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Thank goodness my brother and I have the same taste in entertainment—because I get to borrow all of his favorite DVDs. This week’s choice is the 1st season of Ghost Whisperer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.
In Grandview, a small town outside of Manhattan, Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt) could be just like you, except she married the ultimate husband, and she can talk to the dead. They appear before her in frightening ways, confused and lost. Her job is to help them make things right with the living, convey a message, or clean up a mess they left behind so they can cross over into the light, which I believe is Heaven.
Melinda operates an antique shop, which makes sense because ghosts are attached to old things. In the pilot episode, she receives an old compass, and later that night the spirit of a Vietnam soldier appears in her home. He doesn’t know where he is—just that he needs to get home because his wife is pregnant. You’re probably thinking, She can’t be pregnant now if he’s a Vietnam soldier. But when you watch the episode, you’ll understand.
To me, Melinda is the perfect heroine. She’s sweet, funny, strong, and independent, and she does what she has to do to get things done, no matter how scared she might be. At times, though, she does some things that I consider rather stupid.
Melinda’s husband, Jim Clancy (David Conrad), is the kind of man I want to marry. Ladies, you will fall in love with this man. Guys, you could learn a thing or two from him about how to treat a woman. (Uh-uh, none of that disgusted snorting coming from the male audience!) He knows about Melinda’s gift, but he supports her and lets her do her job, even though the protective male instinct in him doesn’t want to let her out of his sight when she’s dealing with the spirits—some of which come across as just plain mean and out to hurt someone. Jim deals with death himself—he’s a paramedic with a tender heart, but he’s tough enough to do his job without flinching. But what I love most about him is how he trusts Melinda and listens to her and holds her when she cries. CBS did something good when they decided to make the couple a loving one instead of a fighting one. But there were times when I threw my pillow at the TV screen and shouted, “Come on! There’s no marriage on earth that blissful!”
Melinda’s best friend and business partner, Andrea Moreno (Aisha Tyler), grounds the show, and I absolutely love her. She’s the type of independent, smart, beautiful woman who can make you laugh unexpectedly. You’d love having her as a friend. Her loyalty to Melinda, even with her craziness involving ghosts, is touching. You don’t abandon a friend just because there’s something odd about them.
To me, the ghost aspect of the show wasn’t all that scary—not to say I wasn’t startled by the sudden appearance of an angry spirit a time or two, but I’ve watched so many scary movies that it takes a lot to scare me now. The episode entitled “Dead Man’s Ridge” gave me chills, but that’s because ghosts or a possessed person crawling down stairs in that creepy, herky-jerky way still has the power to scare the heebie-jeebies out of me. The introduction of the Wide Brim Hat Man also lends some creepiness to the show. He’s sent to work against Melinda because not everyone in the ghost realm likes what she’s doing—they aren’t for finding peace and love after death.
Though Ghost Whisperer is meant to give you a scare, it will also make you cry. Each story has depth, and it reminds you that it’s going to be hard to let go of someone you love when they die, especially when it’s unexpected. My favorite episode is “Lost Boys,” about three orphans who died in a fire and are afraid to cross over because they’ve learned that anything outside the orphanage is cold, harsh and cruel. Melinda teaches them this isn’t so, even going as far as to spend the night with them in that big spooky house they call home. I lost it when one of the little boys said to her, “I’m going to tell everyone you’re my mommy,” right before he crosses over.
The season finale has such an unexpected, shocking twist that it’ll leave you blinking at the television screen and thinking, No! They can’t do that! You’ll definitely want to catch the show on CBS—or pick up the next season as soon as it’s available on DVD.
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