Episode 1:
There are a couple of things about this episode that I found really annoying, but aren't really the fault of the episode. Let me explain. First, it's a year after the end of the first season. Okay, I'm down with that. In the year that has elapsed nothing has happened, and then inexplicably things start to happen to all of the various groups at once. Really? Give me a reason, even a vague and/or crappy one. This is annoying, but hardly the sole providence of the 4400. Lots of shows do this. If you're a sitcom, or a procedural, well you can get by with it. Those types of shows lead us to suspend disbelief and think that we are just watching another week in the lives of the characters. But, when dramas, or device driven stories do this, they always fall flat. Second, and this is likely only noticeable with the DVD version - to be read commercial free - and that is the way the show cuts to commercial and then comes back. The first half of this double episode the breaks are hardly noticeable, the editor was definitely doing her job, but the second half, it follows the pattern of 'scene ends, keep camera on for a random amount of time longer than one second but less than four seconds and then begin fade to black, cutting completely to black somewhere in the process. Very clunky, very annoying. I got the feeling the producers were about to turn in the show and discovered it was 30 seconds short of their contracted time, so instead of forking over the bucks for cast, crew and writer to add a scene or extend a scene, they just stretched the footage before cutting to commercial. And somehow, it wasn't near as annoying as the filler that Bones started adding in season 6 and relied on heavily in season 7.
Summer Glau. There, I said it. This episode could have been an hour and a half of Wilferd Brimley extoling the virtues of eating oatmeal, with Ms. Glau walking across the screen a coule of times and I would have watched and liked it and wondered why I had a craving for hot breakfast cereal. With that being said, I'm a little disbelieving at her portrayal as a 16 year old. But with that being said, Summer Glau. And H. P. Lovecraft. Oh! And not only Lovecraft, but they actually cited titles and scenes from said titles. That was awesome.
All the mains were back, except for Peter Coyote, who's character has been reassigned to Washington, presumably D.C., since the show primarily takes place in and around Seattle. I mean it wouldn't make any sense to say he's been reassigned to Washington and then they walk down the hall and we see him through the open doorway of a smaller office. Most of the returning characters/actors is a good thing. Most. I don't like Laura Allen. I mean as an actor of course. I'm sure she's a great gal, who probably whines just a little too much for her own good, but is nice enough just the same. You'd think that I would like her since that was my favorite grandmother's name. I can't quite put my finger on what it is that I don't like about her, but she did it in Awaken, and is doing it in spades in the 4400. I'm thinking that it has something to do with whininess. That and when she kisses it's like watching Michael Jackson kiss Lisa Marie Presley.
Everyone else is pretty okay, though the little girl that plays Maya kind of gives me the creeps. That's silly. It must be the fine acting she puts into the character, so that the character gives me the creeps. In the story, she has precognitive visions, and is just matter-of-fact about them. That is a little disarming. But, the characters good, I think that she is supposed to give me the creeps a little bit.
Our pair of agents, FBI and CDC, are back together, which is kind of funny since to us viewers they were never really apart, it's all just back story. How cool is it that one of the agents is an epidemiologist? And that she even tries to apply epidemiological principles to her cases, at least once in a while? Pretty cool. There is a real Muldar and Scully vibe between the two, but not near as extreme. Tom Baldwin is not a true believer like Fox Muldar, and Diana Scouris is not a complete skeptic like Dana Scully.
It was also cool to see Kavan Smith in a role other than Deputy Andy Hey! I love me some Eureka. The only thing that could have made that show better than adding Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day - Summer Glau.
The season starts off promisingly, laying some good ground work and hinting at story lines that might develop. All in all I'm pretty happy with it, except for one thing. A certain person intimated that a certain blond would be gone after this first episode, and I just don't see how that can be - but in a spirit of fairness am holding off judgement until episode 2.
Episode 2:
Agent Navarro is a bit more of a bad ass than the old boss. And by bad ass, I mean playing loosy-goosy with the 4400 to accomplish her own goals.
Telepathy was the focus of this episode, that and the trials and tribulations of baby Isabelle. I thought they did something very interesting with the telepathy. They made it unbearable. They young 4400 with the ability, Gary, is overwhelmed by the "ocean of voices" in his head. He can't turn them off. He can't quiet some to only hear others. It's like being in the middle of a giant-crowded room while everyone is trying to talk over everyone else. Only with anti-psychotics that work as tranquilizers can Gary make it through the day, and conveniently only hear the mental voices of the people that he wants to hear. In comic books and other shows, it's all about hearing only the thoughts that the telepath wants to hear. Usually this comes through practice that is part of the backstory. Conversely, telepathy is often portrayed the other way, with the barest of whispers and the telepath has to learn to hear the thoughts that she wants to hear. I'm of the opinion, if the telepathy switch were just turned on one day, it would be overwhelming.
Isabelle, aka the psychopathic baby can apparently make anything she wants happen, whether it be killing, ripening food, making cash drawers open or giving daddy a slight myocardial infarction. If only she would want to give Laura Allen acting lessons. Since Ms. Allen is still part of the show, I spent more time trying to figure out what it is that bothers me about her characters, and I think I have made some headway. Approximately 80% of the time, she makes her voice sound as if she is about to cry. Combined with the whiney tone and the way that this character acts as if she has never been intimate with another human being before, and it's almost enough to make you want to stop watching the show and read a magazine until her scene is done. Okay, I didn't really read a magazine, I mostly just looked at the pictures.
Episode 3:
Yay for Robert Picardo. He was one of my favorite parts of Star Trek Voyager. I like the way he brings that hint of comedy to all of his roles even up to the comedic. He plays a 4400 who's saliva causes weight loss, more than the person wants. Eventually some people die and a whole bunch of others, including his daughter, get ill because it turns out that he is producing a protein which greatly increases the metabolic rate causing the people to burn calories faster than they can take them in. I would really like to have that problem for a couple of days, and then get the anti-bodies made from his liver like they did, stopping short of the actually starving to death bit.
Then there is the Richard and Lily story. At least in this episode baby Isabelle doesn't try to kill anybody, or you know succeed at it. Laura Allen tried out a new look this time - pouty. It started when Lily thought she might be pregnant (she wasn't) and just kept up no matter what the scene actually called for. I was hoping Allen would have been gone a couple of episodes ago, and I have got to say that the Richard and Lily storyline is not doing it for me because it's all build-up, no resolution or even foreshadowing of resolution.
Maya is back in the future-predicting business and while she raised a few eyebrows, she hasn't freaked anybody out yet, not even me.
Kyle is back in the story too. Technically, he was never out, but until this episode he had just been playing Tom's 21 year old teen-aged son. Just subtract the three years he spent in the coma from his actual age and voila! Teen-ager. He's suffering from some kind of black outs and perhaps delusions. Regardless, it was an excuse for him to take his shirt off so we could see how buff he is. Something about ___ reminds me of a character on Veronica Mars, part of which is that whole 90210-vibe where you strongly suspect the actor to be in his early 30s and playing a teen-ager in a 21 year olds body. I don't know where they're going with his character, but it's the mosrt interesting sub-plot, especially if he starts dating the hot professor.
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