The 4400 ongoing thread (1 Viewer)

So let's recap what alien anal probes can do to humans:

1. Telekinetic vibratory powers (a la Scanners)
2. In Vitro Fertilization (or immaculate conception)
3. Life force re-distribution
4. Predictive powers (prescience)
5. Smoking in diners
6. Eric Cartman wasn't spotted by this viewer...

It feels a bit like a mix of the X-Files meets the X-Men.

X-files meets X-men, excellent characterization.

Did it irk anyone at the beginning that the ICBMs were launched when the object was traveling at 3,000 km/sec and 28 minutes out, yet they impacted after about 15 seconds following launch? It seemed to me they would barely be out of the atmosphere (if that far) in 15 seconds.

I hope the writing improves. There were quite a few predictable moments... Lily's hubby remarried, agent getting served with divorce, Orson Bailey not finding a job, wife has alzheimer's.

Yeah that bothered me at the beginning with the missles but I figured they were just speeding up time to get to the point of the story.

I liked the show.

It felt like a more pedestrian version of the fantastic Sci-Fi mini "Taken."

Still, it's summer and there's nothing else on. Hopefully the plot twists gain a little complexity. The concept is fantastic, and you can tell watching that they know what the most important parts are. They zeroed in on the reaction of re-entering society and all the metaphors and drama that can come out of that. I just wish they'd use the excellent setup to tell something a bit more engaging, or in a bit more engaging way.

May favorite scene was the one with the army guy in the diner. Purely visual storytelling. Just wished there'd been more of that. I think I'd enjoy it alot more if the homeland security team at the forefront weren't so dead-in-the-water.

One of the reviews I read called the girl from the forties the polar opposite of Dakota Fanning. While the latter is vibrant and open and expressive, this kid is very withdrawn and inward looking. I liked that.

Also, those missles wouldn't have hit the "comet" before it passed the moon. (Plus the difficulty in hitting something that fast, even if it was big, and whether ICBMs can be targeted that way....) But no big deal. It was also predictable that the ex-FBI guy wouldn't admit that the nephew did something odd. And why is it always a creepy little girl?

Cool way to kill the guy in the house, though. And speaking of The X-Files, nice to see the diner from that classic episode with Mulder eating the pie. Still liked the show, though.

That part bothered me too, but I let it slide. Really liked the concept and I think the show has potential for some great episodes. I did remind me quite a bit of The X-files. The X-Files meets the X-Men characterization is dead on.

Now if Voom would only get it in gear and get USA and Sci Fi.

We're missing all the good stuff....

My wife and I were trying to figure out how that wives grandmother could have been the black flyer. Not in a racial way, but in an age way. If he disappeared in 1951 and she in 1993. Her mother must have been born around the time he disappeared. My wife thinks that he is her grandfather.

According to the character dossiers on the USA Network 4400 website:

Tyler is 29 (born in 1922, abducted in 1951)
Lily II is 26 (born in 1966, adducted in 1993)

Even if Lily II's mother had Lily II when she was 20, then Lily II's mother was born around 1946. Now if Lily II's mother was 15 (thus born in 1951) when she gave birth to Lily II, then the chronology sort of works.

I think you have to assume that Lily II's grandmother was married in 1951 and already gave birth to Lily II's mother.

Given that analysis, I think I have to root for Tyler to get a second chance at the love of his life with Lily II (the writers made sure her former life has been tossed away due to her husband's re-marriage and her daughter doesn't even know who she is). This budding romance is reminiscent of "The Bicentennial Man" in this respect (the robot falls in love with the granddaughter of his first love, who dies as time passes while the robot outlives his first love, which is what happened to the Robin Williams character in that film).

The Missle thing was lame, if they would have just edited the shot of the ball passing the moon first then the missles impacting. All in all I enjoyed the show and was hooked by the storyline. I did have problems mainly with the Homeland security characters, I don't remember their names but the woman has got to go, just annoying. The guy made me wish they'd cast Keen Eddie instead. As for the characters of the 4400 I like the Pilot/Lily characters the most. I'm glad the school bully came and went fast we've just seen that whole "you're a freak" stuff way too much before. I can't wait for the next episode.

Yeah, I didn't realize missiles could travel a quarter of a million miles and maintain their accuracy (granted, most of the travel would be in space with no atmosphere).

If they could our Star Wars missile defense program would be in business.

Worst show I have seen in months

First off, all the characters are bland cut-outs with the intellect of retarded gnats, which I guess was necessary in order for the mass amounts of idiot plotting to work. The whole thing was entirely predictable and way too familiar, not an inspired moment to be found.

I loved the way that people could look up in the sky and see the missiles as they hit their target a tad above cloud cover, yet a few moments later we see the comet has not even entered the Earth's orbit yet.

Three thumbs up here (there are three of us). Come on guys, haven't ya heard of "suspension of disbelief?

By the way, what other show had that song in it, "bye bye baby, baby bye bye" (don't know the name)? Was it an episode of Six Feet Under?

larry, that song is the theme song for Kingdom Hospital.

Patrick, I expected to get a brief description in your first post - not a recap. Stupid me, I looked before I watched it.

At any rate, I was hoping for more Sci-Fi instead of the supernatural. I'm assuming that the other four episodes are 1 hour each, and if so, we're already 1/3 of the way through this. Is that a good or a bad thing?

Glenn

Does anyone know when this show will be on in Canada?

Don't know, don't care. I found my own way.

It's true everyone behaves in a very "dead fish" kind of way, but this is only the first two episodes. At least on the "creepy" side of things, it seems to work.

Now that the set-up is over, I hope they dive into the main story by the next episode otherwise I'll get bored waiting for something to happen. Lack of story evolution is what caused me to stop watching "Carnivale" about two-thirds of the way through.

It would have been interesting to find out WHEN the foster father was going to die, but I guess keeping it a secret added to the mystery even though it may not have had any bearing on the storyline.

I enjoyed the show and look forward to the next episodes.


No, it's a TV show. Sit back and enjoy the show. I agree with what Larry says.

For people who didnt like it, there's about 40 Reality shows that you can tune into to nit pick at.

I heard that THE 4400 will be airing on SPACE (Canadian Sci-Fi channel) in September in Canada.