The MelindaVerse

The MelindaVerse Forum Is Back

The Bears — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:23:00 GMT

The MelindaVerse Forum is up and running again. Apparently our host, Forumer, was able to solve the problem yesterday evening and the forums on server 19 started coming up after that. Thank you all for you patience during this problem.

Ghost Busted #416 (27 Feb 2008)

The Bears — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:51:00 GMT

This week's episode of Ghost Whisperer is 416. "Ghost Busted." The big news appears to be that Melinda is going to tell Sim about her "gift" -- the ability to talk to and see ghosts. What will surprise her is Sim's reaction.

The other fun part is that Melinda tangles with some ghost hunters (who are probably frauds). But boy do they have a cool vehicle.

We wonder what's going to happen when they confront the real deal. What we do remember is that when Melinda encounter a fake medium in "Unhappy Medium" it turned out he was a lot more helpful than she expected and they learned a lot from each other. We would expect no less from this episode.

Read more about "Ghost Busted" in the MelindaVerse Episodes section.

Comments?

Recent Ghost Whisperer News

The Bears — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:31:00 GMT

We have uncovered some interesting news stories in the past few days which we thought we'd put up for discussion here since the forum is unavailable.

Mel & Sim Have Increased The Ratings

The first is an old one but interesting. It suggests that far from driving viewers away from GW, Jim's death has succeeded in making the show more popular.

February 9: ‘Ghost Whisperer’: Have we kissed and made up?

[Show] Back when Michael Ausiello first broke the news that Jim (David Conrad) would die on Ghost Whisperer, the response was a resounding Noooooooooo. Ditto for when I blogged about his actual death. Since then, we (and Melinda…) have seen Ghost Jim step into another man’s body because he didn’t want to cross over and leave his wife. That accident victim, Sam, has amnesia, and Sim (what we shall call Sam-Jim) doesn’t remember Melinda – though he feels a strong, unexplained attraction to her.…

Expect That New Episodes Will Be About New Life.

Executive Producer P.K. Simonds suggest that the end of the season will be more about new life than death.

February 25: Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on ‘House,’ … [‘Ghost Whisperer’] and more!

[Show] Question: Do you have any juicy Ghost Whisperer spoilers? –Mary …Ausiello: For real, yo. Exec producer P.K. Simonds teases that “the rest of our season isn’t about death – it’s about new life.”…

Jennifer Makes It Official – Her Engagement is Over

Jennifer Love Hewitt has finally spoken out about her breakup with Ross McCall. She says some people are definitely not right for each other and that she is getting over it. Where the interview took place is not clear but our guess is that it happened at ‘The Envelope Please’ party at the Abbey.

February 25: Alanis Morissette mends Hewitt’s heart

[Cast] Jennifer Love Hewitt says Alanis Morissette is helping mend her broken heart. …The ‘Ghost Whisperer’ star – who split from Scottish actor Ross McCall last month – listens to the Canadian singer’s album ‘Jagged Little Pill’ to get her through the break-up, while eating chocolate.

Any thoughts on these stories?

MelindaVerse Forum Problem

The Bears — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:36:00 GMT

Like the rest of you, we suspect, The Bears and Chief Rodney are very frustrated at not being able to post to the MelindaVerse Forum since Tuesday evening. Since our host, Forumer.com, is typically very reliable we just posted a note on the MelindaVerse web site that we were aware of the problem. We expected the server would return in a couple of hours and all would be fine.

But when we still couldn't get on this morning it seemed time to take more steps. We checked at the support forum and found out Forumer's server 19 (where our forum is hosted) has been subjected to a denial of service attack.

Hi Guys,

I have one good news and one bad news for you. The good news is the server 19 is fine, no hardware and no software error. The bad news is we got a huge DDOS attack. Even the techs at data center still can not stop it.
Limez is considering the emergency action plan (I'd like to keep the plan in secret for the time being, or else attackers will change their tactics).

A DoS (Denial-of-Service-) attack means some person or group is flooding the server with requests which bring it to a grinding halt. For more information about what is happening check this Wikipedia article. None of our posts should be lost but we will just have to wait until the techs can find a way to block the unwanted traffic -- perhaps with the help of law enforcement.

Meanwhile, we will try to post important information here on the MelindaVerse blog. And we will also put up the latest news on the website.

--The Bears

--Chief Rodney

Major Reorganization of the MelindaVerse Site

The Bears — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:48:00 GMT

Just like a fine wine, the beautiful Melinda Gordon just keeps getting better with age. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the MelindaVerse web site. Since we started almost a year and a half ago, the site has grown like topsy turvy and it is showing its age. So it’s time for some cosmetic surgery -- a little botox here, a tummy tuck there and an eyelid lift somewhere else. All to make it easier for you to use the site.

When we created the site at the beginning of season two, we did not know what would be the focus of interest. And as we kept adding things, it became clear that some of our original topics had expanded greatly while others just sat there. For example, we had a major topic “Credits” which hardly had any changes while “News & Views” which had lots of entries was buried on the main page. Something had to be done.

So our first change to the site is a major reorganization. The new design has five major areas: the MelindaVerse, People, Episodes, News & Views, and Miscellaneous. The MV main page has been simplified and many pages have been moved to create what we believe is a more logical arrangement. For example, the cast, crew, and writer/director topics have been consolidated into a single major topic, “People.” Also, many of the things like the glossary and time line which used to be attached to the main page have been moved to the Miscellaneous topic.

We hope you find these changes make the site more usable. In any endeavor like this there are sure to be a few errors introduced. Please notify Chief Rodney of any you find.

Our next change to the site will be to improve some of the pages that have become cumbersome to use like the promotional images and the episode list. We are also working with Chief Rodney to improve the overall look of the site. As always, all your comments are gladly accepted.

The Name of the Show

The Bears — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:45:00 GMT

On Sunday, we posted this entry with the name of the show and so more reasons why Melinda Gordon is such a strong character.

As Johann Hari says, the only place we see strong female characters these days is in the science fiction or fantasy genera. And that is the case here. The show is "Ghost Whisperer" starring Jennifer Love Hewitt as its single lead character, Melinda Gordon. The prejudice seems to be "beauty and talent are mutually exclusive things" or more specifically in Ms Hewitt's case "anyone with boobs like that can't have any brains."

If you are not familiar with the show, Melinda is a medium who can communicate with earthbound spirits -- the ghost of people who have been trapped on earth because they have unfinished business with the living. Melinda acts as their interpreter so they can finish this business and cross over to the other side (e.g., heaven, nirvana, or the happy hunting ground). Their business is essentially grief resolution and so what Melinda does parallels the grief work terminally ill patients and their families must do. And often like the spirits, the terminally ill cannot be heard either because they literally cannot speak or their family will not let them speak of their impending death. By moving the situation to another plane the serious problems of dealing with grief can be looked at in new and interesting ways.

The episodes unfold as mystery stories. But instead of solving a crime, Melinda must help the spirits resolve their problems. Like a good detective, she usually succeeds. Also like a good detective, it is how she gets from the problem to the solution more then the final resolution that matters the most. While getting there, her work is complicated by uncooperative spirits, disbelieving family members and the mysterious dark spirits who work against her in this Manichean world. The work is emotionally draining which only such a strong character could endure.

Unlike many of today's TV's female characters, Melinda's life outside her calling is under control if complicated (unlike the mess of Lilly Rush on "Cold Case"). She is married to a supportive man but not because she needs him to hold her up (unlike Brenda Leigh Johnson on "The Closer"). It's as if on these other shows a lead female character is not allowed to be a complete person. Melinda has few friends because she realizes being her friend can be difficult and dangerous. But those she has stand by her despite the risk. And she in turn tries not to use them too much.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out this well written, produced and acted show.

Strong Female Characters on TV

The Bears — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:59:00 GMT

The other day we saw this post on the blog Shakesville:

Quote of the Day
| posted by Melissa McEwan | Thursday, March 27, 2008

"The few strong women in Hollywood movies and TV are safely located in an unreal world: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess. The closest to an unapologetic feminist is Lisa Simpson—and she is eight years old, and a cartoon."—Johann Hari, in The Independent, in a piece titled "Where have all the strong women gone?"

The Bears thought there might be at least one on TV right now so we made this comment:

There is a successful television show on now with a very strong female lead. In fact, she is the only star of the show which is unusual today when ensemble casts are the rule. Especially for female characters who usually have a sidekick at minimum.

This lead character deals with the issue of the week mostly by herself because she is strong, smart, resourceful and empathetic. While the character works mainly alone, she is willing to ask for help from her friends or her loving spouse when she needs it. All-in-all she comes off as a strong feminist character with admirable qualities you would think might be held up as a good example.

But you'd be wrong. This show has good ratings and the network suits like it well enough to renew it again for next season. So it is clear the show is a success. Yet this show and the lead character have been consistently panned from the beginning by critics who often appear to not have even watched a whole episode. And, outside of fans sites, the lead actor has probably never been noted as creating a strong feminist character.

The name of the show has not been mentioned because there are lots of reasons to dislike a particular show or its star and that’s understandable. Considered in the abstract, though, a character with these qualities on a successful show ought to be admired. So why not? Likely because of a common prejudice against women. You’ll know what the prejudice is when you figure out the name of the show and the actor!

We revealed the name of the show in a comment a couple of days later which we will soon post (but you probably already know what show we are talking about ).

Things to Look for on the DVDs

The Bears — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Recently we e-mailed a good friend our recommendations on what to look for on the season 1 and 2 DVD sets. It occurred to us that this list might be of interest to other fans of the MelindaVerse so here it is.

Season 1:

The commentary by Creator John Gray and Executive Producer Kim Moses for the “Pilot” episode has a lot of information about how they wanted to do the series.
The commentary by Executive Producers Ian Sander and Kim Moses for “Ghost, Interrupted” is also good. They are Sander/Moses Productions and also married to each other.
The commentary by Ian Sander and David Conrad (Jim Clancy) for “Lost Boys.”
The scene in “Friendly Neighborhood Ghost” where Mel is caught snooping in his garage by new neighbor Todd Darger. He grabs her around the neck for protection from the ghost grandfather but we suspect the two actors probably had to shoot the scene several times to get the emotions right. That’s because Todd is played by Ross McCall – the Scot Jennifer recently announced her engagement to. Nobody’s talking but we suspect it was love at first hug since she was exclusively dating him soon after this episode was shot.
Special Features: Be sure to check out “Can You See Me? The First Season of Ghost Whisperer.” A good introduction into how the show was created.
Special Features: Ghost Whisperer Mythology. This is all about the title sequence – how it was made and what it means.

Season 2:

The commentary by John Gray and Kim Moses for “Love Never Dies.” (We were not as impressed with the other commentaries for the second season but that may just be because we have been following the show so closely.)
Special Features: A Conversation With The Living. This is the main place you get to hear from the cast members.
Special Features; Melinda’s Closet. It was just as we thought – It takes most of the second floor of their house to hold all those different outfits Mel wears! A good discussion of Melinda’s wardrobe by costume designer Joseph Porro, Jennifer, Kim Moses and a few others.
Special Features; Jennifer Love Hewitt Speed Painting Video. A visual treat where you get to see a time-lapse version of the graphic designer creating a realistic portrait of Mel.

All the episodes are great, IMHO, but The Bears just wanted to call your attention to some things that stood out for us when we first looked.

Thoughts on over Fifty Episodes of Ghost Whisperer

The Bears — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:02:00 GMT

Well, who would have thought our favorite show would get this far. Fifty episodes of Ghost Whisperer have now been broadcast with the showing of the episode “The Weight of What Was.” This puts the producers on the downside of creating 100 episodes which is the magic number supposedly necessary for a successful run in syndication. We’d take this opportunity to share some of our pondering about the show. In particular, we’d like to note how this show made it not because it got great press but in-spite of it. It is clearly a show that succeeded because of its loyal fans.

Ghost Whisperer came to the airwaves with very little media support beyond the publicity the network and producers could muster. While the initial reviews were relatively positive (probably because of select seeding of the pilot to those critics the producers thought would like it), later reviews dismissed the show with vengeance. It was called a “namby-pamby, touchy-feely version” of the other supernatural shows. The plots were supposed to be “unoriginal” and “repetitive.” The look was too “plastic” and the ghosts not spooky. More than one said “the show is essentially a rip-off of Medium.” Finally they accused the show of having a “muddled” sense of the afterlife. CBS was criticized for replacing the fine family-friendly drama Joan of Arcadia (which had been losing ratings all of its last season) with a “piece of fluff.” Criticisms like this led to the odds-makers predicting GW was a “3/1 heavy favorite to be the first fall TV show cancelled…” (Obviously those who went against the line did very, very well.)

The critic’s attacks on Jennifer Love Hewitt were, if anything, even worse. She was dismissed as a teenage has-been with no talent, “a poor actress who comes off as phony and insincere.” They compared her talent as an actress unfavorably with Amber Tamblyn of of the cancelled Joan or the Emmy-winning Patricia Arquette of Medium. Many could not resist saying she wasn’t even the show’s star at all, playing third place to her breasts. One even asked why “the lovely and talented actress” Aisha Tyler even agree to be on such a show? In the latter case, that critic got his wish when Tyler left the show after the end of the first season.

So what’s going on here? Despite the writers’ strike (we hope) it looks like there might well be many more seasons of Ghost Whisperer to come. So are we fans without good taste or are these critics clueless.

The Bears think several things are at work here. The first is the notion of a “received idea” where the critic simply accepts an opinion as true without questioning it. For example, Ghost Whisperer and Medium are both about women who see spirits so therefore GW is a copy of Medium. If you have watched both shows, you know that women who see spirits are the only two things the shows have in common. Otherwise they are completely different. One show is essentially a police procedural with a supernatural twist while the other might well be called a psychodrama about grief resolution. Another received idea is that because Jennifer Love Hewitt was a big teenage star and is now a very attractive woman, she cannot act. Well, we would point out Jennifer has received two Best Actress awards for the show which we take to mean she can act very well.

Another assumption these critics seem to be making is that there is “only one way” to make a show about the supernatural or that there is a single way ghosts act or that all mediums work the same way. So they claim that GW is “wrong” about one or more of these things. Anyone who has read more than a few books or watched more than a few shows about any of these topics knows there are many variations for each. So we think is extremely unfair to criticize a show for getting these things “wrong.” Instead, a good critic would accept the show’s frame of reference and determine if it did a good job within that frame.

As to Ghost Whisperer episodes being repetitive, what the critics seem to be saying is that every episode fits into a pattern. News Flash! All episodic television shows fit into a pattern because that’s the way viewers can understand them. Detective shows have a pattern: a crime is committed, the detective finds some clues, things go off track, things start to fall into place, and, finally, the crime is solved. The same goes for police procedurals, medical dramas, and lawyer dramas. The point is not that the general framework of a given genre remains constant but the details of how a show plays out within that framework. The good shows make this interesting. Yes, Melinda nearly always crosses the spirit over. But the detective nearly always solves the crime and the doctor nearly always cures the patient. What matters is how we get from the problem to the solution.

Finally, it looks to us like a lot of critics seem to look at what “the important critics” are saying about a given show and agree with that -- a sort of pack mentality. They don’t have an opinion of their own, they just go with the accepted view. We don’t know what to say about this other than to note it is fairly common in many parts of the media. You can observe it happening in political, business, and sports commentary. Everybody cheers for the so-called winner and jeers the so-called loser. So ultimate who are the winners and losers become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

We are just very happy that we fans of Ghost Whisperer judged the show for itself instead of paying attention to the large amount of negative criticism. Because of this, we have the delightful Melinda, her family, and her friends bringing a wonderful show to our homes every Friday evening.

It's been a busy time

The Bears — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:18:00 GMT

Boy, has it been a busy week or so here at The Bears’ cave! Everything seemed to happen at once. Getting the new forum up and running, letting all our friends know about it, handling all the new information about Ghost Whisperer coming out, and, of course, watching and re-watching the season three premiere (not to mention trying to take a peek at the season 2 DVD set). We are exhausted.

So maybe you can understand why The Bears and Chief Rodney have fallen more than a little bit behind on keeping the MelindaVerse.com up-to-date. But we are starting to catch up and should be getting more pictures and episode information up soon – just keep checking.

“The Underneath” was a great kickoff episode for the new season. John Gray and his colleagues introduced their new, darker mythology of Grandview while at the same time giving us a heart-warming story of a young woman who had lost her parents which – after a journey through some very dark places – ended with a classic GW porch scene and cross over that really brought tears to these old bear eyes. Plus we learned a lot more about the difficult situation between Melinda and her mother (thanks to the return of that great actress Anne Archer). The summer break must have been good to Jennifer Love Hewitt because her Melinda character, if anything, is even more heartwarming and beautiful than ever.

Here’s to a great season three of Ghost Whisperer!

Announcing The MelindaVerse Forum

The Bears — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:28:00 GMT

Well, we did it. The MelindaVerse site now has a forum where you can discuss Ghost Whisperer to your heart’s content.

Running a forum is an entirely new thing for The Bears and Rodney. So you will be learning what the forum can do right along with Rodney (we bears aren’t interested in those technical details).

Come on over to The MelindaVerse Forum and check it out.

As for this blog -- we expect to use it to keep posting our thoughts on more general things and what’s going on in the website.

– The Bears and Rodney

The Underneath #301 (28 Sept 2007)

The Bears — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:39:00 GMT

This Friday we will see the return of Ghost Whisperer for a new season with the broadcast of “The Underneath.” In this episode, Melinda uncovers some secrets of Grandview’s past. Learn more about the episode on The MelindaVerse.

In this episode, Anne Archer returns as Melinda’s mother Beth and Jay Mohr becomes a full cast member as Melinda’s mentor, professor Rick Payne.

The Bears say check it out.

The Gathering #222 (repeat) (21 September 2007)

The Bears — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:21:00 GMT

After two weeks without [i]Ghost Whisperer[/i] we finally have Melinda back in action in the finale of season two: "The Gathering." In this last episode of season two, we finally get some closure on what all those messages and portents we have been seeing throughout season two were about. That is, what were the five signs, who is Gabriel, what was up with the children?

We believe Melinda would have had a great deal of trouble figuring what was going on without Rick Payne's help. Fortunately, in the previous episode Melinda used her considerable charm to convince Rick to help her. So in this episode we get to see them as a great team as they figure out what the various signs mean and where the disaster on May 11, 2007 is going to happen.

What’s coming in season three of Ghost Whisperer?

The Bears — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:52:00 GMT

What’s in store for Ghost Whisperer in season three? The cast and crew are keeping things under wraps for now so we don’t know very much. But some information has leaked out from the Grandview set. For example, we know that Ann Archer is coming back to play Melinda’s mother Beth in the first episode of season three, “The Underneath” (click here for episode information). Other cast members include a young Melinda and a young Beth so it is very likely we are going to learn something about their family history.

We also know that professor Payne is going to be a full time cast member. And another character, Justin Yates, who takes some pictures in the first episode which show something about Mel’s abilities is being added to the show. We also know from interviews that we are going to learn a lot more about Mel’s past and her unique connection to Grandview. Jennifer herself has said that Melinda didn’t choose to move to the town – the town chose her!

What do you think season three holds for us?

The Prophet #221 (repeat) (31 August 2007)

The Bears — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:17:00 GMT

Tonight Ghost Whisperer returns to its regular Friday time slot for a repeat showing of episode 221, “The Prophet.” It is the beginning of the second season finale, where the various messages Melinda has been getting all this season start to come together in a way we can understand them. In particular, a shadowy figure called The Prophet gives Mel visions that show several children know what she can do and are trying to warn her of a coming disaster. (Check out the episode page here.)

After tonight’s show, we will have to wait three weeks for the second part of the finale, “The Gathering”, on September 21. The week after that the third season of Ghost Whisperer kicks off with “The Underneath.” Until then, we will just have to content ourselves with the release of the season 2 DVD set for September 18 according to Amazon.com.

– The Bears

The Ghost Within #204 (repeat) (25 August 2007)

The Bears — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:49:00 GMT

As Ghost Whisperer season 2 winds to its close, we get to watch this week's repeat episode on Saturday night (to make room for preseason football Friday). In "The Ghost Within", Melinda is confused and scared because the spirit won't talk to her. Turns out he didn't talk to anyone much when he was alive, either, because he is autistic. Before she crosses him over, we (along with Mel) get a pretty good short course in what life is like for two people with this disability. (Check out the episode page here.)

This was Rick Payne's second episode and he has two very interesting meetings with Melinda. In the first one, she continues to try to get help from him without saying why she wants it. But it's the second meeting that's really interesting because she lets herself be vulnerable in front of Rick. We think it might mean she is starting to trust the good professor.

On a side note, The Bears have checked the TV Guide site two weeks ahead and reluctantly accept that Futon Critic must be correct that all that we have left after tomorrow of the summer repeats is the two part season finale. The first part, "The Prophet", airs August 31 and the second, "The Gathering", airs September 21. A "Jericho" repeat will be shown in GW's time-slot on September 7 and we don't know what on September 14. Oh, well, it was nice to think for a while that we would get to see the last four episodes of season 2 consecutively as a bang-up lead-in to season 3. Even so, The Bears are happy for what ever GW they can get.

Cheers!

Melindaverse adds news and pictures pages

The Bears — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:27:00 GMT

As you may have noticed, there are changes occurring in our melindaverse.com web site. The big one is we have added a section of news stories about the show and its cast. Right now you can get to them by going to the GW News link. Once there, you will have a choice of looking at recent photos or news stories (the photos are what was our old Events link). We hope you will check it out.

Currently the stories go back to May of this Year and the photos to January. We have a lot more material squirreled away in the cave and are planning to gradually add more older stories and photos as time permits. And, of course, we will try to get the latest news and photos up quickly.

Adding the news section has made us realize the original design of our site is getting somewhat awkward to navigate. So we expect to make some major organizational changes in the next few weeks. If possible, we would like to get these changes in place before the new season of Ghost Whisperer starts and we have to deal with all the new material.

– The Bears and Rodney

The Cradle Will Rock #216 (repeat) (17 August 2007)

The Bears — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:49:00 GMT

This week’s episode – “The Cradle Will Rock” #216 – puts Melinda and Delia in the middle of a jewelry store robbery. But this is Ghost Whisperer, after all, and soon Mel finds herself taken hostage along with a reluctant spirit. Check out the summary here.

The Woman of His Dreams (repeat) (27 July 2007)

The Bears — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:31:00 GMT

We expected episode 206, "The Woman of His Dreams" to air on June 22 but instead we got a second repeat of episode 207, "A Vicious Cycle." Well, this past Friday (27 July 2007) the episode finally aired again and the wait was well worth it. (click here for the MelindaVerse information on this episode.)

The episode opens with take on a classic horror scene. A black car pulls up in the dark and we see the legs of a mysterious stranger dressed in black getting out in front of Mel's house. A glance at the house shows a dense fog in front of the porch. The mysterious stranger is carrying a black bag with a narrow red strip. Jim opens the door with apprehension.

A recurring theme in this episode is how people are attracted to one another because of physical attractiveness. In the first scene, we find Jim and Mel disagreeing on how they feel about others would look at them if they were models. Mel likes the idea but Jim is very possessive about other men admiring Melinda. This comes up again at a poker game with Jim and his friends. The friends claim he only host the game when Melinda is away because he doesn't want them to look at her. From this exchange it is clear that Jim's male friends regard Mel as very attractive.

Concern about her own physical attractiveness is a big issue for the main ghost.

Speed Demon repeats on 3 August 2007

The Bears — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:27:00 GMT

This coming Friday Melinda will confront a death-head race car driver and Delia's troubled son Ned in episode 214. "Speed Demon." It all starts when Melinda calls Jim on her cell as she comes home late from an estate sale. The call drops out and Mel finds herself driving in circles in an alternative reality populated by a crazy race driver and a mysterious woman who is able to start her stalled vehicle. (click here for the MelindaVerse information on this episode.)