4400: Past Is Prologue
October 25, 2021 7:23 PM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Over the last century at least four thousand four hundred people who vanished without a trace off the face of the planet. Last night they were all returned to Detroit having not aged a day and with no memory of what happened to them. (CW reboot)
Variety - The CW’s ‘4400’ Is a Back-From-the-Past Reboot That Benefits From a Light Touch: TV Review
Variety - ‘4400’ Reappears as CW Drama Focused on Character Rather Than Sci-Fi Clues: "They key to cracking their version of the story, Jackson tells Variety, was not to worry about whether the original already tackled a particular piece of story. (In the original series, characters spent a lot of time thinking extraterrestrials were the beings behind the abductions, but it turned out to be human time-travelers from the future.) “4400” features the same amount of taken and returned individuals as the original — and the number will be significant in the story, Nayar confirms — but this time around, they are all marginalized people who disappeared during the last century. The cast of characters range from a spoiled party girl (LaDonna, played by Khailah Johnson), who returns from only five years ago, to a young mother and lawyer who has been gone for almost two decades (Shanice, played by Brittany Adebumola) to a trans doctor who hails from 1920s Harlem (Andre, played by T.L. Thompson)."
TV Line recap
Variety - The CW’s ‘4400’ Is a Back-From-the-Past Reboot That Benefits From a Light Touch: TV Review
Variety - ‘4400’ Reappears as CW Drama Focused on Character Rather Than Sci-Fi Clues: "They key to cracking their version of the story, Jackson tells Variety, was not to worry about whether the original already tackled a particular piece of story. (In the original series, characters spent a lot of time thinking extraterrestrials were the beings behind the abductions, but it turned out to be human time-travelers from the future.) “4400” features the same amount of taken and returned individuals as the original — and the number will be significant in the story, Nayar confirms — but this time around, they are all marginalized people who disappeared during the last century. The cast of characters range from a spoiled party girl (LaDonna, played by Khailah Johnson), who returns from only five years ago, to a young mother and lawyer who has been gone for almost two decades (Shanice, played by Brittany Adebumola) to a trans doctor who hails from 1920s Harlem (Andre, played by T.L. Thompson)."
TV Line recap
I gave it a rewatch recently and... can't remember either. Not sure it really needs a reboot but it definitely needs to make up for the Autism $peaks episode somehow.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 6:04 AM on October 26, 2021
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 6:04 AM on October 26, 2021
I am a big fan of remaking things that had unrealized potential. The original version of The 4400 definitely had its moments.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:44 AM on October 26, 2021
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:44 AM on October 26, 2021
I mostly enjoyed the first one, semi-binging some. But the viewpoint of a police in the first and social worker/parole officer(?) in this, seems too narrow. It seems to need a bit of a wider perspective, like the interviewers would have been given a little review as a group and there would've been a hundred or more in a room getting instructions. Not that a the perspective of regular folk are not valid but it seems like the big mysteries would be stirring up more interest in many sectors.
And the gossip chain would have been buzzing with the bits of supernatural powers.
posted by sammyo at 3:33 PM on October 27, 2021
And the gossip chain would have been buzzing with the bits of supernatural powers.
posted by sammyo at 3:33 PM on October 27, 2021
The side characters were engaging enough that I finished this. Barely. It decays rapidly.
Never saw the original, but this feels like a completely uninspired remake of an old original that might have been pushing racial boundries - back then. It felt like a huge throwback. Does this qualify as a Christian movie?
There wasn't much substance for anyone to work with.
Low budget production shot obviously in Vancouver, with little effort into (hiding) localization.
Great premise, though. Admittedly, colour filtering it to make it look like you're watching it on grandpa's heavily nicotine-stained big tube television, inset in a really nicely carved hardwood enclosure housing vacuum tubes and stuff, is inspired.
--
BWA HAHA! , that ending.
The badness. The badness.
posted by porpoise at 9:22 PM on November 4, 2021
Never saw the original, but this feels like a completely uninspired remake of an old original that might have been pushing racial boundries - back then. It felt like a huge throwback. Does this qualify as a Christian movie?
There wasn't much substance for anyone to work with.
Low budget production shot obviously in Vancouver, with little effort into (hiding) localization.
Great premise, though. Admittedly, colour filtering it to make it look like you're watching it on grandpa's heavily nicotine-stained big tube television, inset in a really nicely carved hardwood enclosure housing vacuum tubes and stuff, is inspired.
--
BWA HAHA! , that ending.
The badness. The badness.
posted by porpoise at 9:22 PM on November 4, 2021
I enjoyed the 4400 characters so far. It's definitely a different feel happening in Detroit, not so much of a public event so that these poor people are hidden away easily, More of a "the government kidnapped innocent citizens and now what?" feel than the sci-fi-ness.
I can't figure out if they are living in our reality pandemic 2021 or not, because some security people have KN95 masks on and there's plastic barriers, but then the 4400 clearly haven't been told about it and every one of them is mask-free. I wonder if they're following more "quarantine protocols" or not?
God, I hate that one guard. Uggggh!
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:42 PM on December 4, 2021
I can't figure out if they are living in our reality pandemic 2021 or not, because some security people have KN95 masks on and there's plastic barriers, but then the 4400 clearly haven't been told about it and every one of them is mask-free. I wonder if they're following more "quarantine protocols" or not?
God, I hate that one guard. Uggggh!
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:42 PM on December 4, 2021
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I'm liking this reboot though.
posted by oh yeah! at 7:45 PM on October 25, 2021