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At the beginning of this series, a meteor is headed straight for Earth. Yet instead of being a feared "deep impact," it turns out to slow down just before crashing, offer a big flash of light, then quickly dissipates into nothing. How ironic! This series itself looked like it would hit its mark in the sci-fi world with a very big bang, yet to many "onlookers," the season finale piffled it all away. In other words: Man, this was a real close one!

Here's the potential "deep impact" in sci-fi that the series premiere delivered. A meteor sized UFO is detected, headed straight for Earth. It comes at such a steady pace, people can even come to its projected "landing site" to see its arrival. Upon arriving to its destination somewhere in the state of Washington, various onlookers are shocked to see the ball of light flash into nothing, only to leave in its wake 4400 abductees, each of whom had disappeared sometime in the past 100 years. Nobody knows what happened to these people or why, but one thing's certain: the local FBI must keep a very sharp eye on "The 4400."

Heading the cases of these 4400 are Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie). You'd think that these agents would have a hard time hunting down 4400 people among billions, but fortunately for them (and the series), a few unlikely yet good-for-TV plot elements help the agents along. For one thing the 4400 all seem to be centralized in Washington state, so it's not like they have to search too far and wide for a 4400 case. Secondly, each member of the 4400 was returned with a special power of some kind, be it premonition, ESP, or powers to heal injury. Tom and Diana must simply listen around for anything "strange" going on. In short; this series is a lot like the best of The X-Files. Cool.

We quickly learn that Tom and Diana have direct ties to these cases. Diana's heart goes out to a young girl among the 4400, Maia (Conchita Campbell), who scared away all her prospective foster parents with her strange premonitions. Diana quickly decided to be her foster mother herself. As for Tom, his own son is in a coma because of a failed "abduction," making him particularly obsessed to know what happened to The 4400, and who or what is responsible. As it turns out, his son Kyle and nephew Shawn (Patrick Flueger) were camping, right when Kyle was about to be abducted. Shawn instinctively pushed him out of the way of the ray of light that was abducting him, leaving Kyle in a coma...and Shawn abducted instead! Although who or what abducted him corrected the error somewhat by giving Shawn healing powers (including the powers to possibly revive Kyle), Tom is still a bit wary of his returning nephew, and the 4400. Why did they leave his son in a coma all these years?

What makes this series so intriguing is that it is more than simply a "solve one case every week" format. Many of the most intriguing abductees are part of the serial story. Maia has the ability to know what will happen to whomsoever she's close to; a trait that can help her new foster mother, Diana. Meanwhile, Tom has barely even touched the surface of his complicated relationship between he, his son Kyle, and his nephew Shawn. Topping of the list of recurring characters are Richard (Mahershala Karin-Ali) and Lily (Laura Allen), the latter of whom is pregnant, though she doesn't know how or why(!). Though it is a bit weird that Richard first falls in love with her because, at the time of his abduction, he was dating her grandmother (!), it's a sweet enough love story, Twilight Zone undertones or not.

Sounds like a sci-fi hit, doesn't it? Yes, much like that meteor from the series premiere, all signs are for this series making a "deep impact"...then the finale airs. Now, spoiler hunters beware, because I must reveal what this finale reveals, to explain why I was so disappointed in this series. Don't worry; even if this series were to return --which wouldn't be anytime before 2005-- it isn't like you don't have to know what happened in the cliffhanger. That now said; here we go...

Here's the deal: these folks were not abducted by aliens. They were abducted by humans, sometime in the future. Why? Good question. It seems that they are supposed to alter the timeline somehow, preventing an apparent apocalypse. This final solution to the mystery is a whole lot of "silly," because it makes no sense. Why choose a soldier from the 1940's, as opposed to one in 2004? Why kidnap a little girl in the 1920's, as opposed to one in 2004? Heck; as people who can alter time, they could've plucked someone from August 1st, 2004, and put them right back at the same time and place, right? So why all the plucking various people from various timelines...? At least with the alien abduction story you could shrug off the "why" and "how" of these random people abducted, "because they're aliens, and we all look alike to them, so they took abductees at random." I know that some people will tell me that there's some advanced reason for humans from the future to choose this or that person to abduct in this story, and yet to me it makes little sense.

Likewise for the final shot, "six months later." First of all; how stupid is it to have a giant leap to "six months later" in a proposed series? If this series is to continue, every single story must leap ahead --Tom, Diane, Kyle, Shawn, Maia, etc.-- just so we could view some tiny detail about Lily's baby. On the way to the maternity ward of the local hospital, all the nearby pine trees bend to the direction of Lily's car. What does this mean? I sure hope it isn't some tale of a "baby of prophesy who will save us all," which is likely to be a bit too biblical for some, and as for me, even seems a bit blasphemous. It also was completely unnecessary. This series was at first one of those enjoyably easy to comprehend sci-fi concepts that could've lasted a decade. Simply solve X-File style cases on a weekly basis, involving a new abductee each week, and a new Twilight-Zone style story of their quest to live with their newfound powers. This would've been a brilliant series storyline. Who among the 4400's writers thought "The Bending Pine Trees Baby" was a better idea?

Want to bring this series back? Here's what you do. Have Tom learn that the aliens (yes: aliens) were feeding him a big fat juicy pile of hooey. Then have those trees that bent in the direction of the baby be because of some powerful ESP of the child, or whatever, and he doesn't quite know how to control these powers yet. Then get back to the stories of simple people given not-so-simple powers, doing not so simple things. Why do they do this? Who knows. Telling us it's all to prepare for the coming of Mr. Bending Pine Trees Baby doesn't cut it. Putting your peanut butter accidentally into my chocolate is one thing. Putting your cockeyed views of modernized "religion" into my science fiction is even worse.

	Final Rating : Near miss. The beginning was good; the finale was not. If this was ever picked up as a regular series, the new (yes, please: new) writers would have a lot of loose plot fringe to clip away.
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The 4400

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