Hooked on "The 4400"

I seldom watch network TV preferring to rent videos every so often. I had never heard of the series The 4400 on USA Network until Netflix recommended it as something I might like. I read the excerpt and decided to give it a try then rented the first DVD with the pilot episode and immediately got hooked.

The premise is that 4400 people got abducted by some kind of aliens or something (not explained until later). The abductions took place at different times from 1946 until 2001. Then one day all of them get returned to Seattle in a ball of light (seemingly a comet that comes to Earth). Time has not passed for them and they are all confused, not knowing what happened. Some of them start showing signs of special abnormal abilities, most of them for the good. The show is written and produced by some of the screen writers and creators of Star Trek TNG and Deep Space 9, René Echevarría and Ira Steven Behr. Ira was the main mind behind the development of the Ferengi race and the creator of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.

Even though it is Science Fiction it does not have many special effects or green alien monsters. Instead it deals with human relations, racism, religion, government's the power grab on the name of security and many issues we live through in the world after 9/11.

In the last two weeks I saw all the first and second seasons. They are now on their third season and I'll have to wait until they start repeating or until it comes out on DVD later in the year as this is certainly a show you'd want to see in sequence.

If you like well-written science fiction you should definitely give this one a try.