It's back! USA's The 4400 had its third season premiere last night, and it was packed with surprises and twists, just as we've come to expect from this wonderful summer diversion. The first thing that I realized last night was that I should have watched the catch-up special that covered everything that transpired over the last two seasons because I didn't remember as much as I thought I did. It slowly came back to me as the stories unfolded last night, but the refresher would have been helpful. We learned last season that all of the 4400 have promycin in them that allows them to use their abilities. NTAC had been giving them an inhibitor that suppressed these abilities, but when the premiere, the 4400 were off of it because a regulatory board had stepped in. Meanwhile, a new rogue group of 4400s, calling themselves Nova, was on the loose and taking out everyone responsible for the inhibitor. Of course, the show also picked up with Isabelle all grown up and her mother Lily suddenly 50 years older than when we last saw her. To make matters worse, Lily was dying from different "old age" ailments faster than Shawn could heal them. Maia was having a hard time dealing with the return of her psychic abilities, so Marco suggested that Diana put her in a school designed for 4400 children. At first like Diana, I wasn't sure if it was the best idea, but my opinion changed when Maia seemed to like the idea. Although, I am a little hesitant still. And so, we were off and running on the third season.
I was so bummed when we learned that Lily had aged 50 years and Tippi Hedren had taken Laura Allen's role in the process. Nothing against Hedren, in fact, I thought she was fabulous, but I miss Laura Allen. Richard and Lilly's story was always my favorite, so it was so disappointing to see that we won't be following it anymore. I'm not 100% convinced that Lily is really dead, but it sure appears to be that way for now. Did anyone else think that Isabelle seemed robotic? That's not 
a dig at the actress, Megalyn Echikunwoke, but an observation about the character. I know she aged about 20 years in the span of a few seconds, but she seemed unaware of basic human emotions and nature that it made me wonder if she was actually a "real" person. She can't die, except with a shot of some mystery substance and she was conceived in the future, so she must hold some sort of important purpose. This is why I don't believe whatever Ross told her about her past and future and its involvement with evil. And then there's this Nova group and the mystery surrounding their bizarre antics. Are they good or bad? Like the Others on Lost, the answer isn't clear. They did use their powers to kill all of those responsible for the inhibitor, but how can we be sure that this wasn't the right decision? After all, the future sent each of the 4400 back with a special ability that was to be used to ensure the survival of our species, so inhibiting that ability could be doing a lot of damage. The big event on October 19th turned out to be a wheat field in the African dry lands, but is this act for good as the future had planned, or evil as Tom suspects? If this group is able to change the face of the African landscape, what else are they capable of? What amazes me the most about this show is its ability to constantly present fresh story lines, especially when it was originally intended as a limited series two summers ago. I'm looking forward to seeing where they take us this year. If you were enjoying the ending tune on last night's 2-hour episode, it was a song called "Into the Fire" by 13 Senses. It's off of their album The Invitation. For information on how music producer Elliot Lurie chose this song and others, click on over the The 4400 Music Blog. What did you think about the premiere of The 4400? Are you excited for the new season or missing Lily and Kyle too much? Leave me a note with your thoughts.Pass the Remote favorite Kristen Bell was a presenter at last night's Tony Awards on CBS. She was looking fabulous as usual. Check her out in these pictures from Getty Images:
QUICK CUTS
*TV TONIGHT: Plenty of summer TV premieres tonight across the board. Fox rolls out the second season of Hell's KitchenThe Closer (9 p.m. TNT) is back with a commercial-free premiere as does the series premiere of Saved (10 p.m. TNT) and ABC rolls out it dating help show How to Get the Guy (10 p.m.). To see what else you can catch tonight on the tube, visit the TV Listings section of PassTheRemote.net.
*Zap2it's TV Gal is calling for your categories for her annual Amy Awards! The yearly event looks for creative categories such as "I Don't Love to Hate You, I Just Hate You or Worst Character." Click on over to her column at Zap2it to submit your categories. And then check back next week to see which categories made the cut and to submit your nominations. While we're on the awards kick, you can also vote for your favorite shows in Kristin Veitch's annual Tater Top Awards over at E! Online. Be sure to click over there for a chance to vote for shows like Everwood, Veronica Mars, Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, The Office and much more.
*And finally, it's TV on DVD Monday! Look for the first season of Medium to hit store shelves tomorrow along with Cheers (season 8), Coach (season 1), The Dead Zone (season 4), Dharma & Greg (season 1), Frasier (season 8) and Walker, Texas Ranger (season 1). For a list of all of tomorrow's releases, visit tvshowsondvd.com.
To get more of today's biggest TV news and headlines, visit the TV News section at PassTheRemote.Net.
That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for a Veronica Mars season 2 review! Plus, all the latest television news. And coming Wednesday, it's the kick off of the summer-long countdown of the best episodes of the past season! Which episodes of your favorite shows will make the cut? Which one will be number 1? Tune in this Wednesday to see the beginning of the countdown!!
To get more television coverage, including the network's new fall schedules and a complete archive of the best of Pass the Remote with a photo gallery featuring pictures from the set of Veronica Mars, click on over to PassTheRemote.net.
2 comments:
The 4400 premier was eerily similar to the third installment of the X-Men movies. The similarities were overflowing. I don't know what to make of that. Like you, I am bummed about Lily but hoping she isn't really dead.
Nice pictures of Kristen Bell.
I just read about the X-Men thing in the new issue of TV Guide. It was in Rochelle's "Is It Just Me?" segment. It's the issue with The Hottest Men on Television feature on the cover. I haven't seen any of the X-Men movies, but that's very interesting that you saw the similarities as well.
Post a Comment