Spooky Summer Fun
A cosmic mystery unfolds in USA's 4400
If The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits had ever dabbled in miniseries, the result might have been something as mindteasingly enjoyable as The 4400, an "event series" continuing on Sundays through August 8. Judging from the two-hour opener, this is the summer treat many of us have been waiting for. The 4400 refers to the thousands of people who, over the course of decades, mysteriously vanished in a white glare of light. The story kicks in as all 4400 return en masse, emerging from the mist of a strange comet. None has aged a day, and no one remembers a thing.
This is science fiction with a soul, following the painful readjustment of "returnees" to their disrupted lives while paranoid government types investigate the bizarre circumstances of their absence. The likeliest scenario: alien abduction, a theory given credence when some of the formerly missing exhibit strange new psychic abilities, including healing and precognition.
In the case of a businessman (Michael Moriarty) gone since 1979, the loss of his business and his wife triggers displays of telekinetic violence reminiscent of Stephen King's Carrie.
Any resemblance of The 4400 to Sci Fi Channel's Emmy-winning Taken is reinforced by casting Joel Gretsch, Taken's memorable villain, as this drama's hero. A Homeland Security agent who teams with a female scientist to find answers, he has a personal stake here. His son went into a coma three years earlier upon witnessing his cousin's vanishing.
That's just one of the suspenseful subplots in a compulsively watchable thriller likely to leave many pining for a sequel.