The 4400 - The Home Front - Reviewed
By John Crawford

The episodes with Dennis Ryland are not among my favorites. As I've said in previus articles, he presents an image that is just too dark. While the whole idea of the episode of having a non-government entity with no oversight, it's not that far fetched. Given out post September 11th posture, and the current administration's willingness to degrade personal freedom, it could happen in real life. But this is television, fiction, so these things will happen.

While I personally despise the Dennis Ryland character, my hat is off to Peter Coyote. He plays that good cop/bad cop role so well. He is our worst nightmare of what we think of "G Men", he embodies that "good guy in your face" - "kill you where you stand because it's my job" posture so well. Unfortuantely it's not a character that endears me to keep watching.

Tom and Diana are not that way, what you see is what you get. And yes they have the capability to hunt down and kill the bad guys when called upon. But, they live in the real world, with real problems, families, and ties to things that keep them honest. "The Home Front" tests that. While trying to trade one life for another, thay have a dance with the devil, but in the end they know what is right and they fight for it.

In the real world Tom and Diana would both have lost their badges by now. It just wouldn't be permitted to have personal ties to any 4400, just like having ties or relationships (friends or family) with criminals, terrorists, spies, foreign governments, etc. But, again, this is television and we wouldn't have the good storylines if we played by all the rules of reality. in Fact we wouldn't have a story at all, we'd have a reality show and they're no fun at all.

So Alana and Gary Navarro (played by Sharif Atkins) are now fugitives who went to Canada. While I'm sure what Sharif's future holds, Alana, played by Karina Lombard may be off to play Marina Ferrer the 4th season of the L Word. They'll be back.

The Nikki-Shawn-Isabelle triangle is gonna be a problem, and all three know it. Shawn is definately torn between Nikki and Isabelle, but no one can't predict what a jealous Isabelle will do. let's hope she has not seen My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Nikki is probably out in the dark about all of it, but she has to a least suspect that something is/was going on between Shawn and Isabelle. It's quite evident that she was looking for more than just getting her father cancer healed, but that's all she gets. Isabelle dances around the thought of something happeneing to Nikki if Shawn gets back together with Nikki. While she's evasive about whether it's a threat, she's not going to let Shawn be with Nikki. She also make a plea to her dad to convice Shawn to stay with her. Richard is obviously opposed to that, but Isabelle insists she needs Shawn for her tasks that lie ahead.

We also see Isabelle at Haspelcorp being tested, for what we know not. And if she says she will NOT kill the 4400's as she was told was her mission, why is she collaborating with Dennis Ryland and his company?

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