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Why I love The Dead Zone (and why you should give it a try) by Billie Doux [Originally published on N:Zone in 2004] The Dead Zone, currently running on USA, has just been renewed for a third season. Season one was recently released on DVD, giving those of you who missed it another chance to catch one of the most unique and fascinating shows on television. I love the show; I never miss it. It can be hard to catch for several reasons: (1) it's on USA, a place you don't tend to go for original shows; (2) it airs semi-late, ten p.m., on Sunday night, so I have to set up my tape machine because I get up at the crack of dawn on Mondays; (3) new episodes don't start in the fall, like most other shows, so it's hard to tell when a season starts and ends; and (4) because it's about the paranormal and looks weird from the outside, it's hard to tell how good it is until you start watching it. The seasons are not as long as the standard twenty-two, either. Season one of "The Dead Zone" had only thirteen episodes, and season two was extended from thirteen to nineteen. (The final six were referred to by the cast and crew as "season 2.5.") The length of season three is as yet undecided; if it's thirteen episodes, it will air starting in March; if it is twenty-two, it will start airing in June. Season two reruns are currently being aired. For me, one of the best things about "The Dead Zone" is that they air new episodes during the summer, which is usually a series wasteland. The Book, the Movie, and the Series "The Dead Zone" is about a high school teacher named John Smith, who is engaged to marry his childhood sweetheart, Sarah. One night, Johnny is in a devastating car crash; when he awakens from a coma six years later, Sarah is married to another man and has a son, and Johnny himself has acquired a frightening power -- the ability to see the past, present, or future by touching something or someone (the technical term is psychometry). I read the Stephen King book years ago, and I loved the original movie. In it, Johnny was played by Christopher Walken, who gave a remarkable performance; he makes your heart bleed for Johnny, who is much more of a tragic figure in the movie than in the series. Walken should have been nominated for best actor, and probably would have been if the story hadn't been paranormal. The creators of the series, father-son team Michael and Shawn Piller, made excellent decisions about what to keep from the original book and what to change in order to make the concept work better as a weekly series. And they managed to do it while keeping the feel of the book and the underlying motivations of the characters intact. Johnny is necessarily less tragic, but still has pathos and depth. The Series Cast Former brat packer Anthony Michael Hall (Johnny Smith) is perfect casting for the lead role. Hall has considerable acting talent, which is critical for such a complex character. Hall also plays other characters in Johnny's visions (he must be on the set twenty hours a day). Hall looks so different as an adult than he did in "The Breakfast Club" that at first I didn't realize who he was. There is a strong love triangle in the series, consisting of Johnny, his ex-fiancee Sarah, and her husband, Walt. In the original book, Sarah had a son by her husband; in the series, the child is Johnny's, conceived right before his accident. Nicole deBoer ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") is very good as the conflicted Sarah, who loves both Johnny and Walt. Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno) at first appears to be a one-dimensional obstacle to Johnny and Sarah, but the character has really grown on me; he's the strong, silent type, painfully shy with women, a truly good man who is devastated at the thought of losing Sarah and her son to Johnny. The writing in the series and good work by the actors make this a love triangle that works; as much as we want Johnny to get Sarah and his son back, we also don't want Sarah to hurt Walt. As the series progresses, Johnny and Walt, as the psychic and the cop, must often work together; almost in spite of themselves, they grow to like each other and develop mutual trust. Stand-up comic John L. Adams plays Johnny's friend and physical therapist, Bruce. The two of them play well off each other, and Adams gives Hall good dramatic support and provides comic relief. Recurring guest characters Reverend Gene Purdy (David Ogden Stiers) and politician Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery) are both excellent, as is Kristen Dalton, who plays reporter Dana Bright. Dana is a prickly, complex woman who is interested in Johnny from both a professional and a romantic viewpoint. The Stories and the Special Effects It's the stories that make this series work. An episode of "The Dead Zone" can be about literally anything: murder, a hostage situation, Osama bin Laden, a dinner date, jury duty, espionage, a plane crash. The only constant is the continuing characters and Johnny's visions, and many episodes do not include the entire cast (although they all include Johnny). The producers of "The Dead Zone" are to be commended for NOT falling into the special effects trap; their focus is always on the story, on what is happening to Johnny and the other characters and how it affects them, not on "let's make something that will look really cool." At the same time, the special effects used to create Johnny's visions are consistently outstanding; they are dramatic, disturbing and eerie, and sometimes outright shocking. The special effects work so well because they are there to help tell the story, not replace it or overpower it. There is a strong recurring story arc. At the end of season one, Johnny becomes obsessed with a slimy politician, Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery), whom Johnny knows will someday cause Armageddon. (Stephen King's moral dilemma in the book concerning Stillson was, if you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you do it?) The Stillson plotline, the main focus of the book and the movie, is a continuing, complex arc in the series and is still unresolved going into season three. "The Dead Zone" producers have chosen to stay connected to Stephen King. Elements of the original book (such as the tragic prom fire) pop up in the series, and a good deal of the first two episodes are taken straight out of the book with the dialogue intact. There are even occasional sly references to King throughout. There are conflicted religious overtones to the series as well, which I find fascinating. Johnny's guardian during his coma was his mother's lover, a televangelist named Gene Purdy (played by veteran actor David Ogden Stiers of "M*A*S*H" fame). Purdy's eventual belief that Johnny's gift comes from God, and Johnny's total discomfort with this idea, are great plot elements that add drama. As Johnny, inevitably and much against his will, becomes famous, he acquires fans, some of whom share Purdy's beliefs. Others are certifiable lunatics who make his life even more difficult. "The Dead Zone" producers and writers take chances. They don't always work out, but mostly they do. And because they take chances, the show is always entertaining; I never know what to expect, and I really love the unpredictability combined with the quality of this series. The Season One DVD The first season DVD set has four discs containing all thirteen episodes from the first season, plus an open slot and a coupon so that you can send away for a DVD of the unaired pilot, which costs $5.95. I just sent for it and haven't received it as yet, so I can't tell you what's in it. (Although I promise I'll review it when it arrives; check my "Dead Zone" page here on @N-Zone for updates!) [Note from much later: it contained the two-hour unaired pilot. See my review. The DVD, even without the unaired pilot, is just fabulous; it's what a DVD ought to be. The episodes are in the order chosen by the producers, not the network. It has an amazing number of extras that are characteristic of the care and effort that goes into the series. You get a lot for your money. 1. There are commentaries for EVERY EPISODE. Each commentary is done in groups of two to four people, including the cast, producers, directors, writers, and guest stars. All four members of the cast are included; John L. Adams does several, and Anthony Michael Hall does more than half of them. The content is what you would expect; they discuss what happened during shooting, how they shot certain scenes, where the locations were, what they were going for, what changed while they were filming. The strength of having so many different people doing the commentaries is that it gives the viewer many different perspectives into what goes on behind the scenes. 2. There is at least one good-sized feature on EVERY DISK. The five features ("Genesis," "Writing," "Music," "Special Effects," and "Guest Stars") include comments by the entire cast, the producers, directors, writers, guest stars, and members of the crew. Bonuses include storyboards for several episodes, a second season preview, and even a clever paper insert with character Dana Bright's newspaper articles about Johnny. The menu is a little weird. The main menu starts with "Play All," "Episode Guide," and "Special Features." It was hard to find the commentaries; I finally found them in the "Episode Guide" under "Chapters". And then I had to fiddle around to find how to run the subtitles at the same time. But the disk menu and chapter menus are very cool, with scenes and dialogue running all the time instead of the usual composite stills. In sum, the producers of "The Dead Zone" put into the DVD the same love and attention that they have invested in the series. I recommend it. And I'm buying the next one, even though I have the episodes on tape. |
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