ep was particularly strong because of the way the “ghost” wasn’t quite dead yet. The way Dennis sacrificed himself so his brother could be saved was touching, and made for a compelling ep.
1×17 — Demon Child: This was probably the freakiest ep of the group, especially when they showed Daniel hovering over the baby’s crib with his face elongated and twisted. Yikes! I was watching this one at night while I was alone, and I have to admit that I thought about stopping the ep until my husband came home! But I went through with it, which was a good thing, because after the boy stopped trying to kill his nanny by bringing his toys to life, he actually turned out to have a good motive. I admit I teared up at the end when the boy was talking to his mom through Melinda… yes, I’ve become a bit of a sucker for GW now!