anyone around here a fan? I was glued to the Monk season premeire and saw an ad for the Dead Zone’s extended season.
Whaat? Extended? This is cool. I had no idea. Starts July 6 apparently.
Anyone know how many episodes we get?
Murky, it’s a good show? I haven’t watched it – Christopher Walken will always be Johnny Smith to me, and it felt disloyal to tune in. 
So it’s good? On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being, oh, Baywatch, and 10 being Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where would you put Dead Zone?
The movie was one of my favorites. Never saw the tv show; felt like AuntiePam did.
I’d put Dead Zone as a strong 7, and going up.
Chistopher Walken and Anthony Michael Hall have totally different takes on the character - I don’t feel like it even makes sense to compare them.
What I like is that the show can tackle the book in a way a movie can’t. Movies are always limited by time and story line constraints - unless of course Scorsese is involved.
The extended season starts on the 6th (this Sunday). Tune in and see what you think.
Dead Zone the TV series is just great! I was skeptical at first about Anthony Michael Hall trying to be Walken, but you’re absolutely right, murky. You can’t compare the movie to the series. It’s its own entity.
I’m glad it’s coming back. Sorry no info on how many eps, but I’ll be investigating.
I really like the Dead Zone series. Anthony Michael Hall has managed to make the Johnny Smith character someone you can identify with.
This will be the third season of The Dead Zone.
They’ve usually been shorter than a regular season; about 13 episodes, IIRC.
I’m also a big fan. As murky and ThatDuckIsEvil said, you can’t compare the two. Anthony Michael Hall has a totally different take on Johnny Smith, but I like him. The first two seasons did a pretty good job of blending a lot of elements and plotlines of the book into the TV show, and set up a bit of a backstory.
For instance,
Sarah’s son is actually Johnny’s biological son in the TV show, (but not the book), and her husband is the Sheriff, Walt Bannerman. His name comes from a blending of Sarah’s husband’s name (Walt) in the book, and the last name of the Sheriff in the book. Sarah got pregnant the night of Johnny’s accident, met Walt at the hospital and married him after her son was born. Also, Johnny’s parents on the TV show are both deceased, (they were still alive in the book and movie) and he has inherited a huge pile of money, so he doesn’t have to work. The actor who played Winchester on MAS*H (blanking on his name) is a possibly-shady TV-minister who controls the trust fund and may be after Johnny’s money.
And, yowza, has AMH grown up since The Breakfast Club!
The thing that really impresses me about the series is that Johnny’s abilities are pretty much completely reliable- and, as a result, everyone who knows him completely believes in them. We rarely have to deal the cliche of him having to convince people- his dead zone is documented.
It’s also neat in how it’s affected his behavior- “I don’t really shake hands anymore”.
Reverend Purdy could have turned out to be the religious twit who constantly causes problems for Johnny- by claiming that his powers don’t exist, etc. But Purdy’s turned out to be one of Johnny’s biggest supporters, and has on many occasions done all he could do to help Johnny abort some catastrophe, just on Johnny’s word.
Quite a good series.
Well, I’m convinced, I’ll check it out.
It’s in its third season? I had no clue it had been around that long. It’s true, time goes by faster when you’re old.
Can anyone summarize (in spoiler tags) the general character plot for the 2nd season. I fell behind and was planning to watch it when they did reruns, and now they’re onto the 3rd season already! I think I saw up to the mine collapse one. The USA website has very detailed descriptions but I’m looking for the big picture.
Auntie Pam, it was on last summer, along with Monk, and again this past winter. When they only do 13 episodes at a time, the ‘seasons’ go by really fast.
BiblioCat, so the TV seasons on that network correspond to actual seasons. Hmmmm. I feel younger already.
SmackFu try http://epguides.com/DeadZone/ for an episode guide. I didn’t remember all the shows in detail and would say either the USA site or the one I listed above.
If you go to “Show Home” it also gives a recap of what’s happened so far.
It also would appear we’re getting only seven new shows this summer. They already have the show titles and quick summaries listed at the ep-guides site.
I haven’t seen all of the shows, but I liked the way, at least originally, that the Rev Purdy seemed to dabble on both the good and bad side of the street. Purdy was in love with Johnny’s mother, so that might cause him to have some sort of conflicting interests. I also liked the red-headed reporter babe who started out bad, but now seems good. What is her history with the sherrif? A good show overall.
yeah, I really enjoy that too. Not only does it let us fast forward what would really become very tired every episode “no REALLY, I can SEE the future!” but it gives us a glimpse into what that kind of life would really be like. Fascinating.