A Diamond in the Rough

When I flip through the channels on TV, I come across a number of things, very few differing from each other. I can watch the same shows over and over on Nick at Nite, I can watch any number of reality TV shows, or I can watch the news. Very few shows come along that I really care to watch or sit through, except for House. But now I have a new one to add to my list, and that is the 4400.

Apparently, this was only supposed to be a miniseries to keep the summer viewers mildly entertained. It tells the story of 4400 people who are abducted from different time periods and places, and are brought back in the present day, some with extraordinary powers. Who they are and why they've come back is a mystery, a mystery that the U.S. government attempts to solve, and more specifically, NTAC.

The show focuses primarily on a few of the 4400: a little girl who can see the future, an interracial couple with an interesting coinciding history, a man with healing powers, amongst others, and two NTAC agents trying to make sense of the whole thing. Each episode melds all the intersecting stories together, while focusing on a different 4400 and whatever conflicts their powers bring.

That's all interesting, but the question to ask is why should you watch the 4400? After all, interesting storylines don't always make interesting TV, or movies if that be the case. What does make interesting TV is the characters. While the show obviously can't focus on every single 4400, and probably never will, at least not until they're ready to end it, but the show does do an excellent job of making each character an individual. The government agents aren't all bureaucratic drones out to cover up a problem, they're real people trying to solve a mystery and keep the American public calm at the same time. Some of my favorite moments in the show haven't been the action scenes, but rather the quieter moments, and watching the 4400 adjust to their new lives, and the little differences they find in their new time.

One can probably find a million parallels to modern times and political messages imbedded in the storylines, but I'm not going to address a single one; I'll leave that up to people watching it to make their own decisions on where the show stands.

Now that I've sung the show's praises, it would only be fair to point out a few of its flaws. It can be predictable at times, but sometimes its predictability is what makes it work, and sometimes they do throw a plot twist in at the end that you didn't see coming. I could do without the theme song, but that makes no real difference in the quality of the show. Some of the performances are a bit flat, but all in all the cast makes you believe in what's happening on the screen.

I should point out that if you're trying to pick this show up on TV, don't. The best way to do it is the way I've done it, which is start from the beginning, and work your way up. The 4400 doesn't lend itself to the casual watcher. Might I also suggest that if you're going to watch season 3, which there's not a DVD for yet, taping it, and watching it once it's over, so you can fast forward through all the ads? Just a suggestion.

One more suggestion which ties in with my "just buy the DVD, or tape it" suggestion: this show is the current king of cliffhanger endings, so if you're one of those people who's just dying to know what happens next, and you don't want to wait for a whole week, then the DVD comes in handy.

As far as DVD content goes, you get the show and that's about it. Season 2 has a couple more special features, but nothing terribly interesting. But the important thing is the show right?

Anyway, to sum this all up, in a time of junk TV, this is one of the few shows that's come along that's made me sit up and watch, and most of all, think. Here's hoping the 4400 are around a long time.