So in this time slot last year, CBS had Joan of Arcadia, a show about a young woman who has conversations with someone that no one else can hear. That wasn't drawing a big enough audience, so they replaced it with this show about a young woman who has conversations with someone (well, several someones) that no one else can hear. This strikes me as an odd programming choice.
Our heroine is Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who talks to dead people. Ghosts come to her, seeking her help in resolving whatever they've left unresolved so that they can move on to the other side. Husband Jim (David Conrad) is freaked out by her gift, and wishes she'd stop doing it ("Find me the remote that'll turn this off, then we'll talk," she tells him.) Best friend and business partner Andrea (Aisha Tyler) finds it fascinating, and is full of questions about how it works.
In the first episode, Melinda is approached by a Vietnam soldier who died before he could meet his son; she gives that son (who is now roughly the same age as his father's spirit) the info the Pentagon needs to find dad's body; there is a big emotional kerfuffle between father and son, with much sharing and crying and emotional honesty -- oy, you could just vomit from the sincerity.
To the extent that the show works at all, it works despite Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is a dull, blank presence at the center of the show. Guest stars Wentworth Miller (as the soldier) and Balthazar Getty (as the son) are quite good, and their scene together (with Melinda passing on Miller's words to Getty) works better than it has any right to. Aisha Tyler, in the sidekick role, has already created a more interesting and believable character than Hewitt has; I can't help but wonder how much more life the show would have if the two had swapped roles. (Tyler's going to get a show of her own eventually; she's been doing nice work in supporting roles on shows as different as Friends and 24, and deserves a shot at a lead role.)
I didn't hate Ghost Whisperer; I just found it bland and uninvolving.
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