"We know less about the brain than any other organ in the body. What seems clear is that your brain has found a new way to work. It's taking a detour around the damage and tapping into a region of the brain that humans don't normally use to handle sensory perception. In anyone else, this part of the brain might be considered a dead zone." - Rick Tae as Doctor Tran
The Dead Zone: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
In 1983, Stephen King's best selling novel The Dead Zone was made into a successful film starring Christopher Walken and directed by David Cronenberg. Over the years, the film gained a large cult following. In 2002, fans of the movie were warily skeptical of USA Network's announcement that it would be producing a television series based on the characters from King's novel. The show premiered that summer and became an immediate hit.
The series begins with a flashback to Cleaves Mills, Maine, in 1976. After hitting his head on the ice while playing hockey, young Johnny Smith has a premonition about one of his teammates falling through the frozen lake. Johnny does not quite understand what he has seen, but he does try to warn his friend, albeit unsuccessfully.
Twenty years later, the grown up Johnny (The Breakfast Club's uber-nerd Anthony Michael Hall) is now an unconventional but well liked teacher. His life is seemingly charmed. He is engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Bracknell (Nicole de Boer), who also teaches at the school. On a date at the county fair, Johnny uses his gift for "seeing" the future to out swindle a carny at the money wheel, winning back all the money one of his students lost and then some. Then Johnny's life takes a turn. After dropping off Sarah at her home, he is involved with a head-on collision with a delivery truck.
Six years later, Johnny is still in a coma stemming from the accident. Johnny shocks his doctor by miraculously waking from his long sleep. Even more shocking is the fact that now merely by touching a person or an object related to that person he can catch a glimpse of either their torturous past or a calamitous event in their near future. At first the doctor is skeptical of this newfound power, but comes to believe that the synapses in Johnny's brain are working around the damaged areas by using the "dead zone" that most humans do not normally need to tap into.
Much has changed since Johnny's accident. His fiancé, convinced by doctors that Johnny would not live, married Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno), who she met at the hospital while visiting Johnny. It also turns out that Sarah had been pregnant with Johnny's child at the time of the accident, so she and Walt raised little Johnny Bannerman (Spencer Achtymichuk) as their own. Johnny's wealthy mother, Vera (Anna Hagen), died under mysterious circumstances, leaving her fortune to Reverend Gene Purdy (David Ogden Stiers), an evangelist who used the money to form the Faith Heritage Society. Johnny had always been wary of Gene Purdy, but his mother was fond of the man, and after Vera's death, he became Johnny's legal guardian and gained control of his trust fund.
Alienated by his new power and his loss of his mother, his true love, and the son he never even knew he had, Johnny begins the difficult process of physical rehabilitation. He finds a new friend in physical therapist Bruce Lewis (John L. Adams) who encourages Johnny to harness his powers and get on with his life. Johnny also finds an unlikely ally in Dana Bright (Kristen Dalton), a reporter for the Bangor Daily News who has secret ties to Reverend Purdy.
The first two introductory episodes are slickly produced, suspenseful, and engrossing. These episodes effectively move from goosebump inducing creep-outs to emotionally charged scenes without seeming forced or strained. The second episode is marred only by an abrupt, oddly passive resolution to its serial killer theme. After these two compulsively watchable episodes, however, the series quickly settles into a less compelling routine. Most of the episodes are reminiscent of a barely updated Quantum Leap, with Hall in the Scott Bakula role of an otherworldly righter of wrongs.
Some of the episodes are stronger than others. In "The House," Johnny tries to discover the details behind his mother's death. The episode manages to strike a good balance of horror, mystery, and heart. But for every episode like "The House," there is an "Unreasonable Doubt." This riff on 12 Angry Men in which Johnny must convince fellow jurors that the young man they want to convict is actually innocent starts off with a promising premise, but quickly devolves into a frustratingly simplistic mess.
The show is at its best when dealing with the mysteries of the central characters. David Ogden Stiers, for example, does a terrific job of playing a character that at best seems benignly evil. This is a masterstroke of perfect casting. In season one Reverend Purdy does not do anything villainous, but Ogden Stiers' haughty manner accentuates the character's too-good-to-be-true nature. His Purdy simply seems ambiguously wicked. This theme is explored in the season's final episode, "Destiny," in which Johnny's visions of Armageddon slowly begin to convince him that his mission in life may be to prevent the election of Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery) to the US Congress. Despite the series' weak episodes, "Destiny" is tantalizing enough to stir interest in The Dead Zone's second season. If only the producers and writers can figure out a way to bring that excitement and urgency to the series' everyday episodes.
The thirteen episodes that make up season one are divided onto four DVDs. Viewers can play all episodes at once, or choose from individual episodes. The episodes are also divided into chapters.
