DVD REVIEW: Ghost Whisperer - The Final Season

[JeffSaylor]

All good things must come to an end...

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For five years Melinda Gordon has been helping wayward spirits solve their earthly issues and pass on to a better place. It's been a pretty interesting ride, with lots of paranormal activities and realistic characters struggling to deal with the mysteries of life and death. Oh yeah, and there was also the beautiful Jennifer Love Hewitt in the main role! Last season, Ghost Whisperer's 5th, turned out to be the final one as the show was cancelled during its airing. Available right now on DVD is Ghost Whisperer: The Final Season!

The Final Season of Ghost Whisperer differs from previous seasons in that it comes in a standard sized DVD case within an outer cardboard sleeve instead of multiple slimline DVD cases. The cover of both the case and sleeve features a large image of Melinda with a suitably creepy haunted house in the background. The back of the package has a summary of the show along with a variety of pictures of the cast and a list of the set's special features. Inside the case are breakdowns of the six discs' contents with 22 episodes, and lots of special features including featurettes on Hewitt, the show's 100th episode, webisodes, games, and more! The discs themselves are fairly unremarkable, solid gray with printed logos and contents. The DVD menus load in front of Melinda and spooky images, with easy to navigate episode and special features lists.

Each season of Ghost Whisperer saw major developments and evolutions in the story, and it seemed like after the incredible fourth season the show couldn’t get any more riveting. But then came the fifth. To bring you up to speed, Ghost Whisperer tells the story of Melinda Gordon (Hewitt), a young lady with the special ability to see, hear, and otherwise interact with ghosts, spirits who for whatever reason have remained on Earth instead of moving on to a better destination. Melinda helps these wayward souls complete tasks including saying goodbye to family members, bringing criminals to justice, finding what was lost, and solving mysteries. Assisting her in her supernatural endeavors include the similarly-gifted Dr. Eli James (Jamie Kennedy), husband Jim (David Conrad), best friend Delia (Camryn Manheim) and her son Ned (Christoph Sanders).

In the fourth season Eli joined the team, Jim died and came back in the body of a different man, and Melinda got pregnant! The final season, then, had big shoes to fill. In the very first episode Melinda gives birth to baby Aiden, and suddenly the entire show shifts forward in time five years! Jim is now a doctor, and young Aiden is exploring his abilities to interact with spirits while his parents try to give him as normal a life as possible. Throughout the season Melinda has the usual spirits to cross over with the accompanying dangers and tangled emotions, while at the same time the unsung heroes of Grandview face powerful supernatural forces in the Shadows and their quest to take back the sacred and prophetic Book of Changes!

The show's writers and creators didn't know that the fifth would be their last season, and so the episodes followed the trend of bigger and better. In "See No Evil" a killer chain letter brings to light a creepy entity known as Sally Stitch, later uncovered as the ghost of a young girl following spectral commands. "Head Over Heels" deals with the Headless Horseman visiting Grandview and Aiden’s school, while in "Lost in the Shadows" the boy's new best friend is a mischievous ghost who urges him to run away. Throughout the season Eli's boss is revealed to be following the orders of the evil Shadows who eventually claim him for themselves. Their actions aren't fully understood until the closing episodes when Melinda must go to battle against the darkness with the help of Aiden's friends the Shinies! While the writers may not have known the season would bring the end of the show, they created a very self-contained story that ended without an annoying cliffhanger that would never be answered.

Any fan of Ghost Whisperer (or of Jennifer Love Hewitt) should definitely go out and pick up the Final Season now. The story is very good and constantly engaging, with characters you truly care about and some good twists and scares. In this set not only do you get all 22 episodes, but you'll also get to play around with the fun special features, making it a huge value!

Review and Photos by Scott Rubin

Review Sample Courtesy of CBS Home Entertainment

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[•ONEYE•]

I can't believe the show "crossed over".