Dead Zone Discussion?

pythor writes, Since we’ve gotten these discussions going for several genre shows, how about one for The Dead Zone. This USA/SciFi Channel show follows Anthony Michael Hall(yeah, him. And boy has he changed since The Breakfast Club) as John Smith, a man who wakes after a 10 year coma to find he has premonitions of the future, and visions of past events. I didn’t originally consider this scifi, but since John Doe is similar, I figured I’d speak up. Here’s the first of them. What’s the general opinion of the show among those of you with USA Network?

7 replies on “Dead Zone Discussion?”

  1. My Two Cents…
    I like it. As I said, I wasn’t really considering this sci-fi, since there aren’t any hard sci-fi themes in here. But I think it’s well written, ans decently acted. Last night was the first new episode after a hiatus, and it had a good ammount of foreshadowing for the coming season. John’s ex-wife is going to lose her current husband at some point. Also, there seems some connection between John and his own grandfather. From the last few minutes of last night’s episode, I get the impression that they’re going to bring that out more in the future as well.

    In short, it’s not Firefly, but I’ll keep watching anyway.

    • Re: My Two Cents…

      I wasn’t really considering this sci-fi, since there aren’t any hard sci-fi themes in here.

      That’s an interesting statement. Just what exactly is Sci-Fi to people? ESP would seem to be sci-fi to me, as it doesn’t actually exist in a measurable form today. Does it have to have a starship, techno-babble and blue chicks to count as sci-fi?

      • Re: My Two Cents…

        I wasn’t really considering this sci-fi, since there aren’t any hard sci-fi themes in here.

        That’s an interesting statement. Just what exactly is Sci-Fi to people? ESP would seem to be sci-fi to me, as it doesn’t actually exist in a measurable form today. Does it have to have a starship, techno-babble and blue chicks to count as sci-fi?

        I recognise that it fits the definition. And my general classification of sci-fi is a lot narrower than the definition. But there are too many people out there who believe in paranormal activity like ESP. I’m not one of them, but that’s not the point. Given that knowledge, I tend to mark things like this as a cross between Cop shows and John Edwards. Another good example would be The Profiler. She often had visions of the crime as she was investigating. But it was generally done in such a way as to be put off as dramatic license. Dead Zone isn’t done that way, John is well known in his world as a psychic, but I still classed it in a similar category at first glance. Much like I would consider not Guiding Light(or whatever stupid soap opera it was) sci-fi, though they did have one character manifesting possession by demons.

      • Re: My Two Cents…

        I wasn’t really considering this sci-fi, since there aren’t any hard sci-fi themes in here.

        That’s an interesting statement. Just what exactly is Sci-Fi to people? ESP would seem to be sci-fi to me, as it doesn’t actually exist in a measurable form today. Does it have to have a starship, techno-babble and blue chicks to count as sci-fi?

        ESP isn’t sci-fi because it has nothing to do with science. You may as well put vampire shows in the sci-fi genre.
        Techno-babble and blue chicks don’t count as sci-fi either. Look at voyager, they had a space ship and people with various skin disorders as well – it would be scifi perhaps – in 1950.

        Real sci-fi means the ‘techno-babble’ actually draws from modern science and dreams of the future. The european space agency even has a division to investigate ideas generated by sci-fi for possible use in the future. This is what sci-fi is. The ISS was sci-fi a long time ago.

  2. Entertaining
    I’ve liked the Dead Zone so far. It seems to be developing it’s characters nicely rather than depending on the ‘vison of the week’. The series seems to be building up to a nice Nature of God/Apocalyptic Doom ending.

    If USA can keep supporting it, I think it’ll be a good series.

  3. Also Available on Sci-Fi Channel

    What’s the general opinion of the show among those of you with USA Network?

    It’s also playing on the Sci-Fi channel, Fridays at 7PM.

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