ShannonA
06-20-2007, 02:17 AM
Spoilers, Of course. And this is indeed an episode with spoilers in it.
...
Well, that episode was a really unexpected right turn that, depending on how it plays out, could be the most anticlimatic season premiere ever.
One of the problems that The Dead Zone has created for itself was that it's made itself the consequence-free zone. Whenever something bad has happened, it's turned out to be in a vision, and then Johnny can stop it. As a result, when you see something bad happen, you figure it must be in a vision, and for me at least that sucked a lot of the drama out of this episode.
That was pretty hard to avoid given the history of the series, but a more nuanced build-up to suggest that maybe Johnny couldn't do everything would have resulted in a better show. Compare it, for example, to the last season of Lost.
But, man, I'm pretty surprised by the changes to the show. I'd vaguely heard that some new show-runners had taken it over, but I hadn't expected them to turn everything on its head. At least from this episode it looks like Walt's gone, Bruce's gone, Purdy's gone, and Armageddon's gone. The last is what really has the potential to make this episode hugely anti-climatic, because if that piffle was the end to the Armageddon plot ... well, then the show jumped the shark.
This sort of transition episode can be rocky, so I'm going give it more chance to shine under the new showrunners, but their debut was certainly lack-luster.
...
Well, that episode was a really unexpected right turn that, depending on how it plays out, could be the most anticlimatic season premiere ever.
One of the problems that The Dead Zone has created for itself was that it's made itself the consequence-free zone. Whenever something bad has happened, it's turned out to be in a vision, and then Johnny can stop it. As a result, when you see something bad happen, you figure it must be in a vision, and for me at least that sucked a lot of the drama out of this episode.
That was pretty hard to avoid given the history of the series, but a more nuanced build-up to suggest that maybe Johnny couldn't do everything would have resulted in a better show. Compare it, for example, to the last season of Lost.
But, man, I'm pretty surprised by the changes to the show. I'd vaguely heard that some new show-runners had taken it over, but I hadn't expected them to turn everything on its head. At least from this episode it looks like Walt's gone, Bruce's gone, Purdy's gone, and Armageddon's gone. The last is what really has the potential to make this episode hugely anti-climatic, because if that piffle was the end to the Armageddon plot ... well, then the show jumped the shark.
This sort of transition episode can be rocky, so I'm going give it more chance to shine under the new showrunners, but their debut was certainly lack-luster.