Television you may have missed
Two limited summer television series ended Sunday and Monday nights. One was the 4400 on A&E and the other was the Grid on TNT. These were both excellent shows with some problems. In the 4400 a group of people who had disappeared over a number of years (4400 of them, to be exact) is abruptly returned to earth. Why? By the end of the series it is obvious they have been sent back for a purpose, but what is it?
The Grid shows the NSC, the FBI and the CIA along with Britain's MI5 and 6 chasing terrorists. As might be expected, the good guys win (that's us in the good old US of A) but the Brits have to put with some sarin incidents. One terrorist I had really hoped would turn out to be a double agent actually turned out to be a bad guy, but he didn't kill Americans or Brits, just Arab anti-terrorists so he might be reformed sometime in the future.
The series weren't perfect. Both of them seemed to be edited by the same man who was a graduate of the old Laugh In school of editing, lots of quick jumps, some that had to have identifications (in the Grid) as to where we were now. It seemed to me to be jerky, but I've read that a lot of people who grew up on television and MTV, in particular, don't have long attention spans so maybe he was addressing this. In the other case, both were a bit too predictable for someone who has followed both genres as long as I have. But that doesn't mean they weren't new to others. However, one scene in the Grid seemed straight of the last few minutes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Both of them left enough loose ends dangling that they may be brought back in mid-year, or next summer. If you can stand the editing, they are pretty good.
The Grid shows the NSC, the FBI and the CIA along with Britain's MI5 and 6 chasing terrorists. As might be expected, the good guys win (that's us in the good old US of A) but the Brits have to put with some sarin incidents. One terrorist I had really hoped would turn out to be a double agent actually turned out to be a bad guy, but he didn't kill Americans or Brits, just Arab anti-terrorists so he might be reformed sometime in the future.
The series weren't perfect. Both of them seemed to be edited by the same man who was a graduate of the old Laugh In school of editing, lots of quick jumps, some that had to have identifications (in the Grid) as to where we were now. It seemed to me to be jerky, but I've read that a lot of people who grew up on television and MTV, in particular, don't have long attention spans so maybe he was addressing this. In the other case, both were a bit too predictable for someone who has followed both genres as long as I have. But that doesn't mean they weren't new to others. However, one scene in the Grid seemed straight of the last few minutes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Both of them left enough loose ends dangling that they may be brought back in mid-year, or next summer. If you can stand the editing, they are pretty good.
posted by Chuck Rightmire at 9:11 PM
1 Comments:
David: Thank you. I had to admit I enjoyed the series, but at my age jumping around like that wears out the old gray cells. But I will watch them if they come back.
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