Hello again, dear friends. It’s been too long. Today’s post marks my official return as full-time solo writer of Media Maven Musings, and I’m excited to be back in the U.S. and writing for all you fine people.
Big internet round of applause for Greg a.k.a. Warsh, who kept you all reading and laughing in my absence. Thanks for all your help, Greg.
Now onto the important stuff: Ladies and gentleman, The 4400 is officially OFF notice. That’s right, after 5 straight decent or better episodes, I’m taking the show off notice and welcoming it back into the fold. Is this the same 4400 that had me on the edge of my seat for the better part of 3 seasons? No, but I’ll take what I can get at this point, which is decent serialized television for 5 weeks running. Since I last wrote about this show, much has happened. Promise City was born, Richard (and Lily) Tyler came and went in some useless storylines (can we all agree that Richard is by far the most powerful and badass P Positive in the world? Yup. Too bad the guy playing him wanted off the show…), Tom starting sleep with the boss (which I called the moment she appeared), and Tom became one of the Marked. It’s not high drama, but at least its not about if a 60 year old woman was murdered by a foppish art dealer/con man.
Last night’s episode was pretty much on par with what we’ve seen recently, and I’ve grown to accept this ok, less exciting version of The 4400 I used to love. More on that later, but for now, let’s break down this particular episode:
1. Tom — Joel Gretsch must be having a blast right now because he’s getting to play Tom Baldwin the Badass for once. Instead of the hotheaded, slow-witted Tom we’re used to, we get the Marked version of Tom who envisions killing Diana, Jordan Collier and his son Kyle with a half dozen swift ninja moves. Nice.
2. Isabelle– Superwoman is back and as boring as ever. Is Isabelle the most vanilla character portrayal or what? It’s like the actress is playing her as an android/human cyborg who is incapable of real emotion because she doesn’t actually know what emotions feel like. Harsh? Yes. Deserved? You betcha.
3. Meghan Doyle– Ok, she’s hot, but give me a break. She’s the worst boss in the history of the government. She puts up movie posters in her high ranking government official office, she’s sleeping with a subordinate, and she defers to her subordinates on every single important decision. Oh, what’s that? She’s blonde and looks good semi-naked? Nevermind. Proceed with the chlorophyll.
4. Kyle/Sean — the only interested character dynamic left on this show, but they refuse to delve into it! Shawn selflessly saves Kyle from being abducted, saves Kyle from his coma, and leaves Jordan Collier because he wants to save innocent lives. Kyle repays him by stealing Jordan’s affection, making out with Shawn’s ex Isabelle, and treating him like an enemy? This is an explosive relationship and needs more freakin screen time. I would love a showdown between these two. Who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy? Shawn wants to save lives now, Kyle wants to save the whole human race down the line. Who is right? The show’s central dichotomy and most interesting aspect of the now nearly emotionless series.
5. Maia and her parents– Good God, this was atrocious. The reunion scene between Maia and her parents was the worst acted scene I’ve seen on television maybe in my entire life. I’m not kidding. Worth the whole episode just to watch this pathetic monstrosity. I’m shuddering just thinking about it.
6. Plot– so there’s an agent from the future waiting to be inserted into Jordan Collier, Diana and Meghan know Tom is Marked, Kevin Burkhoff is being held against his will in Promise City (Shawn and Tess are on the way!), and Isabelle has all her powers back. Not a bad place to be, but will the show pull through? Will we get satisfactory and emotional resolutions to these conflicts?
Which brings me to the most important question plauging this season: Where are the emotions? Where are the high stakes? When is going to stop being set-up and start being action? The storylines are serialized (as opposed to the mostly episodic stuff earlier this summer), but they lack real human emotion and high stakes action. I find I’m not affected by any of these characters anymore. Who are we supposed to care about? Who is the good guy and who is the bad guy, and which character am I supposed to identify with? It’s such a mishmosh right now, nobody has a clearly defined role. And for my money, this lack of clarity is not on purpose, but merely an effect of writing a 4th season of a show you expected to be a 3 hour miniseries 4 years ago. This isn’t Lost where the ending is predetermined and everything moves towards that ending (or at least, its supposed to); these guys are making it up as they go along, and I think its put them in a very awkward position.
All in all, I appreciate the return to serialized plots, but I’d take an intense, emotion-filled episodic plot over this bland undramatic drama we’re getting now. I rate this episode a C+.
