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Lifetime’s two psychic shows give male viewers a reason to tune in

I was elated to hear that NBC’s “Medium” has been renewed for a fourth season, although I was dismayed that it won’t start until January. Where will I get my fix of psychic visions and discussions with the dead? Thank goodness for Lifetime.

Let me stop right there. You’re probably thinking, “Interesting. This guy watches Lifetime.” This is most likely followed by some generalization about my personality. Well, I’ll have you know that I’m not into all the “Ricki Lake overcoming cancer and realizing she’s sexy” movies or “Her ex husband kidnaps her family and the police won’t help” specials; the only time I watch Lifetime is in the mornings, when it airs “Frasier” after my 9 a.m. class. It was during an episode of “Frasier” that I saw an ad for two new shows airing on the women’s network that might fill my desire for supernatural television.

The first, “Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead,” follows clairvoyant Lisa Williams on her day-to-day tasks of speaking to the dead for her 30-something female clients and investigating hauntings for her 50-something female clients. Williams’s typical sit-down involves her touching a personal belonging of a dead person, which she claims allows her to focus on spiritual energy. She seems to actually see and talk to these people, and they seem to talk back.. She also describes specifics as if they’re in a particular area, or if two people are side by side. She describes their personalities and quirks, then tells them that the loved one is out of pain, or watching over them.

But is she really talking with those who have “passed on”? Or does she merely have a gift of intuition and understanding of human actions? Hell if I know. Sometimes she’s too specific, or she’ll say something trite, making me think she’s groping in the dark. On the other hand, she often guesses several shockingly specific details that seem as though they would be difficult to fabricate. At one reading she stated that the woman died of colon cancer on a Sunday and that she used a lot of hand cream. The sheer number of these details makes me think maybe, just maybe, she can communicate with the dead.

Another part of the show involves Williams traveling to haunted houses or scenes of crimes. These follow much like her readings, except that instead of bringing closure to the living, she tries to bring closure to the dead. She talks with the spirit and learns why it remains behind. Again, she can be eerie with the specifics; at one house she said that that she saw blood everywhere, including bloody footprints, and that the woman was stabbed. The resident told her that the victim had been watching a baby, and that she was found hours after her death with the baby having tracked her blood all around the house.

Can Williams really talk with the dead? I can’t say, and neither can anyone else. But if she’s bringing comfort and closure to family members, does it matter?

Lifetime’s other supernatural reality show, “America’s Psychic Challenge,” is an import from Britain. Self-proclaimed psychics from across the country compete in competitions designed to measure their psychic abilities. In the first episode, four contestants faced off in several challenges. First, they had to find a person in an abandoned hospital. All of them said that they felt as though it had been a mental institution (which it had been); three of them were drawn to the area near where the person was, although none picked the exact room. Then they each had to take a reading on a celebrity (Lisa Williams, go figure) without knowing it was her or communicating with her. Each of them offered useless information, generally involving dates and numbers, but each person also found eerie details: One remarked that she had been overcharged for a rental car, another stated she had spilled something on her clothes earlier and a third commented that she had just completed a book — all true.

The third task was for each psychic to discern the details of a violent crime at a family’s home. Some deduced that it had been a drive-by, that it was the family’s son and most felt drawn toward a tree in the family’s front yard — the place the boy had died. At the end of the episode, the worst two were eliminated, and at the end of the series, the winner gets $100,000. Not bad.

Do these shows make me believe in psychics and clairvoyance? Let’s just say I’m not ready to run to Madame Monica yet — but these people might be on to something.

Alex Guillén is the associate reviews editor. He is sensing something … yes, yes, he is sensing you will read the rest of the reviews section.