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| Available at Amazon.com |
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to know what everyone else is thinking? The secret power to see into the future or someone’s mind and determine if they are a good or bad person. Perhaps you could look ahead and make sure that nothing bad would happen to anyone. Or if you are of the other frame of mind, you could use that power to your own advantage and take full use of it to benefit only yourself. No matter how those powers would be put to use; some problems are sure to come of them even if you do nothing but help people.
If you don’t know who Johnny Smith is, let me bring you up to speed. He is a young man who had everything going for him until a horrible automobile accident put him into a coma for six years. When he woke up, he found that everything around him was different and all the things he knew as normal had changed. His fiancée Sarah ended up marrying Walt Bannerman, the town sheriff, and they are both raising a son that has no idea Johnny is his father. But the biggest change of all is that Johnny now has a psychic ability he didn’t have before. One touch to a person, object, or anything and he can see visions of what has happened and what is yet to come.
Johnny never can quite seem to go through a single day without having his psychic powers needed to help solve a crime or save a life. Even though he and Sheriff Bannerman are not the best of friends considering the circumstance regarding Sarah, they still work together quite often when it comes to working for justice. Johnny’s best friend is Bruce Lewis and he has always been around, but in this season he even gets thrown for some trouble and danger that Johnny must use his powers in order to save him. This season also throws in a new character in Sheriff Anna Turner who doesn’t quite see eye to eye with Johnny right away which is really nothing new.
Season six captures the same excitement, drama, and tension that the first five seasons of The Dead Zone brought about so flawlessly. Every episodes plays out as part of the season or very well on their own. You don’t have to keep up with each one to understand what is going on in the next, but it does help some. That is one of the great things about this series in that you can be a hardcore fan like myself or a casual fan and never feel out of the loop. There are some carry-over storylines such as Johnny and Sarah’s relationship and his never ending friendship/rivalry with now Vice President Greg Stillson, but you can pick up on all of that quickly.
The Dead Zone is an excellent show and it is quite a shame that it lasted no longer then six seasons. From the very beginning, it kept my attention and never got repetitive or boring. You may think that only so much can be done with a person that has psychic powers and uses them to fight crime, and you’re right. “Fighting crime with psychic abilities” is so cliché, but this is a series that makes it work from one episode to the next. And in this final season, some big things are revealed that will have longtime fans’ jaws dropping. It may be all over, but the power of Johnny Smith lives on.
Episodes
Disc One:
Heritage: Johnny is struck by visions of friends in danger, but is unable to prevent a shocking tragedy that will change his life forever.
Ego: When Johnny meets the new sheriff of Cleaves Mills, he envisions her shooting a local psychiatrist and launches an investigation despite her objections.
Re-Entry: Johnny must try to set aside his personal distrust of Vice President Stillson in an effort to prevent a national disaster.
Big Top: Johnny’s visions inadvertently lead him to reexamine a ten-year-old murder case and his current relationship with his teenage son, JJ.
Interred: When Johnny has disturbing visions of a man buried alive, he must overcome his differences with Sheriff Turner in the hopes of saving the man’s life.
Switch: After Johnny boards a train for some much-needed relaxation, he has a vision of a woman thrown to her death and soon falls for the intriguing beauty.
Numb: A serious case of appendicitis sends Johnny into another coma, and this time it’s up to Sarah to save his life.
Disc Two:
Outcome: Johnny has to race against the clock to prevent a massive explosion from ripping apart the regional bus station.
Transgressions: Faith and truth collides Johnny is thrust into a murder investigation of a young missing woman.
Drift: During a visit with Bruce, Johnny is struck with a vision of a valuable filly being stolen on the eve of a big horse race.
Exile: In jail for a crime he didn’t commit, Johnny risks everything to run from the law and try to prevent his psychic friend Alex Sinclair from being murdered.
Ambush: Johnny and Sheriff Turner’s lives are on the line as they pursue two separate criminal investigations that lead them both back to Walt.
Denouement: In the thrilling series finale, Johnny’s visions of Walt lead to a shocking discovery about Johnny’s dad as secrets from the past are revealed.
The episodes are shown in 1.33:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and look really good. Each episode looks as if they were remastered a bit and come through the transition flawlessly. Don’t look for many bright colors here, because there aren’t many. But all the blacks look black and everything else is very sharp and crisp.
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and also sound great. The dialogue can be heard perfectly and the music never overpowers it. But when it is time for the music and sound effects to kick in, they do so in style and really make the mood and every scene that much better. That annoying buzzing/static sound is still there during the opening of each episode, but again it isn’t that big a deal.
A New Home For The Dead Zone – Te series had been on hiatus for nearly two years and filming went from Vancouver all the way across Canada to Montreal. This eight and a half minute feature goes into the troubles that come from shooting in a completely different location and forcing everyone to adjust. It ended up working out for the better though. Rather interesting.
All Board: Filming The Dead Zone On A Train – Cast and crew talk about what they are trying to accomplish while filming most episodes and then go into detail about shooting on the train this season. I am quite surprised that I never caught onto a lot of the episodes looking like old forties films which is the look they’re going for most of the time. So very cool and it never even hit me. They talk about the complications of shooting on a train and how they dealt with a few problems. This feature runs just over five and a half minutes.
Audio Commentaries – Some of the producers, actors, and writers get together for commentaries on four episodes. Some inside information is shared here and there along with just some fun banter which makes these commentaries well worth watching. Oddly enough during “Denouement,” the producers talk about possibly doing another season which I didn’t know anything about but I’d love to see.
It truly is a great series that deserved a lot more attention then it ever could have gotten being on the USA Network. Along with WWE, Burn Notice, Monk, and Psych just to name a few, The Dead Zone never got the credit it should have for being so enjoyable for six solid seasons. It pains me to know that no more episodes will ever be coming out for it unless that conversation with the producers during one of the audio commentaries has some truth in it. Still, I can always enjoy the DVD sets of each season. As I’ve said before for those of you who haven’t watched the series before, you don’t need to catch up to follow along. But it is sincerely recommended to pick up earlier seasons so you can follow totally along with it all. Hell, you might as well anyway because they’re probably only twenty bucks in most stores and they’ll provide you with some fun viewing material. The special features aren’t much here, but it’s the episodes you’re after so grab it and enjoy. Who knows, you just may develop a little psychic know-how strictly by television osmosis.
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Lionsgate presents The Dead Zone: The Final Season. Created by: Michael & Shawn Piller. Starring: Anthony Michael Hall, Chris Bruno, John L. Adams, Nicole de Boer, David Ogden Stiers, Bill Mondy, Cara Buono. Running time: 546 minutes on 3 discs. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: June 3, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
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