The 4400

Starring: Joel Gretsch, Jacqueline McKenzie, Patrick Flueger, Conchita Campbell, Chad Faust, Richard Kahan, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, & Billy Campbell

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The 4400 was a science fiction show, that featured time travel, strange powers, government agents, conspiracies, and a whole lot more. After a very solid, yet writers strike shortened first season, The 4400 looked like it was going to be Heroes meets the X-Files, easily the next big thing in science fiction television. If that wasn't enough to interest fans, the show also had a head start, as its creators weren't newcomers. The 4400 was the brainchild of Rene Echevarria (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Scott Peters (V, The Outer Limits). The show looked like a can't miss, then came Season 2...

Seattle Washington, 2004 - It's a seemingly normal night, when a space satellite picks up something unusual. Government agencies are in a panic, as this weird object descends over a mountain lake and emits a bright white light before vanishing. Once it's gone, 4400 people stand on the banks of the lake, 4400, who as it would turn out, have at one time or another been missing since as far back at the 1940s and as recently as six months ago. There's a big to do about what to do with these people, but they are soon released and a new agency is tasked with tracking and monitoring them. A seemingly easy job, until it's discovered that many of them have developed super human abilities.

The premise of the show is fantastic, on top of that it was created by one of the guys who is behind Star Trek: The Next Generation, basically a God in my eyes, and if that weren't enough it features Joel Gretsch, who is one of the most believable, realistic actors to ever play a federal agent in the history of television. This show had everything going for it, even the ratings were good, so why did they have to go and change things so much!

Despite good ratings and reviews, people thought the show was too much like the X-files, so they turned the 4400 into this kind of religious cult. Instead of being a mostly episonic show with underling storylines, the show went continuous, spending all of it's time following just a handful of characters. The line between good and bad, blurred, and most times you really couldn't follow who was doing what for whom and why anyone was doing what they were doing. After the first season, there were a couple of good episodes here and there but by season 3, the whole thing had just completely fallen apart. 

I readily admit that I watch far more television than most people and far more than television than any normal person should, so trust me when I tell you, that in all my years of doing this, I have never seen a show go so quickly from as good as the 4400 was, to as bad as it became. It defied all logic, honestly did the actors and network involved in producing the shows not realize that after a while the whole thing just didn't make any sense anymore? 

The bottom line is that the 4400 should have been the next Heroes, X-Files, Lost, Fringe, what have you. It should have been that next big sci-fi show, that had everyone talking. Instead too many chefs ruined the pie and the show literally became unwatchable.