Another show worth watching is The Dead Zone, on USA network. Based on the Steven King story (and movie starring Christopher Walken), this TV series stars Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith, the main character. Johnny was in a coma for several years and woke up with the ability to see the future (and alternate versions of it) by touching any thing or person.
They have come up with some really creative ways for Johnny to see his visions. Once he received a blood transfusion and saw possible futures for his donors.
The main plot of the original story, that Johnny sees a presidential candidate starting a world war, is a sub-plot that resurfaces every once in a while. They started to go overboard on this last season, and this time they've back off a bit. That's a good thing since some of the best episodes are when Jonny gets stuck in humorous situations like playing match-maker or temporary daddy.
Lately USA has been running a really funny ad campaign where Johnny touches his cat and sees how it goes through some of its nine lives.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
The 4440
USA keeps hitting them out of the field with great drama/sci-fi shows. The 4400 looked like it would be just another cheesy alien story, but instead turned out to be really intriguing and multifaceted.
4,400 people who were previously abducted by aliens are suddenly returned all at once. And it turns out it wasn't aliens, it was people from Earth-- in the future. They not only took people, they changed some of them to have special powers (psychic as well as physicial) as part of a mysterious plan to change the future (their present).
Some of the powers were exposed right at the beginning. One guy can heal other's diseases. A little girl can see the future. Others don't appear until later. Some don't seem to have any powers, but time will tell.
There are also several forces at work, other than the future people. The government is trying to make sense of it all, struggling with how much they should interfere with the 4400's lives. And some of the returnee's have formed an organization which is half cult, half sanctuary from the outside world's prejudices (like X-Men).
But these aren't all young attractive superheroes. They're "real" people, of all ages. That's part of what makes this so interesting. Some want to use their powers for good, some for personal gain. Some just want to live normally.
The 4400 is a good show for those are addicted to the "what's going to happen next" type story that leaves you hanging at the end of each episode.
4,400 people who were previously abducted by aliens are suddenly returned all at once. And it turns out it wasn't aliens, it was people from Earth-- in the future. They not only took people, they changed some of them to have special powers (psychic as well as physicial) as part of a mysterious plan to change the future (their present).
Some of the powers were exposed right at the beginning. One guy can heal other's diseases. A little girl can see the future. Others don't appear until later. Some don't seem to have any powers, but time will tell.
There are also several forces at work, other than the future people. The government is trying to make sense of it all, struggling with how much they should interfere with the 4400's lives. And some of the returnee's have formed an organization which is half cult, half sanctuary from the outside world's prejudices (like X-Men).
But these aren't all young attractive superheroes. They're "real" people, of all ages. That's part of what makes this so interesting. Some want to use their powers for good, some for personal gain. Some just want to live normally.
The 4400 is a good show for those are addicted to the "what's going to happen next" type story that leaves you hanging at the end of each episode.
BSG: Season 2
Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica has started. I was a little skeptical about whether they could keep the story interesting with Commander Adama out of commission (recovering from being shot by a Cylon spy), but they've managed to pull it off.
We just saw episode 4, which had a major sequence of events leading to President Roslyn and Lee Adama staging their escape to become fugitives hiding in the fleet of ships. The Cylon spy (Boomer, who didn't even know she was a Cylon) was assassinated Jack Ruby style by one of Galactica's crew. Heelo and Starbuck meet up with a former Pyramid team (a popular sport kinda like basketball) who are now fighting for their own survival. And finally at the end of the episode, Adama finally returns to see the mess created in his absence.
I think what gives BSG it's power are the multiple storylines that branch out and occasionally reconnect with the main plot line of Human vs Cylon. Stories that rely on several main characters have much more depth and potential than ones based on just a few. This technique had been successful for X-Files and Alias. Unfortunately both of lost their edge when they neglected their ensemble cast and focused only on the few main characters. With less to work with, the stories became repetitive and boring.
Another technique well executed by BSG (and Alias & X-Files in their early years, and now extremely well done by Lost) is the deliberately slow feeding of details about major mysterious aspects of the story. We really don't know the whole history of Humans and Cylons, nor what plans the Cylons have in store for the future. There are also still questions about the loyalties of several characters like Baltar, Lee Adama and Boomer. In the '70s series, it was pretty obvious who was good and who was bad. This time, it's harder to figure out.
Can't wait for the next episode...
We just saw episode 4, which had a major sequence of events leading to President Roslyn and Lee Adama staging their escape to become fugitives hiding in the fleet of ships. The Cylon spy (Boomer, who didn't even know she was a Cylon) was assassinated Jack Ruby style by one of Galactica's crew. Heelo and Starbuck meet up with a former Pyramid team (a popular sport kinda like basketball) who are now fighting for their own survival. And finally at the end of the episode, Adama finally returns to see the mess created in his absence.
I think what gives BSG it's power are the multiple storylines that branch out and occasionally reconnect with the main plot line of Human vs Cylon. Stories that rely on several main characters have much more depth and potential than ones based on just a few. This technique had been successful for X-Files and Alias. Unfortunately both of lost their edge when they neglected their ensemble cast and focused only on the few main characters. With less to work with, the stories became repetitive and boring.
Another technique well executed by BSG (and Alias & X-Files in their early years, and now extremely well done by Lost) is the deliberately slow feeding of details about major mysterious aspects of the story. We really don't know the whole history of Humans and Cylons, nor what plans the Cylons have in store for the future. There are also still questions about the loyalties of several characters like Baltar, Lee Adama and Boomer. In the '70s series, it was pretty obvious who was good and who was bad. This time, it's harder to figure out.
Can't wait for the next episode...
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