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"Back
to The Dead Zone" A couple weeks back I spouted opinion on the new USA network series The Dead Zone, and promised and/or threatened a follow-up after a few episodes had aired. Well clench one hand to your heart, raise the other to the heavens and shout, " It's the big one Elizabeth !"--I wasn't just flingin the bull this time ! (Don't let it get around though, it could hurt my reputation...) After being sure that the idea of turning Stephen King's novel/ David Cronenberg's film into a series was a bad idea -- to the point that I really didn't even want to watch the first episode -- my preconceptions were pleasantly and quickly called into doubt after a viewing. Though the storyline of the first ( and second ) episodes were retelling and only slightly reworking a story any true horror fan is familiar with, for a television adaptation it wasn't bad ! The ol' curiosity was peaked, but a certain cynicism remained. The question left hanging before us at that time was in what direction the writers would take things once they ran out of novel to rehash. Would it be another "Millenium" or "The Sixth Sense", with our psychic-sleuth helping to solve the crime-of-the-week? Only a psychic or the gaffer on the set could know for sure. Not being psychic or a frequenter of gaffer chatrooms, I had to wait and see just like everyone else. Even after being favorably impressed with the first episode, I somehow still didn't find myself particularly looking forward to watching again. Nonetheless, it's what Count Gore doesn't pay me for, and I did make that damnable commitment to a follow-up. So I've been watching, and becoming inexplicably engrossed in, The Dead Zone. The program has chosen the "high road", shying away from any hackneyed cops & robbers pablum, and instead presenting interesting character studies and thoughtful commentary on the dichotomy of humanity. Rather than a whodunnit this is more a whydunnit, with our resident psychic's unraveling of personal issues outweighing the ferreting of bad guys. Tension and release is used to great effect, without ever becoming heavy-handed in the drama or awkward in it's moments of comedy. The humor grows naturally from interaction between characters, and is often bittersweet--and comfortably reminicent of The X-Files lighter moments. There is an important quality present in all good tv, that being that the viewer forgets he is watching actors and instead becomes a voyeuristic fly-on-the-wall. Rather than waiting for some inevitable other shoe to drop that will wrap a mystery up into a tidy package, The Dead Zone takes us into the tightest center of the riddle and then unravels it thread by thread. The opening credits may be enough to make some leary of the show. When Anthony Michael Hall (The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, The Pirates of Silicon Valley ) pops up as not only the lead actor but also co-producer, the natural inclination is to reach for the remote. Give it a chance though. Some fine character actors from the old and new schools have already made appearances, and Hall is holding his own admirably. Once you get the image of the skinny geek from Sixteen Candles out of your head, his understated interpretation of Johnny Smith the reluctant-yet-driven-antihero-with-second-sight starts to grow on you. Check out The Dead Zone on the USA network, and judge for yourself if this whole review is just a buncha monkey-dung. Well, ok, so we know the review is a big pile o' Bonzo flop--but tune into The Dead Zone anyway. It's entertainment that is ninety-nine and three-quarters percent feces-free! Speaking of which -- it's getting pretty deep in here. Better run before Gore makes me clean this mess up! Swatting flys and wearing my hip-waders,
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