Les 4400

The 4400 is a very interesting story that I have not seen before. What happens after a person has been abducted by ETs and returns a number of years later. They find their loved ones dead. The neighborhoods they knew are gone. Their family had assumed they're dead and moved on. What would the readjustment be like? That is the story of this very fascinating miniseries is about. I will be sure to watch the rest of this series to see what happens. I'm sure some people will learn how to cope and some will not. But is there something more sinister going on? The 4400 is the cure for the summer boredom. I wish the networks would stop putting on one idiotic reality show after another and have shows that are at least have some ambition to them. Why does junk like The Simple Life and Fear Factor stay on the air and shows with ambition are banished to cable. That's where the viewers should go. Watch this show.

The 4400 is in a word - amazing! The acting is excellent and I'm glad it's an ensemble piece. The vulnerability of Shawn as he struggles with his abilities & social life is well captured by Patrick Flueger. Maia (Conchita Campbell) is innocently cryptic. The romance between Richard & Lily is sweet and deals sensitively with racial issues. Tom & Diana learn to care about the returnees as people, not subjects, and certainly prove themselves in the fantastic finale. The remainder of the cast including Kyle (Chad Faust) in a mysterious coma and Jordan (Bill Campbell) as the sinister, self appointed leader of the 4400 are also well cast. The storyline kept me gripped throughout. The music was well chosen, especially "Bye Bye, Baby" in the pilot. I love the title sequence too. The effects are superb. The second season proved to be just as exciting and emotional, as the first. It also introduces Jeffery Combs, my favourite Star Trek actor. It's his best role yet. Each key character gets a storyline of their own, which intercut nicely with the overall arc. For every question answered, there's a new one raised, so you're never bored. This is essentially a show about people, rather than solid sci fi, which is a definite plus. Well worth buying the DVDs. I'm sure Season 3 will be equally fantastic. I can't wait. A+++

Watching the 4400 is a bit like going to quiet café for a quick bite to eat and, unexpectedly, having one of the best meals of your life.

Hard to follow, and occasionally borderline kitsch, somehow The 4400 keeps you hooked with the fascinating characters, deep plot and unpredictable turns.

The storyline is highly original. The actors and the characters that they play are highly engaging. It tests some scientific and moral boundaries and makes some other programmes seem like music videos in comparison.

I think it is a sci-fi classic which, like Dune, will be loved by a small hardcore of fans, whilst most will just scratch their heads wondering what it is all about.

i didn't watch "The 4400" from the beginning, but when I tuned in, it hooked me and reeled me in, in a quick 60 seconds. What interested me the most was how the people left behind reacted to the people who had returned. Some freaked out, shouting crude and spiteful remarks to some of the returnees; others just were afraid to go near them. They couldn't seem to handle a person whose disappearance was mystifying, and whose reason for returning, place from which they had returned, and a source of a power, so extraordinary...could just not been explained. Those returning from a past unknown don't remember where they came from--where they had been for so many lost

years...They come back unchanged, physically and emotionally-fully capable of functioning, fully remembering the life they last saw before they vanished. But when they come back, they realize the life they had left behind was not the life that re- greeted them was landing on the place called home.

People grew up. People changed. People died. And the returners felt an emptiness like never before---like, they lost out on some wonderful life they knew they would have had, if only, they never left.

it's like coming back from heaven and realizing that everything has changed. But you're still the same. You're still you. An old man, married for 20 years. A little girl with parents still well-alive. A brother and a son, in high school, tall, handsome and healthy. In your heart and mind, you have taken these memories with you--memories of the life and the people you once loved have embedded themselves deep within your heart, and you wonder why the world has kept spinning without you. You were gone, but can't quite remember where you had gone to and what you were doing in that period of time...you don't remember....you can't remember, and you feel like an alien on your own planet. A stranger to your own world....your own home...Earth.

I actually quite enjoyed the first series. I was compelled to watch through to the final episode to see the characters story arc's develop.

Yes there are the typical Sci-fi clichés (maybe 4400 by the time the show is finished?). But I would say that this is a Sci-fi show and not a Sci-fact show, and by it's very nature it's a work of fiction, thus real world science doesn't really matter or nessecarily apply.

The scene the first post was alluding to was (I'm sure) not intended to be a dazzling display of the script writers grasp of near and outer orbital rocket science, but a characterization of both the governmental paranoia and hopeless desperation that humans can exhibit when faced with seemingly futile situations.

Personally, I don't think the acting is too bad, yes it does smack of countless other Sci-fi shows and draws heavily on many common themes running through all Sci-fi series, but what shows don't? There is little originality in Sci-fi these days, but the premise of this show is at least relatively unexplored.

How many shows do you know that effectively try to portray the multitude of challenges that face abductees when they try to re-integrate into a society that seemingly doesn't want them, can't understand them or are jealous of them?

Comparisons are inevitable, but when you're subconsciously thinking "Mulder and Scully" or "Rouge and Wolverine" while you are watching supposedly new characters then as a script writer you've got to try to distance yourself from what could easily be considered as stereotypes. This is probably my greatest (and only real) criticism.

If the script writers were just a little less derivative, and a bit more adventurous then I think we have a winner.

P.S. Oh, and they need to stop the re-caps at the start of every darn episode, the fast forward button on my Tivo's getting worn out as it is.

Mqark.