It has been almost a year. I was not sure if I was going to continue writing like I had previously but, hey, that is what TDZ season premieres and finales always brought out of me: feeling, emotion, the need to share what I absorbed from the episode with the world.
It was a goodbye episode. I think. The creators of the show expressed all summer long on the Dead Zone's website that we were in for drastic changes, but to think that not only were major half-decade long story lines to be wrapped up, but most of the cast were saying goodbye, and all this in one episode, in the first episode, that is quite the surprising move. But after carefully dissecting the past hour of this show, I can tell you right now, this was not the plan all along.
I know this because the cliffhanger last season was whether Johnny was going to join Janus and Stillson, there was no mention of that tonight. The reason is because this was not a storyline concluding, it was a storyline being dropped. It could be considered anticlimactic in a way, but I still give this show a high rating because it did what a show is supposed to do, entertain. The fact that it did stick with the storyline, that it didn't forget important elements (unless I have) crucial to ending the arc the way they did, and presented a show that had me anticipating what was going to happen next is good enough for me. Whatever went on behind the scenes that had the men in charge decide to move this show into a new direction does not change the fact that the episode was a good one. It does bother me that all these years they had standalone episodes all this time they could have been continuing the Stillson saga, which although I've been griping about this for years now, I always figured the reason was because they wanted to keep the storyline going strong and long for many years so they were stretching it out. The fact that they weren't even doing that is disappointing.
Also interesting was the shift in pacing. The show always had a fast-paced high-energy feel to it. Take a look at the previous four seasons, everyone always seemed like their coffee was spiked with, well, more coffee. This show broke from that formatting. It seemed a step slower, like everyone was exhausted and tired from something. Working on the show, I hope not. The same storyline for five years, maybe. I'm assuming that it is merely a director's call, to slow things down a bit this season, and this new style may be entertaining in it's own right so I welcome it.
All in all, I am intrigued to see where they will go now that they have less cast to work with and no arcs. Will there be new arcs, new mainstay characters, new reasons to be hooked on this show? Or will we go back to regular standalones forever and ever. It's a scary thought but before we find the answer I bid fare thee well to TDZ's old story lines. Its time was up...
It was a goodbye episode. I think. The creators of the show expressed all summer long on the Dead Zone's website that we were in for drastic changes, but to think that not only were major half-decade long story lines to be wrapped up, but most of the cast were saying goodbye, and all this in one episode, in the first episode, that is quite the surprising move. But after carefully dissecting the past hour of this show, I can tell you right now, this was not the plan all along.
I know this because the cliffhanger last season was whether Johnny was going to join Janus and Stillson, there was no mention of that tonight. The reason is because this was not a storyline concluding, it was a storyline being dropped. It could be considered anticlimactic in a way, but I still give this show a high rating because it did what a show is supposed to do, entertain. The fact that it did stick with the storyline, that it didn't forget important elements (unless I have) crucial to ending the arc the way they did, and presented a show that had me anticipating what was going to happen next is good enough for me. Whatever went on behind the scenes that had the men in charge decide to move this show into a new direction does not change the fact that the episode was a good one. It does bother me that all these years they had standalone episodes all this time they could have been continuing the Stillson saga, which although I've been griping about this for years now, I always figured the reason was because they wanted to keep the storyline going strong and long for many years so they were stretching it out. The fact that they weren't even doing that is disappointing.
Also interesting was the shift in pacing. The show always had a fast-paced high-energy feel to it. Take a look at the previous four seasons, everyone always seemed like their coffee was spiked with, well, more coffee. This show broke from that formatting. It seemed a step slower, like everyone was exhausted and tired from something. Working on the show, I hope not. The same storyline for five years, maybe. I'm assuming that it is merely a director's call, to slow things down a bit this season, and this new style may be entertaining in it's own right so I welcome it.
All in all, I am intrigued to see where they will go now that they have less cast to work with and no arcs. Will there be new arcs, new mainstay characters, new reasons to be hooked on this show? Or will we go back to regular standalones forever and ever. It's a scary thought but before we find the answer I bid fare thee well to TDZ's old story lines. Its time was up...
