InsidePulse DVD Review – The 4400 – The Complete Second Season

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Image courtesy Amazon.com

Creators/Executive Producers:
Scott Peters, René Echevarria, Ira Steven Behr, Maira Suro and Perry Simon

Cast:
Joel Gretsch ………. Tom Baldwin
Jacqueline McKenzie ………. Diana Skouris
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali ………. Richard Tyler
Laura Allen ………. Lily Moore Tyler
Billy Campbell ………. Jordan Collier
Conchita Campbell ………. Maia Rutledge
Kaj-Erik Eriksen ………. Danny Farrell
Patrick Flueger ………. Shawn Farrell
Chad Faust ………. Kyle Baldwin
Samantha Ferris ………. Nina Jarvis
Peter Coyote ………. Dennis Ryland

Lindy Booth ………. Liv
Chilton Crane ………. Susan Farrell
Garret Dillahunt ………. Matthew Ross
Karina Lombard ………. Alana Mareva
Natasha Gregson Wagner ………. April Skouris
Jeffrey Combs ………. Kevin Burkhoff

The Show:
‘The 4400’ burst onto the scene as a 6-episode mani-series on the USA Network. The premise was simple – over the past century, thousands of people have disappeared. But one day, 4400 of them inexplicably returned. In the Pacific Northwest. But The 4400 have started to manifest strange powers, powers that could be beneficial to mankind… or destroy it. The first season gave us a taste of what The 4400 were, and the second season jumps ahead One Year Later (that seems to be a common idea) as we start to see how life for The 4400 has carried on…

Episodes:
My episode summaries may contain some spoilers, so be warned.

Disc One:
Wake-Up Call
One Year Later. Jordan Collier has opened “The 4400 Center”, and Shawn is a large part of it. Meanwhile, NTAC agent Tom Baldwin is reunited with Diana Skouris (who has adopted Maia, who has apparently lost her powers), and they investigate a 4400 in a pychiatric hospital who is influencing others to build a “communications device”. And Richard, Lily and her baby Isabelle are on the run.

Voices Carry
NTAC recruits a baseball player who can hear people’s thoughts (and tells them to “hush hush, keep it down now”) to spy on Collier at the 4400 Center. Meanwhile, Diana’s free-spirited sister arrives. Kyle is back in the real world but is having memory lapses. Richard and Lily? Still on the run.

Weight of the World
A 4400 (Robert Picardo, ‘Star Trek: Voyager’) whose saliva can help people lose weight tries to make money from it. Meanwhile, Jordan takes an interest in a pop star who becomes a member of the 4400 Center. And Richard and Lily manage to stop running for a while.

Disc Two:
Suffer the Children
A teacher (who of course happens to be a 4400) has the ability to inspire her students. Richard and Lily end up reunited with Jordan, who warns Shawn not to overuse his powers.

As Fate Would Have It
The 4400s have a reunion at the Center, but Maia has a premonition that threatens Jordan. And Kyle’s blackouts continue, which leads to a shocking result.

Life Interrupted
Tom wakes up to find that that the 4400 no longer exist.

Carrier
Tom and Diana investigate a 4400 (Sherilyn Fenn, ‘Twin Peaks’) with power that could wipe out humanity with a plague.

Disc Three:
Rebirth
A 4400 (Hill Harper, ‘CSI: New York’) with the ability to repair damaged fetal chromosomes hides a shocking past. Meanwhile, Richard is tormented by an old Korean War buddy, and Shawn reconnects with his family.

Hidden
NTAC follow a series of clues which lead them to Collier’s killer.

Lockdown
A 4400 terrorist with the ability to make men violent forces a lockdown of NTAC. Look for Roger Cross (’24’) in a guest role here.

The Fifth Page
When 4400s start coming down with life-threatening diseases (and a stint on the started-promising-but-faded-quickly ‘The Inside’), Ryland returns to NTAC and does what he does best – put them in quarantine, while Tom and Diana look for a cure.

Disc Four:
Mommy’s Bosses
Matt Basilo’s Review
Tom and Diana discover the truth behind the disease, and it’s not what they expected. Kyle contemplates turning himself in.

Score: 8/10

The DVD:

Video:
(Presented in Widescreen Format Enhanced for 16:9 TVs)
Looks like the shows I may or may not have downloaded.

Audio:
(English 5.1 Surround, English Dolby Surround, which I guess means 2.0)
Sounds good to me.

Special Features:
There are some TV on DVD previews, but I wouldn’t call that “special”.

Audio Commentaries – Jacqueline McKenzie, Joel Gretsch, Craig Sweeny and Ira Steven Behr join in on the secondary audio for three episodes: As Fate Would Have It, The Fifth Page and Mommy’s Bosses

Creating the Ball of Light – Scott Peters (and various producers) talks about how ‘The 4400’ came to be.

Return of The 4400 – Various creators talk about going from the miniseries to a full season. Interesting to note that Jacqueline McKenzie is British. I’d no idea.

A Stitch in Time – Various science types talk about time.

Packaging:
A slipcase (pictured above) holds two slimline cases containing two DVDs each.

Score: 6/10

Links:
Check out The Official Site

Our very own Matt Basilo talked to Patrick Flueger at the conclusion of Season Two.

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).