4400, The - Season Four
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The 4400 is clearly one of the most underrated series of all time. It’s almost criminal. It originally started as a mini-series, but latched on for an additional three seasons. The ratings waned during the latter seasons. You could tell the writers had at least a hunch this would be the final season. They wrapped it up in a manner in which it could of kept going for years, but was perfectly satisfying as a finale.

In a nutshell, this is a classic sci-fi tale for the ages. It all started a short four years ago. While everyone was minding their own business in post grunge Seattle, an interesting event occurred. Suddenly without warning their were bright lights, and a lake dried up. Standing in this massive lake were 4400 people. We would soon find out that these are all the people that have supposedly been abducted by aliens in the past 50 years. None of them have aged a day. They all have no recollection of where they’ve been, and they all have Xmen quality abilities.

The government initially quarantines them, but realizing the human rights dilemma they were facing, freed them. Of course they kept tabs on them and tried to study them as best they could. They did this by setting up a government agency called NTAC. It is then that we meet two of our main characters, Tom and Diana.

Tom and Diana have very interesting ties to some members of the 4400. Some would even say a conflict of interest. Diana adopts one of the 4400 children. A really creepy girl who can see the future named Maya. Tom has a cousin who is one of the 4400. A super healer named Sean.

Just like in all levels of society, you have good people and bad people. Some people develop their skills and use them to commit crime, others want to do good. Tom’s cousin Sean and another 4400 member named Jordan eventually set up a 4400 center, as a safe haven for the members. Just like in all levels of society, regular people fear and despise the unknown. The 4400 are globally hated.

Things eventually come to a head and it becomes a government vs. 4400 story. We come to find out that the abductions had nothing to do with aliens. They were abducted by humans from the future. Who then used technology to create their abilities. Apparently we are facing some sort of apocalyptic future, and the 4400 were sent back to save the planet.

About the time season 3 began, the series had taken on some religious aspects. Jordan became a Christ like figure who wanted to lead the 4400 to bliss. He discovered a way of giving anyone 4400 abilities, thru a drug. It was his dream to make everyone have a 4400 ability or die. You see, one of the side effects of taking the drug was death. You have a 50/50 chance of surviving. Thus we are finally arriving at the season I am reviewing, season 4.

What has always made this series good, is the characters. There is a large cast. In fact it is too large for me to possibly go into depth here. But they really fleshed out all of the main characters and gave them tremendous back stories and put a lot of time and care into them. They weren’t just mindless heroes and villains. They were real people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. The benefit of running for four years is that they had ample time to become detail orientated. They really made you root for or against these characters. Season 4 added some much needed new roles, as well as conquered some interesting plot twists with others.

If you’re a fan of Sci-Fi this series is a no brainer. It has elements of space travel as well as time travel. It has augmented humans with amazing abilities. It has intricate plotlines and weaves from plausible to insane. It has great acting and has you on the edge of your seat for the most part. It has great writing and really flows well. Unlike a lot of other Sci-Fi serials out there.

If you’re not a fan of Sci-Fi, then why are you watching it to begin with? For my money this ranks up there with some of the best. It’s one of the few dramatic series that I can watch multiple times. The special effects are always on point and I ended up falling in love with the score.

I could see other people not liking individual characters and nit picking individual storylines though. When you’re working with this amount of complexity, you’re not going to be able to please everyone. Some storylines were better then others. But I took the good with the bad, and judged the series as a whole instead of just a sum of its parts.

If for no other reason you should pick up season four to stare at Jenni Baird for thirteen episodes. This chick it hot.

Added:  Tuesday, May 06, 2008

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