(Season 4, Episode 9 – “Pieces of You”)
I was on board the idea of killing Jim to shake up the show. I thought him being a ghost who hung around Melinda and helped her out from the other side was nothing short of brilliant. It would allow us to learn more about the other side and what the ghosts experienced there. We would get the emotional torment of Melinda not being able to get any closure or move on because Jim was still there.
We’d get to see their love transcend death and become something far greater, though much more morbid. And we got that … for exactly one episode. Now we’ve got Jim 2.0 and it’s Eric Green from Jericho. While it’s nice to see Kenneth Mitchell getting some regular work, playing the mirror image to Jim’s Dr. Sam Beckett isn’t much of a gig. Not to mention that the whole situation is just too weird.
I know the writers said they were going to allow us the opportunity to see Jim and Melinda fall in love all over again, as if for the first time but I’m just not sure why they thought this was a good idea — and that this was a good way to go about it. It’s nice that Delia is more supportive of Melinda in general, and I even found myself enjoying Eli as a character, but I’m still unsure about the new Jim idea.
By the way, we now have someone named Sam who doesn’t remember their past life at all. But now they’re not sure if they want to remember who that was, because what if they weren’t a good person? What if they weren’t the kind of person they want to be now? What if they’d be just as happy to put the past behind them and make a new life? But it’s easier said then done because flashes of that past keep coming back. That’s right, it’s Christina Applegate in ABC’s Samantha Who? No wait, that’s Jim/Sam. What an innovative name and concept you’ve come up with there, Ghost Whisperer writers.
I enjoyed the story of the little girl in the well as our ghost-of-the-week, but that’s because it was pretty tame. It’s interesting that the ghosts of late have all had a direct impact on the Jim/Melinda situation, like the little girl somehow helping Sam/Jim to remember something, and the driver of the car who died when Sam died forgiving Melinda and Jim for bodysnatching.
I love when a show mixes up the formula, as House did when he went off and hired a new support staff, but it can get pretty old when the new status quo isn’t as compelling as the old one and it just keeps going and going and going, like House and his new staff. I’ll give GW credit for taking a huge risk here, and while I’m not 100% on board where they’re going with it so far, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
But maybe that’s just because they showed JLH in her sports bra at the beginning of the episode to show us all how she’s lost a lot of weight and looks good now. Remember, folks. It’s not just about the ghosts and the storylines. It’s about these breasts, so take a good hard look at ‘em and remember why we’re all here!
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Dec 06, 2008 @ 16:00 EST5EDT
