We’re the good guys, Michael
I have been a very, very infrequent viewer of The 4400 on USA. My wife’s been following it more closely. I caught a pretty good chunk of Sunday night’s episode last weekend, since she was already watching it, and I realized two things very quickly:
1. I had no freakin’ idea what’s going on in the story anymore.
2. I had no one to root for.
I was really more concerned with the second point than the first, otherwise I would’ve been watching The 4400 all along. I’m sure that if I was more into the story, I’d probably have some insider’s knowledge that the plotline is a lot like Galactica: basically good people having to do some fairly shady things for survival’s sake. I remember, after part 1 of the Galactica episode Pegasus aired, I stomped into theLogBook’s virtual writers’ room and complained that the rapacious crew of the Battlestar Pegasus was one step too far over the line for me: the story had officially gotten too dark. And I think I remember making the same comment about the cluster of six “Others” episodes at the beginning of the third season of Lost – sure I wanted to know more about the Others, but I just wasn’t interested in seeing Sawyer tortured or beaten to a pulp week after week. In both cases, the shows righted themselves after these moments of extreme darkness, and in the discussion of Galactica, it was pointed out to me that, as much trouble had been taken by the writers to show what kind of grey-area, situational-ethics decision making our heroes on Galactica had relied on to survive, the Pegasus crew had to be shown to be even more questionable in their judgement and conduct. I can grok that.
I’m sure the situation is the same with The 4400, but not being an avid follower of the story, I just don’t realize it. What nagged at me is that, unlike Lost and Galactica, I couldn’t tell who was supposed to be the bad guy. I was able to divine the differing agendas and philosophies of the two main characters on either side of the divide, but both of them were exhibiting such reprehensible behavior that I couldn’t see who I was supposed to root for. But what struck me was that my wife, who has been an avid follower of The 4400, said “I don’t like where they’re going with this show.”
I know we live in the age of the anti-hero, in an age where there is no such clear-cut decision that isn’t a questionable one. I know we live in an age where there are worse monsters walking among us than a couple of well-dressed, eloquently-spoken TV characters who have intensely charismatic dialogue written for them that outlines their worldviews and why they oppose…well…whoever the heck it is they happen to be opposing in this week’s episode. And I know we live in a world where players on both sides of any given conflict, however well-meaning their motivations, display reprehensible behavior. The people on TV have got nothin’ on the real life villains on both sides of the playing field.
But geez, people. Give us some hint of who’s on the side of the angels, however misguided they may be. The tale of someone who sets out to fight the good fight, falls and is redeemed is a morality play. The tale of everyone falling and not finding redemption is just nihilism. I’m not asking for characters wearing white hats or black hats, but instead just the barest hint of an honorable motivation somewhere.… Read more
