Surely, there are original and intriguing stories to be told on the topic of alien abduction, but on the basis of the two-hour premiere for USA's summer mini-series, The 4400, it doesn't appear like we'll be viewing any this season. The series is an amalgam of bits from other UFO trip takes:
- the Scully & Mulder-esque pair (Joel Gretsch & Jacqueline McKenzie) of mismatched investigators (working this time for Homeland Security, which apparently has more serious genre cred these days than the F.B.I.),
- the broadscope casting and suitably mournful theme song that reappears whenever we need to be reminded how hard it is to be a returning alien abductee in this cold cruel world - which we also got in 2002's The Taken
- a preternaturally knowing little girl (this 'un given to precognitive pronoucements), which we also saw in The Taken, plus
- Peter Coyote, the man who abducted E.T.!
The show follows several of these returnees - little girl Maia Rutledge (Conchita Campbell), who freaks out her foster parents by telling 'em where they'll eventually be buried; Richard Tyler (Mahershalalhazbaz Ali), a black soldier from the early fifties; Lily Moore (Laura Allen), a white housewife who turns out to granddaughter of the black soldier's lover, and sullen high-schooler Shawn Farrell (Patrick Fleuger) - as they attempt to readjust under the watchful eyes of the gummint. Michael Moriarty (who's fun to watch in most anything, though I personally made a point of steering past his telemovie performance as Mayor Giuliani [No wait . . .that was James Woods, wasn’t it? I always get those two confused - which one starred in Q again?]) gets to heavily emote as a pissed-off insurance exec named Orson Bailey (blending the radio War of the Worlds with It's A Wonderful Life?), who returns with the ability to mentally crush the skull of an obnoxious young punk who’s stolen his business from him. When Bailey appears outside his nemesis' gated home and starts throwing a telekinetic tantrum, I was hoping we were gonna see some serious head exploding. (We need more exploding heads on television, I think - especially on the news pundit shows.) While we don't get that, we do see a guy impaled on a pricey modern table leg, which is entertaining in its own right. Would've been cooler to have Bailey go all Scanners on the yuppie scum, but you can't have everything.
Article comments
1 - RJ
"Ricahrd [sic] Tyler (Mahershalalhazbaz Ali), a black soldier from the early fifties"
IF I remember correctly, he was a fighter pilot during the Korean War, not a soldier. (Were there any black fighter pilots back then?)
2 - RJ
"When Bailey appears outside his nemesis' gated home and starts throwing a telekinetic tantrum, I was hoping we were gonna see some serious head exploding."
Yeah, like in Scanners! :)
3 - RJ
"Would've been cooler to have Bailey go all Scanners on the yuppie scum, but you can't have everything."
Oh...sorry. You beat me to the "Scanners" reference! :-P
4 - Bill Sherman
You're right about him being a fighter pilot: I missed that specific detail, in part (as you note), because it seemed so historically improbable.
5 - Lupin
Why would a black fighter pilot be improbable in the Korean War?
Ever hear of the Tuskeegee Airmen, a famous black fighter pilot squadron in World War II?
http://www.kent.wednet.edu/KSD/SJ/TuskegeeAirmen/Tuskegee_HomePage.html
6 - Bill Sherman
True. But they were, if memory serves, a unit unto themselves - though the info we receive on 4400 is scant, Tyler appears to be the sole black pilot among a group of racist white pilots. That still seems more of a stretch to me, given the era, though I'm ready to be proven wrong. . .
7 - Lupin
We're discussing a fictional tv series about alien abductees who are returned home and you think having a black fighter pilot amongst white pilots during the Korean war is a bit of a stretch? :>
8 - RJ
LOL...
In the future, anything is possible.
In the past, only certain things are possible.
A black American fighter pilot during the Korean War is not IMPOSSIBLE, just really friggin' IMPROBABLE...
9 - Lupin
Neither impossible NOR improbable :)
http://korea50.army.mil/history/factsheets/afroamer.shtml
"In 1950, the Air Force had 25 black pilots in integrated fighter squadrons..."
10 - Bill Sherman
Good thing I was ready to be proven wrong. . . :)
11 - RJ
Thanks for the link. I really didn't know that... :-/