The Dead Zone

This is one of those shows where the main characters are driven to put aside the problems they have with each other because they know that there are more important things. Those are the kind of characters I can enjoy watching. In this case they all know that Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) has real visions not crazy visions or psychic hotline visions, but real visions. And that they can help him thwart the events that would otherwise lead to deaths or disaster if they trust each other and work together. This leads to the compelling stories that aren't about his visions. Sarah (Nicole de Boer) and Johnny were engaged before his car accident turned 6 year coma. However, during that coma she married the local sheriff (Chris Bruno). So watching as Johnny and the sheriff become friends is very interesting. Rev. Gene Purdy (David Ogden Stiers) as the man in charge of Johnny's inheritance is also an interesting study in suspense because the viewer can't tell if he is an imperfect man trying to do good, or someone with malicious intent. Johnny's best friend Bruce (John L. Adams) is someone he can share all his secrets with and their conversation is also where some of the quality humor of the show comes through. This show is definitely one to watch.

i thought i might add a review as well. i have seen 5 episodes so far and have to say i'm not really impressed. in fact i am amazed that the series made it into 5 seasons, so i certainly hope it gets much better.

i hoped so as well before i saw episode 4 in season 1 called "enigma". it would be a fair so-so episode much later after a few years of the show, where the writers ran out of ideas - but to see something like that in the first season, where you want to hook up people on it (and not bore them to death), is really weird. OK, maybe the episode looked better on paper - lets go for the next one "unreasonable doubt". better than the last one (but OK, that wasn't hard to manage) but still not even good.

the scheme is always the same: psychic guy touches someone/something, has a vision (some of them are technically very nice!) and is always right about it. after that he has to convince the others that he's right. where is the suspense in that? his visions are too clear - and i wonder how he can get always the "important" information (that can carry on the plot) out of a person/object and not one other from the millions of possibilities. strangely enough, neither the main character nor anyone else gets thoughts about that fact.

i'll give this series another try when i'm really really bored and there are no other series to watch - otherwise i might end up being grumpy about the wasted time. but it might be that i rather start watching the x-files on DVD again, even though i know all of them, they don't bore me when i'm seeing it a second or third time - in contrary to "the dead zone", which bored me the first time i watched it and i definitely won't see it a second time...

"The Dead Zone" stands out as one of the better shows on Television today. The acting, especially by Anthony Michael Hall is completely belieavable and dramatic, sucking you into his life and his pains as he see disturbing images of the future and past. This show sometimes gets gory with the images of blood, death, etc. However, it isn't too hard to watch and the amount of blood stays reasonable. The script doesn't stand out as much as the other features. It's still relatively solid, but has some flaws concerning the love between Sara and Johnny, making it a bit too cliche and corny. Sometimes, the script also loses sight of the episode and eventually just spins out to human drama. Other flaws include the occassional boring episode or Hall's performance as Johnny sometimes falls flat. The special effects though, are amazing. When Johnny touches someone and sees the past or future, the editing and the effects quickly change to show what happened or what's going to happen. It's amazing to see it work, everything builds together so well and the effects of murder, or the entire area being frozen with Johnny walking through is spectacular. I applaud the USA channell for restoring Television with the two arguablly greatest shows to watch: "The Dead Zone" and "Monk". 9.5/10

Besides Medium, i like this one too. The creation of psychic powers is much much different from any other psychic drama, thats is the main factor i like from this drama. Moreover, with anthony performance, making it more interesting. Every episodes is very dramatic, fast pacing, and theres a little boring scene, im sure. Wish it for more longer but well it is USA network drama, maybe they have a little budget except the psychic effect, i love it.

In a word of cardboard characters and poor writing, The Dead Zone is a joy to watch. I have enjoyed every episode and some episodes have been excellent.

The only tragedy with this series is not with the series itself but with the way USA handles the scheduling and marketing. Most of the time I don't know when the season is going to begin or when the new episodes will air. Scheduling is erratic and promotion is often non existent. Someone in the USA main office must not want this show to succeed. Frankly, it's an amazing testament to the show's appeal that it still is in production despite this utter mismanagement.

USA, please recognize the gem you have in both Monk and The Dead Zone and, at the very least, air them on a regular schedule on which we can rely.