The 4400 - The Complete Third Season
by Aaron Lipstadt, Allison Liddi-Brown, Colin Bucksey, Fred Toye, Morgan Beggs
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Actor: Jacqueline McKenzie, Joel Gretsch, Mahershala Ali, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Patrick John FluegerDirector: Aaron Lipstadt, Allison Liddi-Brown, Colin Bucksey, Fred Toye, Morgan Beggs
Brand: ALI,MAHERSHALAHASHB
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 560 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-08
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Paramount
DVD Reviews of The 4400 - The Complete Third Season
DVD Review: Why TV Shows Are Rarely As Good As Their First Season
Summary: 4 Stars
1. Money
TV shows, in an effort to capture viewers, pour heaps of money into production initially. Once the viewer base has been established, the drawstrings get tightened. A good example of this is soundtracks. Pilot episodes generally have huge budgets to purchase songs, but as the series progresses, the music will invariably switch from being purchased to being composed. There are a few good composers out there, but, generally speaking, purchased music will always be better/more timely.
Special effects/CGI - same thing. CGI is super expensive. Invariably a show starts off with a load of CGI and episode by episode, the CGI decreases. A good example of this is Battlestar Galactica. Have you noticed the diminishing frequency of robot cylon shots as the series progresses? Those robot cylons are CGI and cost a pretty penny. For a science fiction show, CGI is crucial as it allows the writers greater creative freedom. If the CGI budget is thin, it can restrict plot points and, in turn, lower the quality of the show.
Actors are a huge budgetary concern as well. They generally start off being paid very little. If the show does well, they start asking for more money. If they ask for too much, their characters tend to either get killed off or go on hiatus. Another problem with actors from successful shows is that they get other work. This other work can create scheduling problems.
One of the biggest obstacles to consistently great television is syndication. The bread and butter of syndicated television are episodes that can stand alone. No meta arcs/no continuing storylines. Even on shows with stories that span seasons, there is a huge push from the studio to produce the much more syndicatable single arc episodes. A single arc episode doesn't allow for larger, grander themes. There's really only so much you can do in 44 minutes. By compartmentalizing a show into smaller, more marketable units, meta arcs suffer and the quality invariably drops. The one mitigating factor in the syndication equation is DVD sales. The potential proceeds from DVD sales is beginning to challenge the profits from syndication. Where syndication is sold in single episodes, DVDs are all about the boxed set. This is an encouraging direction, but we have a long way to go before syndication loosens it grasp.
2. The writing process
A very important aspect to television production is the way in which episodes are written. It's not like some huge novel where a writer locks themselves in remote cabin, takes months to write and emerges with a beginning to end epic. The pilot may be mulled over by the creator for quite some time and worked/reworked ad infinitum, but once the show gets picked up, it's usually a group of writers, sitting in a room, crafting an episode at a time. This makes the writing timely, but it doesn't do much for the bigger picture/larger story. Hopefully someone, somewhere (usually the creator and/or executive producer) has a road map for each season and/or the entire series, but this doesn't always happen. Even when it does occur, this road map may not be all that fleshed out. Or unforeseen obstacles occur such as an actor asking for too much money or a scheduling conflict. Even if the creator of a show wanted to write the whole thing from beginning to end, he/she would be severely limited by the fact that they would have no idea of knowing how many seasons they'd have to work with. Needless to say, it's not the type of writing atmosphere that produces grand ideas/great stories. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, writers toss around a lot of crappy ideas until the deadline approaches and then, under the gun, pick the least crappiest idea for the episode. Sad, but true. Look at where Lost has ended up- that's an excellent example of a room full of writers winging it- and not that well, I might add.
There are a handful of shows that have managed to exceed these limitations, but the list is minuscule. 24 is a good example of a show that pulled it together in later seasons. Most of the Star Trek productions seem to take a few seasons to reach their stride (they did have a continuing influx of money, though). For the most part, though, episodic television is a downward slope. 4400 is no exception. It started with a bang, was spectacular the first season, great the second, but now, it's only good. Will it improve? I'm not holding my breath.
Description of The 4400 - The Complete Third Season
Four thousand-four hundred people missing from around the world return together in one place, on one day.Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 8-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVD
Season two of The 4400 ended not with one, but two shockers. First, baby Isabelle turned into a 20-year-old overnight (now played by Megalyn Echikunwoke). Then, it was revealed that Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell), who was believed dead, is still alive. The third year begins with more surprises. While Isabelle was aging, so was her mother, Lily (Tippi Hedren, replacing Laura Allen), who fast-forwards several decades. Suffice to say, her husband, Richard (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), is not pleased. Also, the Nova Group, a splinter organization within the 4400, has started to eliminate those they perceive as their enemies?including their own. The 4400's third season was widely considered its weakest, but solid ratings justified a fourth. The pace doesn't pick up until Jordan's return--in real life, Campbell took off 13 months to sail the world--but the concept and the characters remain intriguing. For instance, Shawn (Patrick Flueger), head of the 4400 Center, embarks on a relationship with Isabelle, while his uncle, NTAC agent Tom (Joel Gretsch), gets bad news about wife Alana (Karina Lombard) and good news about son Kyle (Chad Faust). Dennis Ryland (Peter Coyote), meanwhile, moves from the NTAC into the private sector where he continues to micro-manage the 4400.
Recurring characters include Gary Navarro (Sharif Atkins), who joins the Nova Group, Dr. Burkoff (Jeffrey Combs), who injects himself with promicin--the mysterious substance associated with the 4400--and the sympathetic Tess (Summer Glau), who assists in his attempt to see if he can develop similar powers. Guest stars include Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact) as a woman with a special interest in Diana's adopted daughter Maia ("Gone") and Brian Dennehy (Cocoon) as Tom's father ("Blink"). As with season two, three features commentary from the cast and crew plus a trio of featurettes. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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