A bunch of us gathered over at Lil’ & Geoff’s place to watch the first season and the season premiere of “The 4400,” another entry in USA Network’s pantheon of sci-fi-ish television shows. The basic premise is that four thousand four hundred people went missing over the course of half a century or so, and they all came back in spectacular fashion at one time… but for each of them, no time seems to have passed. It’s at least a bit about how people plucked from their lives can feel disjointed when reinserted to mainstream humanity, but it’s a whole lot about why these people were chosen, and what effects their actions have from the time of their returning onward.

Did I mention that some, if not all, of them exhibit “powers” of one kind or another?

I can wholeheartedly recommend watching the initial two-disc DVD set. I’m not so sure about the new season, given a couple of the changes. They dropped the stellar Peter Coyote as the boss of the show’s two government-agent leads (yes, we did make at least one Mulder & Scully joke). In the process the agency went from the good old DHS to a completely forgettable generic agency name that… well, I’ve completely forgotten. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was because of USA Network’s concerns over how the DHS was portrayed in at least one episode. Hmm.

At any rate, we had a good time, which is almost guaranteed when you gather the members of that household together with Lyse and Mari. And we all ate more than was good for us. When will we ever learn, eh?