Places aren’t haunted. People are haunted.
– Melinda, “Ghost Whisperer”
Reviews – Television: G
RATINGS KEY
0/5 – Terrible. Start a campaign to have it cancelled.
1/5 – Bad. Better than golf, but that’s about it.
2/5 – Okay. Watch it if you’re too lazy to change channels.
3/5 – Average. Watch it if you catch it, but don’t rearrange your schedule for it.
4/5 – Good. Do rearrange your schedule for it.
5/5 – Excellent. Work it into your weekly routine—and buy the DVDs, too.
Ghost Whisperer (2005–)
2/5 | Reviewed 5.25.06
I see dead people... and bad wigs. From the unscrupulously imaginative mind of James van Praagh comes yet another bad excuse for entertainment. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays a psychic who helps the restless spirits of the dead cross over—geez, it’s not like that concept has been done to death (excuse the pun, and the sarcasm). The plots are nowhere near as interesting as J-Love's fashion statements, which are scarier than any ghost you’ll see onscreen. Occasionally, there’s an image or a situation which, if you were just coming into the room late at night and slightly drunk, could be construed as somewhat creepy; these moments, however, are too few and far between to make regular viewing worthwhile. Get out the Ouija board and have your own seánce instead.
Grey’s Anatomy (2005–)
2/5 | Reviewed 3.29.07
I’m fully aware that my television tastes do not fall in line with the vast majority of viewers, but I still can’t figure out why people seem so excited about this show—to my eyes, it's just another glossy doctor-drama about gorgeous young medical professionals and their love lives... and, of course, the occasional wacky illness or major urban disaster to give it nominal medical cred. Actually, I wouldn’t mind the formulaic set-up if it weren’t for the overly-cutesy dialogue, the cliche last-five-minutes music montages, and the inevitable HERE IS A LIFE LESSON TO JAM DOWN YOUR THROAT voiceovers where Ellen Pompeo sounds so smugly wise that I have to put the TV on mute and turn on closed captioning just to make it through the rest of the hour. (Actually, Ellen Pompeo is annoying when seen or heard; she looks like a stretched-out Renee Zellweger with her squinty eyes and vulnerable-but-knowing little smile.) It’s not the worst show on TV, but it’s definitely in the bottom 20.
