Has a decade passed since The 4400 wrapped up its run on USA? Seems like it was just yesterday which is a fine way to relate to the TV show. The 4400 refers to the 4,400 people who over the decades just vanished in a flash of light. Then one night, they all reappeared together in Washington state. None of them had aged a bit or had a clue where they’d gone in the years in between. They all had to deal with the changes in the world. But for quite a few, they had to discover how they had been changed internally. The 4400: The Complete Series brings together all 4 seasons and 44 episodes of a fine cable science fiction series.
The arrival of 4,400 missing people near Mount Rainier, Washington is quite a shock. Homeland Security’s The National Threat Assessment Command (NTAC) takes charge in processing, debriefing and resettling all the returnees. Dennis Ryland (E.T.‘s Peter Coyote) does his best to get his lead agents including Tom Baldwin (V‘s Joel Gretsch) on top of this interesting influx. This quickly gets complicated for characters that have been gone for a long, long time. Maia (Bates Motel‘s Conchita Campbell) was zapped in 1946 as a young girl. She doesn’t really have much to go back to so she ends up being adopted by NTAC Agent Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie). Maia comes to determine that she’s picked up precognition. Richard Tyler(Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) is having enough issues adjusting to modern life when he discovers his abductors might have sampled his DNA to experiment on another returnees. The episodes deal the various returnees along with the mystery of who abducted them. Were they snagged by aliens or some weird government conspiracy? There’s a lot things to be discovered about the 4,400 people.
The series was addictive during the four seasons as it explored the abductees. On top of the secret powers, there’s the undertones about how the returnees are treated by a society that wasn’t taken out of time. Do other people want to tap into the power of them for devious purposes? The show was well acted. Ali won this year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Moonlight. There was a bit of a shock when it all came to an end so soon during season four, but at least the final episode felt like a wrap up instead of leaving fans guessing. The 4400: The Complete Series gathers together the abductees one more time for a new generation of viewer to ponder the return.
The videos is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The transfers look fine with the cinematography of the great northwest captured. The audio is 5.1 Surround Sound mix that doesn’t quite put things beyond the 2.0 Stereo mix that was used during the show’s original run on USA. The first two seasons have Closed Captions. The third and fourth have subtitles in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Creating The Ball of Light covers how the series was created.
Return of the 4400 deals with how they dealt with the second season after the big reveal at the end of season 1. Don’t watch this until you’re done with the season.
Powers Grid explains the powers of the characters.
The Great Leap Forward (Director’s Cut) is the extended cut of the last episode.
Jordan Collier: The Grey Man explains the man at center of the later seasons.
Factions of War discussions the final season.
Audio Commentaries on several episodes includes talks from producers and actors.
Deleted Scenes are from a few episodes.
CBS DVD presents The 4400. Starring: Joel Gretsch, Jacqueline McKenzie, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Laura Allen, Patrick Flueger & Megalyn Echikunwoke. Boxset Contents: 44 episodes on 14 discs. Released: May 2, 2017.
