4400 Review: Past Is Prologue (Season 1 Episode 1)
Some series have a time and a place, and The CW’s 4400 reboot is one of those series. 4400 Season 1 Episode 1, “Past Is Prologue,” is a strong example of a reboot done right for the time period it’s in.
I was a fan of the original series in 2004, and I loved the premise even then. I don’t want to spoil it too much for people who haven’t seen the original, but it is a show that had some promising storylines from the get-go. It dealt with history and feeling at home in a time and place, though looking back, it felt like the story could have gone deeper.
The original never really interrogated the idea of progress and what that means from different perspectives. Despite the original acknowledging that these people were taken for a specific and special reason it never really beyond some surface events that caused change by being in a different time period.
From the beginning, The CW’s reboot seems to show us people who were taken because they were ahead of their time and seems to be sewing a storyline that calls for active change.
And the series hits the ground running in setting up the premise for that. While the original 2004 series slowly introduced the characters and their reentry into society, the reboot has a sense of urgency to it giving the audience no time to breathe between Shanice’s abduction and return.
Not taking us out of Shanice’s view for very long keeps us with the returnees and as a result, we’re more invested in them now than how their lives once were.
The dialogue that slowly allows the returnees to realize that they are in 2021 and that they are all missing time is a strong aspect of this series. The way the show references brief historical markers and fleshes out each character to give viewers a taste of what’s to come creates a scintillating narrative.
One of the more interesting choices of the reboot is the decision to spend more time in the hotel quarantine. The original series compressed the quarantine period showing a few interactions with those that had living relatives.
The subsequent weeks followed the investigators as they started investigating strange reports about what happened with the returnees.
The dynamic between the two agents and the mystery of what is happening is what drove the story, but the reboot returns the driving force to the returnees themselves.
This makes for a more powerful narrative, however, given the expansive cast we’ve been introduced to the series could fall prey to serving too many storylines at once.
It is my hope that as the story progresses each of the main characters and the other returnees gets a chance to shine. The show is set up for it, giving the characters multi-layered storylines that don’t necessarily explain the plot.
Brittany Adebumola gives an outstanding performance as Shanice, balancing the tough conflict of a mother separated from her baby and the lawyer who knows her rights. It’s easy to empathize with her on day one, and the series quickly dips into the story we aren’t seeing when she escapes in an attempt to reunite with her husband and daughter.
Jaye Ladymore as Claudette is another interesting character. As a woman clearly out of time, she’s not sure what she’s interacting with at times, but she’s also wise to something else going on. She picks up on her rapid ability to heal and seems to be getting the inkling that there’s more to this story than anyone is letting on.
It’s too soon to tell what route this series will take in regards to the rest of the story. The setup of this series is different despite it being the same premise, but it still lays out lots of rich material for the series to work with as they craft character stories.
As a first episode, “Past is Prologue” does its job, but it would help to slow down and really let us get to know a few returnees at a time in the next couple of episodes, rather than try to progress the narrative at this pace.
Stray Thoughts:
- A little more of a silent hope than a note about this particular episode, but I sincerely hope that they infuse more music from different time periods into the show. There have been a few shows that involved a timeless element that I think really benefitted from a strong soundtrack and the little bit with Claudette playing ragtime music was a nice touch.
- The flashback between Shanice and Logan at the protest was a little too seamless and needed a little bit more of a cue to signal that it was Shanice’s memory.
What did you think of this episode of 4400? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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4400 airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.