The Dead Zone - The Complete First Season

The Dead Zone - The Complete First Season
by James A. Contner, James Head, John Lafia, Jon Cassar, Michael Robison

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Movie Reviews of The Dead Zone - The Complete First Season

Movie Review: Stephen King's novel is turned into a pretty good TV series
Summary: 5 Stars

Created by the father and son team of Michael and Shawn Piller, there are several significant changes and additions to "The Dead Zone" premise: (1) The night of his accident Johnny and his fiancée Sara (Nicole de Boer) conceived a child, so when Johnny comes out of his coma this time, he learns more shocking news than Sara being married. (2) Sara is now married to Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Buno), another character from the original novel, who is now given a more prominent role. (3) Johnny now has a sidekick in Bruce Lewis (John L. Adams), who starts off as his physical therapist and becomes a confidant, true-believer, and good friend. (4) In this version Johnny's father died when he was young and his mother (Anna Hagen), now a wealthy woman, died while he was in the coma. The bulk of her state has gone to the Reverend Gene Purdy (David Ogden Stiers), who has used it to fund his religious organization. This plays off of Vera Smith's fundamentalist beliefs in the novel, but gives the whole idea of the spiritual significance of Johnny's "gift" to the Reverend. (5) The other key supporting character is reporter Dana Bright (Kristen Dalton), who not only becomes a true believer but is interested in Johnny romantically as well. Consequently, Johnny has a much stronger support group in the television series. Once Sheriff Bannerman becomes a true believer that helps to eliminate the tired element of Johnny having to convince skeptics he is not a lunatic. (6) Finally, Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery), Johnny's ultimate antagonist in the novel, does not pop up until the 13th and final episode of the first season, setting up what will be the main conflict of season two.

If there is a fundamental flaw to the series it is that it is pretty much impossible to come up with a "normal" episode for the series. "Quality of Life" would be one such episode, where Johnny takes a job as an assistant hockey coach, touches a kid, and knows that he is going to drop dead on the ice if he keeps playing. Of course, nobody wants to believe him. Fortunately "The Dead Zone" is one of those relatively new fangled series like "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under" where a full season is a dozen episodes, so that the series is not overwhelmed by more and more tales stretching the limits of Johnny's power (e.g., "Shaman").

The best episode of the first season is "The Siege," where Sara is caught in a bank robbery and Johnny joins the hostages in an effort to figure out the shifting jigsaw puzzle and come up with an ending where everybody gets out alive. This one does a nice job of exploring the consequences of various actions. "Here There Be Monsters," where Johnny ends up being charged with practicing witchcraft when he tries to help another sheriff's office solve a murder. The twist here is that Johnny is in danger because people DO believe he can do what he claims. "Unreasonable Doubt" is clearly inspired by "Twelve Angry Men," but also does a nice job of exploring how Johnny can convince people of the validity of his visions. Stylistically the television series takes the idea from the original film version of putting Johnny into his visions as a spectator and give it some "Matrix" like effects: often a scene freezes and Johnny is able to walk through it to see what needs to be seen. The show also shows a pretty good sense of humor at times, as in "Dinner with Dana," where physical contact brings into the bedroom their previous lovers. At the core of the series is Hall's performance, and while I think his characterization is significantly different from the novel in that Johnny is no longer a tortured Hamlet of doubt, I also think that such a main character would not work for a television series. Instead Hall's Johnny Smith is reserved but still willing to do what has to be done, no doubt helped by the strong support group he has in this series.

The season finale, "Destiny," introduces candidate Stillson and returns the series to the last remaining element of the novel. This is a Stillson who is aware of Johnny's abilities, which will make quite a difference in the second season, and who is affiliated with the Reverend Purdy. It was nice to see the series go back to Cathy's episode from the novel, but there was one significant goof: Walt joins Johnny in trying to convince the owner of the restaurant to close down, and while they are unsuccessful, there is no way in the world that Walt does not somebody there watching the place (although given how quickly firetrucks seem to be there we might be missing something). This final episode also gets back to the heart of the novel, with Purdy explicitly talking about how Johnny is clearly destined to do something important, and that each of these episodes is just another link in the chain towards that greater glory. For a first season, often the most problematic in the history of a series, "The Dead Zone" is pretty good. More importantly, the show successfully builds on this solid foundation in the second season.

Summary of The Dead Zone - The Complete First Season