The 4400: Season 2

Finally!

Ever since the second season ended on TV, I've been scouring Amazon and Best Buy at least twice a month for the release date!

The second season of the 4400 begins a year after the events of season 1, not counting the small interlude with Richard and Lily in hiding, and Lily going into labor with her baby.

Since the end of season 1, Baldwin has been stuck behind a desk while Skouris, rotating through a number of incompetent partners, has made little to no progress investigating the 4400. Skouris is also adopting the clairvoyant girl Maia as her daughter, and Baldwin's son Kyle, out of his coma, has been in quaratine for the past year, much to his frustration. Jordan Collier, billionaire and 4400 member, is attempting to build a seperate nation or some such for the 4400, and he's not above breaking the law to do it. His search for Richard, Lily, and their six-month-old baby Isabelle also continues, while Richard & Lily are on the run from the US government, and zealots who believe the 4400 to be a harbinger of doom. The cast took a bit of a blow with the departure of Peter Coyote as boss Dennis Ryland, who was replaced by Samantha Ferris as the new boss, Nina Jarvis. Star Trek fans receive a bit of a treat this season with appearances by Jeffery Combs (DS9's Weyoun, Brunt & Enterprise's Shran) and Robert Picardo (Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram).

With the third season set to begin this summer (with Combs appearing in half of the episodes!), I'm eager to see the second season again, without commercials.

The 4400 is the best sci-fi series on TV these days, IMHO, since the loss of Star Trek: Enterprise and The X-Files, which is why I'm proud to add this set to my collection.

Twelve episodes make up the 2nd season, and they're 12 good hours to spend. :-)

But if you plan to spend summer watching reality shows, I pity you.

This is one of the most innovative series to hit television since the days of the original Star Trek and the Time Tunnel. Rather than being the same ol' space alien stuff, the 4400 presents viewers with a genuine mystery -- Where have the 4,400 returnees been? Who, if anyone, took them? Why were they selected in the first place? And why have they been returned now?

The answers to these and other questions are not all revealed in the second season, but we do get some ideas about who took the 4400 and why. I won't give it away in case any of you have not yet seen the series, but suffice to say that the answers are not the standard space opera stuff.

I didn't happen to catch the first season of this series when it was originally broadcast, so ended up watching seasons 1 and 2 back to back on DVD. This is, in many ways, the best way to see the shows for the first time, as seeing them all in sequence makes the plot more sensible and also aids in helping viewers speculate about what is actually behind the "takings." If you like to puzzle out mystery stories and also enjoy top-of-the-line science fiction, The 4400 is for you.

My husband and I just finished a marathon viewing of Season 2, and it is FANTASTIC. While Season 1 seemed a bit slow in terms of telling the individual stories, the ending (especially with the trees bowing to the passing car carrying an in-utero Isabel!) held much promise.

What I found fascinating (this was in the Return of the 4400 Featurette) is that Season 1 was a mini-series and that it wasn't certain if it would become a TV show. In fact, a writer mentioned that it wasn't supposed to come out that the 4400 were humans sent back from the future until Season 5 or so...about 100 episodes into it! So when The 4400 was given the green light for the production, the writers had to figure out how to proceed with the proverbial "cat already out of the bag".

Personally, I'm glad the cat was let out of the bag! I have felt strung along by the show LOST and stopped watching it. But at least with The 4400, you know what you're dealing with. HOWEVER, we don't know who, exactly, sent them back...and what their motives are!

While the plot lines are solid, the characters and relationships (and, of course, the writing) are what really makes this show stand out. Season 2 shows plot elements I've not seen elsewhere (Tom and his new love!) and compelling scenarios. My husband and I were so blown away by Season 2 (especially Mommy's Bosses) that we've re-started our satellite subscription just so we can see the premiere of Season 3 on June 11th on USA!

I wish there were more extras on the Season 2 Discs, but it was interesting to hear what inspired The 4400 (9/11) and Jacqueline McKenzie's (who plays Diana) accent. I would have never guessed in a million years that she was Australian based on her preformance on the show! What an amazing actress...

I also enjoyed the Stitch in Time Featurette featuring astrophysicists talking about wormholes and the spacetime continuum--and how time travel could be possible.

Despite not having a lot of extras, Season 2 is worth getting just for the compelling stories and acting. I thought LOST (used to) have great writing, as well as The Shield, but honestly...I believe The 4400 is better than both of those shows!

I missed seeing more of Jordan Collier (found out in the Featurette that Billy Campbell insisted on sailing on a tall ship as a crewman!), but the actors playing Kyle, Tom, and Shaun are top-notch. Kinda neat seeing Kaj Erik-Eriksen (who plays Danny, Shaun's brother). Remember him from The Commish?. He played Scali's son in that show.

Highly recommended!

P.S. The final scene is amazing. Interesting that Jordan Collier's initials are J.C...

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