An interesting study on societal relationships

Have you ever been watching TV and found a show that piqued your interest only to realize that you've missed an important part of it (like starting to watch "24" on episode 3). Well, I had that experience with the USA Netowork mini-series "The 4400." Aired over the course of five weeks on the cable outlet, "The 4400" chronicles the "re-emergence" of 4400 people to earth after being "taken" from the world. Who took them and why they were taken is part of this story's plot but it's far from the main one. The main plot is how the rest of the world reacts to this small group and their "return" back into society and life. Will the world accept these people? Why did some people get taken from the 1930's and "dropped" back into 2004's timeline, un-aged? How will those who were taken from another time react to their new surroundings? Why does it seem that some of these people have "powers" that are beyond human comprehension?

Well, over the course of the five episodes (which takes 4 hours and 16 minutes without commercials), we find some semblance of answers. However, after the success of the first few shows, USA green-lighted a full 13 episode second season for the summer of 2005. Thus, this "mini-series" became "season one." And what a great first season it is. If you're wondering, the show doesn't follow all 4400 "returnees" but mainly those centered on and around the "drop off" site near Seattle. The main stars are actually satellite Homeland Security workers. Peter Coyote ("Erin Brockovich") stars as Northwest Director Dennis Ryland while Joel Gretsch ("Minority Report") and Jacqueline McKenzie ("Deep Blue Sea") star as Ryland's top investigating team (characters named Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris). Also rounding out the cast are Mahershala Karin-Ali (Crossing Jordan), Chad Faust (Saved!), Kaj-Erik Erikson ("Boston Public") and Laura Allen("Mona Lisa Smile"). Mark Valley ("Boston Legal and Keen Eddie") joins the series for the final few episodes as well. The acting is fine and never over the top with each character fitting the story lines well.

Over the course of the five episodes, we come to find out more about the 4400 and their families. There's an obvious tension brewing based on media perceptions of these people, particularly one woman who, through her "O'Reilly Factor" or better yet "Geraldo Rivera" like show, proceeds to go on a witch hunt to prove that these people are different and "not of this world" anymore. Rather than divulge information about how the plot unfolds I'll say that this series does quite a brilliant job of using themes of fear and racism to good effect and to show just how absurd both fear and racism can be. The theme of segregation even arises in the story. This is a most definitely a "sci-fi" story but to merely "cast" it off as only sci-fi would be a shame. If you can, for a few moments, get over why these people were taken and then subsequently returned to 2004, then you'll surely enjoy the story as it's laid out. The 4400 is much more than a mere piece of TV like that seen on the sci-fi channel or a "taken" rip-off. What it is, at the heart of the story, is a very well written and acted piece of work about modern society and how history has a sense of repeating itself. This was one of the finest shows to be released shown on TV in 2004 and I certainly cannot wait until this summer (2005) to see the new episodes and see how some of the questions discussed above unfold, especially after the cliff-hanger from episode 5. Also, this 2 Disc DVD set helped me see the show from the beginning since it hasn't been repeated since last summer and helped to round-out some questions I had about the show.




DVD specs:
Presented in a Widescreen format preserving 16:9 aspect ratio.
5.1 Dolby and 2.0 English Surround soundtracks included.
No extras.