"The Dead Zone" Forbidden Fruit (2006)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Shawn Piller

Writers:

Michael Piller (created for television by) &
Shawn Piller (created for television by) ...

TV Series:

"The Dead Zone" (2002)

Original Air Date:

18 June 2006 (Season 5, Episode 1)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Miranda is going ahead with her marriage to Stilson, for all the wrong reasons, and Johnny begs her to keep the faith that he will find a way out...

Plot Keywords:

Psychic Power | Psychic | Sheriff | Dark Hero | Illuminati

Cast

Anthony Michael Hall	...	Johnny Smith
John L. Adams	...	Bruce Lewis
David Ogden Stiers	...	Reverend Eugene 'Gene' Purdy
Joris Jarsky	...	Jeremy Tomlin
Terence Kelly	...	Congressman Kelly
Pascale Hutton	...	Karen Tomlin
Vince Fera	...	Michael Scannell
Clay St. Thomas	...	Stern newscaster
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mike Cleven	...	Big Man
Don S. Davis	...	Senator Harlan Ellis
Martin Donovan	...	Malcolm Janus
Matt Fentiman
Sean Patrick Flanery	...	Greg Stillson
Carrie Genzel	...	Saleswoman
Laura Harris	...	Miranda Ellis
Candice Macalino	...	Young Florist

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

CBS Paramount Network Television

The fruit of my laborious watching!

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Wow, amazing. Corny and amazing. For some reason DZ always is a bit over the top and dramatic, I think that's a basic cable thing. They veer further from the decency boundary than network TV yet they can't go all the way like premium cable, so they are in this weird middle of envelope-pushing plots mixed in with some silly expressions and lines. I can't put my finger on them just yet, though, but it's something my senses somehow pick up. However, given that I am a wrestling fan, this show is like Shakespeare in comparison so I never usually mind.

I especially get over it when the show grips me like this episode did. It was quite a ride TDZ's season premier gave us to kickstart the fifth season. It had all the characteristics of a great Dead Zone episode: Johnny rushing to save the world, Stillson-Smith interaction, Gene becoming a wreck, twists, turns, surprises, and Janice speaking in prose nonstop. At first when he began speaking like that, quoting the bible, making up his own proverbs, and just saying things to intentionally create double meanings, it seemed wise, then it felt pathetically cheap because it would be the only way he spoke and one cannot strike wisdom with every single utterance as the brain needs time to breathe (There I just did one! Maybe I seem smart now… Nah). But it came full circle and now I find his speech pleasingly comical and I look forward to hear whatever poetic take he has on every matter, it makes me laugh a bit each time. It's his gimmick, he's an over-the-top prose speaker. He also runs Stillson like a puppet more than his father ever had, by manipulation rather than force. By the way, the thing he mentioned about "some tribes" taking a bride and ritualistically stoning her if they don't find blood on her wedding blanket is actually a defunct, yet real, custom in a religion that many around the world still practice. (Of course it wasn't that sadistic back when the custom was in commission. In principle she would deserve death but the judges were supposed to find any rational technicality to free her of this sentence. Witnesses were needed, they had to warn her, and the deed must have been so clear to them that it was done as if they were looking through the eye of a needle. If the court put to death more than one person in all capital cases in 70 years, they would be called murderous. Compare that to the number of death row criminals killed a year in USA and you don't have such a bad tribe after all.) Anyway, it was interesting to hear that Janice uses real facts when he spurts.

I hope no one expected the wedding to go smoothly. In television, weddings seldom do (Billy and Chuck, Kane and Lita, Matt and Lita, and Stephanie and Test to name a few for those who follow sports entertainment). But to have Miranda killed, ugh! Johnny has had more women die on him than I've gone out with. That has to take its toll on a guy! Great to see interaction with Johnny and Greg. Stillson wants to always be as far away from OFP (our favorite psychic) as possible and that hilariously never works out.

I hope to see more arc episodes this season. I know it's asking a lot from these people to get more than 3, season premiere, finale, and something in the middle, so I won't hold my breath. But at least I know that they can't just go to episode 2 without resolving things so I'm in for a second arc storyline next time on TDZ. Yay!

I badly want to give this one a 10. But it didn't make me cry, freak out, or go nutso, and that's what a 10 must do, and has done in the past, like the Shaman episode and the premier episode. I was completely entertained from start to finish and I'm so very happy that my favorite show reminded me once again why it is my favorite, but I must save these 10s for blowing me away. But I'm so tempted. Off the record: 9.6!