“The Dead Zone”
Sunday at 10 on USA
* * * ½
STEPHEN King, who is more prolific than a New York City rat and a helluva lot more creative, never seems able to get it right on TV. For one thing, King might be king of the written word on paper, but when it comes to mini-series, he doesn’t know how to shut up!
I mean, those dogs of his always go on four hours too long, and by the time you’re into five minutes of night two, you wish some dead guy would come back and knock over the screen writer.
But all that’s about to change because USA found the perfect format for King: A TV series.
“The Dead Zone,” is the King series premiering Sunday night, and I’m crazy for it.
I even like the premise: Johnny Smith, (Anthony Michael Hall), a biology teacher in (of course) Maine, has it all going on – a great gig, a great girl, a great future. Unfortunately, he gets into a huge car crash, and falls into a six year coma. Given up as an eternal vegetable, Johnny suddenly wakes up. And what an awakening. During his six year downtime, he was somehow able to circumvent the damaged area, and begin to use part of the brain which is never used, called “the dead zone.”
There’s a hitch, however. Every time Johnny touches someone, he not only sees their future, but also their past. Well, it’s not that he just sees it – he lives it.
It is absolutely riveting. And Anthony Michael Hall has grown up to be not only a terrific actor, but a hunk and a half.
Best dialog is between Johnny and his physical therapist, Bruce, (John L. Adams), who tells him that since he’s been in a coma, O.J. Simpson went on trial for killing his ex-wife, George Bush’s son became president and Regis Philbin became the most popular man on TV. Johnny figuring that he’s getting his atrophied leg pulled, tells him that just because he’s been in a coma doesn’t make him stupid!
There is all kinds of innovative photography, good writing, and a heck of a premise.
The supporting staff is equally good, particularly Adams and the gorgeous Nicole deBoer, who plays the ex-great girl who is now married, although her child was conceived by Johnny pre-coma. Too bad Johnny wasn’t pre-cognitive before he hit the on-coming semi – or maybe not – because then we wouldn’t have had this terrific series to write about.