Worst TV Show of the Week Brought to you by the Parents Television Council WARNING: Graphic Content!!! Do NOT push play if you don't want to see the explicit video!!!

Medium on NBC

For the past two weeks NBC’s psychological crime drama Medium has told the frightening story of a sociopathic serial killer.  Episodes on both March 24^th and 31^st featured violent content including kidnapping, torture, sadism, and murder.  This continued storyline fully deserves to be our Worst of the Week.

The story starts when the psychic Allison dreams about a young girl stuck in the rain with car trouble.  A hooded man poses as someone who will help her but then punches the girl in the face and abducts her.  The girl wakes up in a basement bound and gagged.  She is surprised to find another girl in the basement.  This girl is chained to the wall and tries to give her new roommate words of hope.  When the kidnapper returns he grabs the chained girl and strangles her, then carries her lifeless body away, taking all hope from the remaining girl.  The lone captive manages to free herself and runs for the front door.  When she opens the door her companion (whom she thought was dead) stands in her way and mocks her.  It is at that point that we realize that the girl is actually a sociopath that has arranged the elaborate kidnapping.  The girl and the male kidnapper rape the girl and kill her.

A key characteristic of a sociopath is the lack of emotion, remorse, shame, or guilt.  The question could be asked whether the program’s writers – and NBC’s executives -- share these characteristics as they repeatedly and unashamedly broadcast shocking violent content into our homes week after week.