James Chamberlin

I was really shocked when USA canceled both The Dead Zone and The 4400. Although The Dead Zone had seen better days and I would agree it would have been on my chopping block if I were heading up the network, I never saw The 4400 getting axed. This was a pretty big shakeup for me because during the summer, I always turn to USA for the terrific programming there.

There are a few decent shows on now… In Plain Sight, Fear Itself, Dirty Jobs, The Mole, but the good stuff isn’t here yet. I’m still waiting for PSYCH, Monk, and Burn Notice (all USA shows) to air this July. Burn Notice was a lot of fun to watch last year. I can’t wait to see it this year now that USA has an HD channel in the U.S.

I’ll probably catch up on some of my fall TV viewing. I’m still behind on several shows. I didn’t seem to have enough time to catch everything this past season. Other than In Plain Sight, the only new series I expect to be watching is ABC’s Wipeout. It looks like some of the Japanese gameshows I’ve enjoyed watching on cable TV.

Eric Lizotte

With summer comes several tasty TV treats. One of which is the most excellent Burn Notice, which is coming back for its second season this July. There’s nothing quite like quasi-realistic spy action–oh, not to forget ex-girlfriends that know to… handle themselves–to lift ones spirits. So, it’ll definitely be worth tuning into to see what Michael Weston and company get up to this time round, especially since he’s off to meet the man who burned him, or is he?

Another sweet morsel to check out this summer–particularly if you’re a history buff or like fun, useless knowledge–is PBS’s History Detectives. The researchers on this show are all top notch and are always able, through their findings, it seems, no matter how obscure the topic or item in question, to bring history to life.

Charles White

I don’t feel like there’s really anything special coming out this summer. Unfortunately due to the writer’s strike, a lot of the shows that I see are reality shows ripped off of other reality shows I’ve seen. There are a couple of shows though out there that might hold us over ’til summer.

In Plain Sight is interesting; it’s not nearly as good or as fun to watch as Burn Notice, but it has potential. Mary is an interesting character and even though she’s female, she very much has a male mindset. The show has started off decent, but it needs something more. The concept of the show is that she works in the witness protection, but in my opinion the interesting part is watching Mary control her personal life. There should be more personal life problems in this show and more of a focus on how much trouble she has balancing her personal and work life.

Weeds is probably my most anticipated show that I’m waiting for. Last season Nancy was forced to move out of Agrestic. The cast will be changed or downgraded quite a bit this season, so it should be interesting to see if Weeds has jumped the shark or if this could be the best thing for the show.

I’m also watching So You Think You Can Dance, which to me is better then American Idol. With the contestants and judges, it feels like this show really wants to help the contestants and you can see the passion that the dancers have.

I’d also like to start watching Burn Notice, I didn’t watch much of the first season, due to lack of time, but it was a very fun show to watch. This summer seems a little dry, but along with the shows I’ve mentioned, there will probably be some hidden gems that pop up along the way this summer.

With the end of the series on its way, it does appear that the mythology of the show will come to a conclusion. The mythology, of course, is what happened to Trudy. Who killed her and why.

Thankfully, we’ll have other shows to watch alongside Monk. PSYCH and Burn Notice were both renewed. USA Network programming is some of my favorite, but it’s too bad The Dead Zone and The 4400 were canceled.

Well, back to work…

Sheriff Anna Turner, played by Cara Buono, used to be more reluctant to believe Johnny and visions, but she seems to be warming up to him slightly in this respect. Sheriff Turner, who is not only trying to help Johnny find the man who may be buried alive, but she is also focused on an old case. The fact that she can’t focus on just one makes things a little frustrating, and makes Johnny curious. He has a few visions when near Sheriff Turner, which show her brother dying and one of his friends nearby, having a good time.

As Johnny has more visions about the man who has been buried, he gathers more clues. He’s able to find the identity of the man, but he’s gone missing. His office has been ransacked, and his business partner seems concerned. According to the partner, the man who we believe is buried alive ran into some financial problems and borrowed money from a loan shark who wants his money.

Sheriff Turner pays the loan shark a visit and learns of the dealings which have taken place and it seems the man’s partner is the one who borrowed money. An additional vision takes Johnny and the partner right to the man who has been buried. Vulnerable, Johnny gets whacked in the head by the business partner, who promptly re-buries Johnny and his old business partner.

Sheriff Turner, who has finished her meeting with Deatz, the loan shark, checks her phone to reveal a voice mail she received from Johnny. It leads her right to the burial plot.

Johnny and the sheriff focus their attention on the dirty business partner and Deatz and are able to arrest them both. They’re caught red-handed with a large sum of money.

Meanwhile, Johnny learns more about the sheriff’s old case. It seems Sheriff Turner’s brother fell off a roof while he and his friend were as high as a kite and she blames the friend for supplying her brother with the drugs. With the friend recently released from jail for good behavior, Sheriff Turner is prepared for revenge. Johnny stops her and tells her about his own story and how he was unable to save Walt. Their conversation is fairly emotional for the show and it gave them a little area to connect, so perhaps something could develop, but I wouldn’t bet money on it.

The Dead Zone – Interred
Original Air Date: July 15, 2007

Rating: 7.4

The young girl, Monique, plays the character Alice in the Alice-in-Wonderland themed circus performance. J.J. seems to be mesmerized by Monique’s acrobat training but reveals to Johnny that he’s very shy when he gets near her. Johnny scolds J.J. for his sneaking off and lying about it to he, Sarah, and the coach.

While at the circus, Johnny has a vision of a blond woman being killed in the hall of mirrors fun-house. Johnny also runs into an old friend from high school, Lorenzo. Lorenzo tells Johnny about how he actually owns the circus and bought it a long time ago and has worked hard to transform it into something much different.

Johnny continues to have visions of the young woman being killed as weird things begin to happen on the circus grounds. Lorenzo seems to be the target of someone who is angry at him. When it is revealed that a man by the name of Duncan has been doing these things, he’s placed under arrest. It seems he was charged for the murder of Alice, the woman who was killed in the hall of mirrors. He was released from prison just two weeks ago and seems to have a beef with Lorenzo.

As “Big Top” continues, Johnny puts additional pieces of the puzzle together and realizes Lorenzo was the one who killed Alice, not Duncan. He gets the sheriff (Cara Bruno) to arrest him and lets Duncan free.

A grounded J.J. sneaks out of his room to meet up with Monique at the circus, much to the surprise of Sarah and Johnny. They quickly rush to the circus where things seem to have gone wrong. Monique has been performing for J.J. and the cables seem to have malfunctioned. As Johnny gets there, he sees Duncan trying to save Monique, but he’s not strong enough to pull her up. When Monique crashes to the ground, J.J. catches her.

The murder mystery wasn’t particularly interesting. I did, on the other hand, find J.J.’s interest in Monique a little more interesting. It’s good to see he’s taken an interest in girls, but his behavior will result in a long-term grounding by the looks of things.

Speaking of J.J., it seems the writers may give J.J. the same sort of visionary abilities Johnny has. There were a few moments in tonight’s episode where J.J. seemed to know what would happen, and Johnny even questioned him about it. I’d be interested in seeing just where all of this goes.

The new sheriff, played by Cara Bruno, made a few appearances in this episode, and I have to admit I don’t care for the character one bit. There aren’t many redeeming qualities about her. She’s very rough around the edges, so to speak, and I’m wondering if she will just be a temporary character, who gets killed off in a few weeks.

The Dead Zone – Big Top
Original Air Date: July 08, 2007

Rating: 7.6

Throughout the episode, Johnny is able to pull together pieces of what’s wrong. One vision shows the shuttle crashing into Earth and a group of guys in biohazard suits looking over the wreckage. It turns out there’s a nuclear experiment on-board. Just wonderful. There is also a leak in the shuttle. Without oxygen, the crew will be dead fairly soon.

Some time passes before Johnny is able to come up with a solution. A satellite is moved to fly over Denver so that one of the crew members can see it. Morse code is used on the lights and the government is able to re-establish communication and walk them through the repairs needed for a safe re-entry.

In this episode, we see that not only did Sarah and J.J. move in with Johnny, but the town folk are beginning to gossip over her pregnancy and how she’s spending more time with Johnny. Well, by the end of the episode, we see Sarah giving birth to her new son.

I’m not sure what it was with the episode, but I enjoyed it a bit more than other episodes of the series. Perhaps it was the space theme or maybe it was the humor between Sarah and Johnny in the kitchen in one scene. Either way, it was enjoyable. I would have preferred to see Sarah remain pregnant for another episode or two, as it seems awfully soon after Walt’s death for her to give birth.

The Dead Zone – Re-Entry
Original Air Date: July 01, 2007

Rating: 7.2

When Johnny meets the woman the sheriff supposedly shoots in the vision, he learns she is a psychologist. He has another vision of her, but it seems she has three patients who may be out to get her and he warns her of the obvious danger. Instead of thanking Johnny for the warning, the psychologist would rather analyze Johnny and see what the visions have to do with him. Of course, Johnny doesn’t really want anything to do with this, but who would?!

At the Bannerman residence, J.J. has stepped up and has become more responsible. With his father dead, J.J. feels he needs to be the man of the house, but he’s having nightmares of his father screaming. Johnny promises not to tell his mom, but you know darn well this promise will be broken at some point.

When Johnny drops by the sheriff’s office again, he has a vision of the new sheriff using Walt’s computer. The sheriff had to confiscate it because it was bought and paid for by the state. Well, in Johnny’s vision, the sheriff is shocked to find some sort of financial account belonging to Walt which has a very large sum of money in it. She calls someone and asks him/her to look into the account. Johnny then confronts the sheriff about her investigation into Walt, but she’s not interested in what Johnny has to say about Walt’s great character.

While in town, Johnny recognizes one of the patients from his vision so he follows him. Unfortunately, things don’t go so well.

Elsewhere in town, Johnny learns of a man losing his temper and breaking things in a bar. Johnny asks the owner about what the man looks like and Johnny realizes the men he has visions of are all the same person. He just has multiple personalities. He has this confirmed when he asks the psychologist.

Towards the end, Johnny learns more about the psychologist and the third man in his vision. It seems the psychologist has changed her name and has relocated here to get away from an old boyfriend. He has been following her and is in town. Johnny and the sheriff go and try to save her from him, and they do. The sheriff is forced to shoot the boyfriend as he was attacking the psychologist.

When Sarah talks to J.J. about Walt, Sarah convinces him he doesn’t have to be the “man of the house”, but should focus on being a kid. It’s a fairly touching discussion, as you can only imagine what they’re going through.

The episode ends with Sarah and Johnny talking about how often he should stop by. Earlier, Sarah was a little upset about how often Johnny stops by. Johnny makes a fairly bold move when he asks Sarah to give some thought to she and J.J. moving in with him. He promises they would have their own wing of the house and won’t have to worry about so much when she gets closer to delivering her baby.

The mystery of tonight’s show wasn’t so mysterious or interesting. The Dead Zone has lost its edge a long time ago. The only thing I found interesting was the vision of Walt’s computer. Only having a glance at the computer screen, it looked like there was an awful lot of money in the bank account. I’m not quite sure where this story is headed.

The Dead Zone – Ego
Original Air Date: June 24, 2007

Rating: 7.0

According to Sarah, Walt has been acting funny recently. He’s been receiving lots of phone calls and anytime he’s on the computer emailing someone, Walt doesn’t want Sarah to look at the emails. While a wife would have perfectly good reasons to think her husband is cheating in this case, Johnny doesn’t believe Walt would do that to Sarah.

There are two instances where Johnny sees Walt being killed. One is in the police station and the other is during a chase through a little carnival. Fortunately, Johnny is able to save Walt on both occasions. When Johnny touches Walt to see if he gets another vision, nothing happens. Walt takes this as good news, but it doesn’t really mean much of anything.

Malcolm Janus and Vice President Greg Stillson are in town for a speech. Malcolm has some changes for Stillson’s speech, and you can see Stillson isn’t happy with them.

Rev. Purdy receives a visit from Malcolm a little later in the episode, and they have differing views for what the Faith Heritage should stand for and be used for. Purdy wants to go back to when the church was for the community, while Malcolm wants to use it to further Stillson’s political career.

We catch up with Walt, who has had to leave an angry Sarah to get a tip on a case. When Walt meets with an informant, we learn the case has something to do with Johnny, however no good details are divulged.

Johnny has another vision, but this time of Rev. Purdy. Johnny sees him in a fire at the church. He immediately calls Walt, who was on his way to meet Rev. Purdy. When Walt arrives at the church, he find it is on fire. He rushes in to save whoever he can.

A bit later, we find the fire department and paramedics are on the scene. The paramedics work on reviving Walt, but they are unsuccessful.

Johnny uses his “ability” and is able to put Sarah at ease by repeating a phrase only she and Walt said to one another. Johnny is also able to figure out Walt was able to save Rev. Purdy from the fire, but not Malcolm. The fire was caused by a struggle between Purdy and Malcolm. Purdy is distraught because he feels he is responsible for the death of both men.

The previews USA ran warned us about a character being killed, and Walt was the one I was expecting. I couldn’t see them killing off any other main character. One problem I had with the new episode was the casting change. The actor playing J.J. has changed, and it’s an obvious difference. I’m not certain why the change took place, but I hope no other changes like this are made.

The Dead Zone – Heritage
Original Air Date: June 17, 2007

Rating: 7.5