Dead Zone: Complete Third Season [Import]

Building upon the strengths of seasons one and two, the third season of The Dead Zone takes Johnny's visions of a future apocalypse to a new level as he has now been joined by another mysterious visitor with powers similar to his own. A new love in his life and a new change in the relationship with his son occurs. The creators of the show continue to have great fun turning the sci-fi fantasy genre on its ear with these amazing, wonderful stories. If you loved King's original book The Dead Zone, you will not be disappointed! There's a lot of great things waiting for you to see and I highly recommend picking up a copy.

Here's a summary of the episodes for this season:

Finding Rachel, Part 1: Johnny becomes a suspect in a case he's trying to resolve regarding Rachel Caldwell, a missing woman who also happens to be on Greg Stillson's election team.

Finding Rachel, Part 2: Johnny is arrested for Rachel Caldwell's murder. He must then convince the victim's sister that she must help him solve her murder, despite the fact that she is convinced Johnny is guilty of the crime.

Collision: A young girl's mysterious disappearance prompts Johnny to have visions about the night of his car accident. Somehow the two visions are connected and it is up to Johnny to resolve one vision before he can resolve the other.

Cold Hard Truth: A confrontational radio station jock draws Johnny to him. Unexpectedly, Johnny foresees the jock's death and, despite the animosity, decides to help him.

Total Awareness: Johnny teams up with a strange young woman with the ability to predict numbers. Together they seek to expose a 'total information awareness system' which threatens to put everyone's right to privacy in jeopardy.

No Questions Asked: Johnny offers to help Walt Bannerman with a crime from his past that has unexpectedly resurfaced. The catch? Don't ask any questions.

Looking Glass: Identical twin law students create a video depicting a murder in order to trick Johnny into having a vision about it. Things get more complicated when the ruse turns out to be a cover for something far more sinister.

Speak Now: While attending a wedding, Johnny has visions about the couple's pending future and must decide whether or not he should tell them about what he's seen.

Cycle of Violence: Johnny experiences visions of a Columbine-like school shooting while attending a school play. He cannot confirm the killer's identity. The principal of the school takes the opportunity to restrict the freedom of the students and starts making his own guesses about who the culprit is.

Instinct: Johnny and Walt investigate the unexplained, unnatural violent behavior of the wild animals that live around the city.

Shadows: Johnny has a vision of the death of a close friend and is nearly pushed to kill in order to protect them.

Tipping Point: Johnny's visions start causing physical problems and eventually threatening his life. He must decide if brain surgery is the right answer. Doing so would remove his Dead Zone causing him to lose the ability to possibly prevent Armageddon.

"Medium" may be getting all of the press but "The Dead Zone" was doing it before and, quite honestly, better. Sure, "Medium" has a great cast and some great storytelling but it has nothing on the story arc presented here--the potential destruction of the world.

Although the 3rd season of "The Dead Zone" ran only 12 episodes(unlike the first which ran 13 episodes and the 19 of the second season), it had as much action packed into it as previous seasons and made outstanding use of visual effects to continue to heighten the story. The 3rd season opens with the stunning two-part episode "Finding Rachel". John (Hall) is the suspect in the murder of Senate candidate Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery). Meanwhile Stillson and his advisors are helping to rig the election so that he will have a better chance of winning. Reverend Purdy finds out that all is not well with John's trust fund that he has been administering. In the first part of this season opener we also get resolution to the cliffhanger from season two. We discover more about the mysterious visitor who shares a link with John from the future.

The extras as usual are top notch with a commentary for every single episode (some better than others but hey, I'd rather have too many extras that are extraenous than none at all). We also get deleted scenes, "Five Minutes 'Til Milch" written and directed by actor John L. Adams, the gag reel and three featurettes one of which discusses the challenges of changing from film to High Definition Video for the production (which fattened up their thinning budget). Another one takes us behind-the-scenes looking at food. Yes, food. The clever "Cooking Verite" shows us what the crew really gets to eat on location. Yum. The final featurette focuses on actor Chris Bruno (who plays Walt Bannerman) and how he stays in shape. Personally, I'd love to see a featurette devoted to the lovely Nicole DeBoer's career pre-"Deep Space Nine" (which when I became aware ofher) and Sarah Wynter ("24").

Buyers may want to be aware of a flaw in the first run of the series;there's a white line that appears at the top of the letterbox frame that can be distracting. It's not a big issue but Lion's Gate is in the process of fixing the problem and reissuing these discs. I'd suggest going to TVONDVD.com to see which players are affected. Lion's Gate has only found 15 or so that have been but neither one of mine is on the list and I saw the white line.

If you need a replacement Lion's Gate can be reached at deadzone@lgf.com. I'm not sure what the time frame is for the remastered/re-released episodes. It's more than one or two episodes that are affected by the problem. If you don't have a DVD player on the list, then it's possible it might be noticeable on your player.

While the pricing for 12 episodes might be a bit high compared to some shows, it's actually quite reasonable overall. The first season of "Deadwood" and "Carnivale" listed for more than twice as much with less in the way of extras (although the packaging was superior for both those series). I'm also happy to see that Lion's Gate isn't releasing this series as dual sided discs with no extras and is continuing the slip jacket for the accordian style DVD holder. Great season! I'm not here for the donuts, I'm here for the storytelling.

Johnny Smith was a high school teacher with a lovely fiancée. That all changed after a tragic auto accident. Johnny wakes up from a coma six years later. His mother has since died, leaving his stepfather, the Reverend Gene Purdy as executor of her estate and Johnny's legal guardian. Even after extensive physical therapy, Johnny will need a cane in order to walk. And Sarah, believing he would never awaken, has married Walt, the local sheriff, who has adopted the child Sarah conceived with Johnny on their last night together.

All this would be hard enough on a normal person, but Johnny is no normal person. He discovers he has the ability to see things. Simply by touching other people, or objects touched by others, he can sense things that have happened, things that will happen, or things that are happening elsewhere.

The set for season 3 will include all 12 episodes. Extras include audio commentary on all 12 by the cast, the crew. There are deleted scenes and three exclusive behind-the-scenes featurettes.

1 & 2 Finding Rachel (Parts 1 & 2) - Johnny pieces together his visions to figure out what happened to a Stillson's campaign volunteers who mysteriously disappeared while she was with him.

3 - Collision - Johnny's vision of Katie Mercer (an 11 years old missing girl) clashes with visions of his accident.

4 - Cold Hard Truth - Johnny helps a disc jockey that is beaten by a group of bikers.

5 - Total Awareness - Johnny is stalked by a woman who has already killed 3 other psychics.

6 - No Questions Asked - Johnny helps Walt with a problem from his past but Johnny can't ask any questions.

7 - Looking Glass - A couple of lawyer twins use Johnny but Johnny his visions of murder are real.

8) Speak Now - Johnny has visions of him interrupting a wedding and needs to determine if the wedding should or shouldn't take place.

9) Cycle of Violence - Johnny gets a vision of a student going on a shooting spree and must find out how the student is.

10) Instinct - Johnny why there are animal attacks in this one town.

11) Shadows - Johnny must figure out his visions of himself killing a man.

12) Tipping Point - Johnny's headaches and blackouts are getting worse and he is considering brain surgery to remove his dead zone.