I have been a very, very infrequent viewer of The 4400 on USA. My wife’s been following it more closely. I caught a pretty good chunk of Sunday night’s episode last weekend, since she was already watching it, and I realized two things very quickly:
1. I had no freakin’ idea what’s going on in the story anymore.
2. I had no one to root for.
I was really more concerned with the second point than the first, otherwise I would’ve been watching The 4400 all along. I’m sure that if I was more into the story, I’d probably have some insider’s knowledge that the plotline is a lot like Galactica: basically good people having to do some fairly shady things for survival’s sake. I remember, after part 1 of the Galactica episode Pegasus aired, I stomped into theLogBook’s virtual writers’ room and complained that the rapacious crew of the Battlestar Pegasus was one step too far over the line for me: the story had officially gotten too dark. And I think I remember making the same comment about the cluster of six “Others” episodes at the beginning of the third season of Lost – sure I wanted to know more about the Others, but I just wasn’t interested in seeing Sawyer tortured or beaten to a pulp week after week. In both cases, the shows righted themselves after these moments of extreme darkness, and in the discussion of Galactica, it was pointed out to me that, as much trouble had been taken by the writers to show what kind of grey-area, situational-ethics decision making our heroes on Galactica had relied on to survive, the Pegasus crew had to be shown to be even more questionable in their judgement and conduct. I can grok that.
I’m sure the situation is the same with The 4400, but not being an avid follower of the story, I just don’t realize it. What nagged at me is that, unlike Lost and Galactica, I couldn’t tell who was supposed to be the bad guy. I was able to divine the differing agendas and philosophies of the two main characters on either side of the divide, but both of them were exhibiting such reprehensible behavior that I couldn’t see who I was supposed to root for. But what struck me was that my wife, who has been an avid follower of The 4400, said “I don’t like where they’re going with this show.”
I know we live in the age of the anti-hero, in an age where there is no such clear-cut decision that isn’t a questionable one. I know we live in an age where there are worse monsters walking among us than a couple of well-dressed, eloquently-spoken TV characters who have intensely charismatic dialogue written for them that outlines their worldviews and why they oppose…well…whoever the heck it is they happen to be opposing in this week’s episode. And I know we live in a world where players on both sides of any given conflict, however well-meaning their motivations, display reprehensible behavior. The people on TV have got nothin’ on the real life villains on both sides of the playing field.
But geez, people. Give us some hint of who’s on the side of the angels, however misguided they may be. The tale of someone who sets out to fight the good fight, falls and is redeemed is a morality play. The tale of everyone falling and not finding redemption is just nihilism. I’m not asking for characters wearing white hats or black hats, but instead just the barest hint of an honorable motivation somewhere.
Disjointed is the word I’ve been feeling lately about the series. I agree with your reasons but I have another reason for feeling this way: the show lost interest in its main storyline. If you recall from the first season the big question was “Who did this and why?”. Later on we discover the culprits are from the future and they did it to stop some vaguely described catastrophe. Since the revelation, the show has done a poor job of advancing that main storyline: We don’t know much more than we did after the great reveal. Sure we get hints every once in a while but those are very unsatisfying and it’s clear the writers are more interested in these side story lines than anything else.
A couple things have happened in the show that annoyed me. Remember when Diana, the hot federal agent, was dating the science geek? I thought that was pretty cool but then she dropped him like a hot rock so she could chase after her sister’s boyfriend. That wasn’t very nice of her and I started losing interest in that character. It certainly made me think she wasn’t a good mother to the young 4400 who could predict the future.
Another annoyance was when they brought back Isabelle, the woman who transformed from a baby to adult in a matter of weeks. Do they want us to sympathize with this character? Why? She wanted to commit genocide and she did all sorts of other bad things. I was glad they got rid of her but then they brought her back!
They also get rid of characters I would like to stick around. Why did they get rid of Alana, the woman who could create realities in your head? I liked her, a lot and they got rid of her PDQ. She’s still around, just off in hiding. Bring her back! And then Tom Baldwin shows how much he loves her by dating his boss! What an ass!
It’s fine for characters to do something unethical or questionable and then agonize over it but these guys do it regularly and it doesn’t seem to bother them. You’re right, why should I care about these characters?
I’ll still watch the show but I lost the urgency and wonder I felt from the first two seasons.
BTW, you are the first person I know, either online or IRL, that has mentioned watching the 4400. I remember last year starting a thread on DP about the 4400, asking if it was a rip-off of the X-men or not. The thread got zero responses. What a letdown.
I must’ve missed the DP thread. I know this show has a following, somewhere. It must have.
But you hit the nail on the head of why I can enjoy Galactica more than The 4400: you do have people agonizing over their choices. Apollo apparently doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. (And then he climbs back into the cockpit in the season finale – make up your mind, Lee, you schmuck!) I’m not seeing that in the current episodes of The 4400. Maybe since I’m not a watch-every-week follower – I’m more of a watch-once-a-month-or-more-often-if-I-happen-to-flip-through-the-channels-and-it’s-on type unless some storyline really grips me – there’s a slow burn to these characters that I’m not seeing. But it can’t just be me – between your observations and my wife’s, if indeed I can use that as any kind of a random audience sampling, it seems like even the more ardent supporters of the show feel like they’re being left at the curb here.
Ah well. I’m gonna hunker down and wait for the new season of Heroes.
Here’s the thread: linky.
I’ve watched every episode and the characters do indeed jump from one ethical or moral misbehavior to another without any agonizing about it. It’s downright nihilist at times. They almost act like career criminals or even serial killers: disassociating themselves during that time of crisis.
[…] An interesting blog post came through on my Google Alerts from Earl Green’s Scribblings From The Public Restroom where he caught an episode of the 4400 recently. While watching it, he thought of a couple of things, most particularly, that he had no one to root for on the show any more. I’m sure the situation is the same with The 4400, but not being an avid follower of the story, I just don’t realize it. What nagged at me is that, unlike Lost and Galactica, I couldn’t tell who was supposed to be the bad guy. I was able to divine the differing agendas and philosophies of the two main characters on either side of the divide, but both of them were exhibiting such reprehensible behavior that I couldn’t see who I was supposed to root for. But what struck me was that my wife, who has been an avid follower of The 4400, said “I don’t like where they’re going with this show.†[…]