Doh! Medium was a rerun last night. I don't think it was supposed to be -- I suspect the address by President Bush threw off TV schedules. And here I was all ready for more new psychic crime-solving goodness: I'd spent the last week catching up on the autumn's new episodes, one massive dowload into my brain of Allison's nightmares and loving sniping with Joe, and the girls getting more intriguing -- little Marie speaks! -- and I was ready for more. The show hinted last season that Ariel and Bridget had both inherited at least some of their mother's ability, and that last new episode, last week, in which Ariel and Allison each dreamt about a double murder from the differing perspectives of the teenage daughter (Ariel) and mother (Allison) victims was terrific. And I must grant that last night's rerun was one of my favorites from last season, with the middle child, Bridget, adopting a stray dog with a secret only she, with her budding psychic sensitivity, knew (at least until Joe took the dog to the vet), a secret she kept from her parents out of a charming consideration for their feelings.

(New episodes return next week. If you've missed any, you can catch up with the Two-Minute Replays at the show's official site. It's not quite as cool as the online offering of that other can't-miss NBC show, Heroes: streams of complete episodes. But we should be thankful for small kindnesses.)

I love Medium partly because it puts a new spin on the crime-solving series. Allison dreams about, or has waking visions about, people in Bad Trouble, then has to figure out what they mean and what she's supposed to do about either preventing more Bad Trouble from happening or at least getting justice for those hurt. (She works for the Phoenix district attorney's office, though the DA doesn't exactly go out of his way to publicize the fact that he's got a psychic on staff.) The dream-interpretation stuff really is, at its core, almost exactly the same as the standard cop/detective show, wherein clues are gathered but misunderstood at first, generating suspense, until the brillant crime-solver puts it all together in the right way. But the new angle makes it all feel fresh.

That's not what keeps me coming back to Medium, though. Paranormal mumbo-jumbo aside, this is just about the most realistic depiction of a working woman on TV. Allison juggles work, home, family, and her own strange visions with just the right combination of exhaustion and exhilaration. Her relationship with Joe, her husband, is full of arguments about the best ways to do everything from raise their three daughters to deal with Allison's frequent obsessions about her dreams and visions -- but unlike most TV depictions of long-term relationships, which typically descend to sitcom levels of childish bickering, you never wonder what these two people are doing with each other or how one of them hasn't managed to murder the other out of sheer frustration. No, there's genuine, deep, abiding love between the two of them. Stars Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber have created one of the most complicated, most compelling marriages that I've ever seen on TV. You feel like if you knew them in real life, they'd be one of your favorite couples, people who you'd like individually and also together. It's the chance to visit with them every week that keeps me coming back.

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