TV Review: USA Network's the 4400

As anyone who watches with any regularity can attest, television viewing can be something of a crap shoot during the summer months. In the summer absence of the hit shows we all got hooked on during the fall - 24, Lost, and after this past season, Heroes all come to mind here - summer is that notorious time that the networks trot out their replacement fare.

For television, this usually means that the summer months are relegated to something like a science experiment. Since presumably no one is watching anyway, the networks will often use this time to try out the shows they weren't so willing to take a chance on during the fall season. Generally speaking, these replacement programs will fill space for a few weeks before becoming completely forgotten by the time the big guns are rolled out for fall.

One summer series which has refreshingly bucked this trend is USA Network's The 4400. Now in its fourth season, the sci-fi drama has drawn not only decent ratings, but has even developed something of a devoted fan base. Set in Seattle, the show's premise revolves around a group of 4400 individuals who mysteriously vanish, then are returned unharmed, unaged, and newly gifted with various paranormal abilities.

Early on in the show, the implication was that these people had been abducted and returned by aliens. More recently, this assumption has shifted somewhat to where it now appears to be a future version of ourselves who took these folks. They have also been tasked with a mission to save mankind from some unknown future calamity.

Since my personal nitpicks about this show number so few, I'll dispense with those here and now. As I said, the show is set in Seattle. But as someone who was born and raised here, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that the show isn't filmed anywhere near Seattle.