As I posted in the other thread, extremely disappointed about this. The shows on USA were part of the only reason I watched TV during the summer (the other reason being Doctor Who). While I understand that people tend to be really complacent in regards to television, I think there's going to be some point where everyone just has enough.

deepgirl187 | December 19, 21:03 CET

Damn, that is tragic.

peachgirldb | December 19, 21:32 CET

Wow. This news really shocks me. I didn't see it coming at all. I wish cable ratings were as easy to come by as broadcast ratings. I'll miss both those shows.

IrrationaliTV | December 19, 21:33 CET

That sucks about The 4400. That show was interesting because they seemed to reinvent themselves every season, yet still kept the ongoing arc pretty strong.

Polter-Cow | December 19, 21:36 CET

Both shows will be greatly missed. I'm thankful that Summer gets another shot through The Sarah Connor Chronicles... hopefully.

TDBrown | December 19, 21:59 CET

I haven't been this bothered about a show getting cancelled since Angel bit the dust. The 4400 wasn't a perfect show, but it was my little show that could. The seasons 2 and 4 finale endings were gloriously batshit crazy and were some of the best tv moments of the last few years. And it had a great cast.

It's a real shame it had to go.

Simon | December 19, 22:10 CET

Seriously, Simon! It was always welcome summer viewing, and I kind of thought they'd be allowed to take the story to its natural conclusion. Because that's what should happen in a perfect world.

Well, hey, at least the show got to go out on "Where Is My Mind?" It's such a great song for endings.

Polter-Cow | December 19, 22:30 CET

bastards

Haunt | December 19, 22:51 CET

Next summer isn't going to be the same without it. I love the show, but I felt when I watched the season four finale that in their guts, they knew it wouldn't be back. The story felt like it had drawn to a conclusion that wouldn't leave me demanding answers, and while they'd opened up new opportunities for stories with the "everyone has abilities now" ending that I would have loved to see (huge Marco fangirl here!) I wasn't expecting a season five.

So to me, this news is very very sad, but not a shocker.

RachVG | December 19, 22:51 CET

Have to agree in some ways, RachVG. When it was still on, I always had this thought in the back of my head like "wow, how has this stayed on so long?" But at the time I told myself that because it was on USA, it had a better chance than it would have on other networks. But I guess we should also feel lucky that it was on as long as it was. If it had been on FOX, it never would have survived the first season.

deepgirl187 | December 19, 23:18 CET

The Dead Zone went off the tracks and lost my interest some time in season 4. I'm not terribly sad about The Adventures of Johnny Smith going off of the air.

The 4400, on the other hand, was an entertaining summer series that I most likely would have ignored had it aired any other time of the year. I feel this low budget, Vancouver-as-Seattle sci-fi series (how many of those have there been now? 5?) might deserve a TV movie or two to wrap all of its threads up... but I doubt I'll sign a petition for either of these shows.

Hjermsted | December 19, 23:28 CET

IF I'm a Summer Glau fan? You mean, there are people who AREN'T Summer Glau fans? Wierd.

Never watched the show much myself, but anything getting cancelled makes me sad.

BrightShiner | December 19, 23:29 CET

Surely this qualifies those asinine network morons to be ground up into the all useful pink powder?
The 4400 is/was really one of the most under appreciated out there. Yep, low budget, but great stories and a great cast more than made up for that. The story I felt only had another season in it anyway, but that's what makes it all the more angry-making :(

ozfinn | December 19, 23:50 CET

Booo. More Boooo.
Now I'll never know how it ends. USA Network, you suck.


Hey, maybe the Sci-Fi channel will pick them up.

kerfuffle | December 19, 23:54 CET

Eureka is my summer show of choice now that the 4400 has gone - both are Vancouver shows, how about Marco and Kevin Burkhoff getting sent there - they are both geniuses, after all - and Billy Campbell as Jordan Collier, Nathan Stark's long lost brother? ;)

RachVG | December 19, 23:57 CET

I've given up taking for granted that shows I like will continue for as long as the showrunners want them to. The cancellation of Firefly, Angel, Alias and Veronica Mars have taught me that. Every episode you get is great, but the network can pull the rug from underneath you at any time.

I was bought the first season of The 4400 last Christmas and wasn't expecting much. When I watched it, I was surprised by its quality. I thought there was a strong core of interesting characters in unique situations who I wanted to watch. The sci-fi elements were also fairly gripping. I bought the second season not too long after that and the third as soon as it was released.

The second season was brilliant, expanding upon the first season which was really just an introduction to this world and the characters, and beginning to make connections between them and developing different stories. The actors had really settled into their characters and I think they had more confidence and direction in what they were doing.

I think the third season was still very strong. The plots became even more epic and ambitious, and I think as a natural result of this deepening and widening of the premise there are going to be some things that work perfectly and others which simply don't, or divide viewers as to their merits.

I didn't like the fact that Lily was written out (although there is speculation that this was more to do with outside factors than a result of the writing of the show). I also didn't like the manner in which she was written out.

Perhaps tangled up in this is my uncertainty over the character of Isabelle. I think sometimes the character is written way too broadly. She's supposed to be this powerful figure who has the potential to be either the saviour of humanity or its downfall. And I think that whilst some of the characters in Joss' writing manage to tread that line, through ambiguity and a combination of believable character traits, I just don't think they've hit the nail on the head with a character central to the series. It's hard to understand any of her motivations or actions, and as a result it seems like she just acts in whatever way is needed to set the plot in a certain direction.

I think this is also true for the way they use Maia's predictions to influence the series- a major example would be her telling Diana she is going to marry her sister's boyfriend. I could forgive it when they did something similar by introducing Alana and having a whole episode set around a potential future her and Tom have spent together, because it was a strong episode and because it was the first time they'd done it.

But with Diana's "future husband" I just don't understand the reasoning behind it. The Diana who was introduced at the start of the series would simply refuse to believe it. And if the whole point of people from the future creating The 4400 is to change the future for the better given knowledge of how it can be changed, surely if Maia can predict the future then it can be changed too? I definitely think Diana would give it a stronger attempt not only as a blow for freedom and choice, but because stealing your sister's boyfriend is unethical!

Those aspects aside, I still think the show has a lot going for it and all of the season finales so far have been particularly interesting. I'm looking forward to the fourth (and now apparently final) season, and from what I've heard it does sound like a good ending to the series, as if they suspected it might be the ending, but there is still potential left in it, like Buffy season five. It's a shame that four seasons has to be the end but at least it has ended on a high, and hopefully there is the possibility of a future TV movie.

Razor | December 20, 00:03 CET

So where can we get massive amounts of promicin to send to USA?

jord | December 20, 00:07 CET

There was actually talk of sending syringes of Gatorade but that was vetoed for obvious reasons!

RachVG | December 20, 00:20 CET

Damn, I didn't even realize the show was on the cusp, I thought it was just starting to get interesting. Go figure.

Madhatter | December 20, 00:39 CET

I've been a fan of The 4400 since it's premiere. And while I thought it lagged at times (especially during the third season), I thought that overall it was pretty good. With the events that happened in the season finale, I was looking forward to seeing what new direction Season Five would take us in. Guess we'll never know. Bummer.

shishkarobb | December 20, 00:44 CET

I still have the latest season sitting on my dvr unwatched. I haven't been able to summon enough interest to start it up. Is it that much better than season 3?

hacksaway | December 20, 00:50 CET

Well, poo. :-(

OzLady | December 20, 00:54 CET

hacksaway, go ahead and give it a watch. Then, give us an opinion:)

Madhatter | December 20, 01:59 CET

I think I did post this comment somewhere, about how I felt about the latest (and now final) season, especially during early season, I felt that they were getting sort of lost from the earlier purposes from when the show was created, that really made me wonder if they had some endgame for the show, or rather they were just planning events as they went along.

Sometime midway through the season, it found some footing again, and it did get some quite an interesting conclusion. I wouldn't call it satisfying , but it gave the viewers some closure.

I'll definitely miss it during the summer, when there's not many interesting shows on the air.

Numfar PTB | December 20, 02:05 CET

I did read an interview with Scott Peters while season four was fairly early in filming (they were shooting The Truth and Nothing But The Truth if I recall correctly) where he said that he regretted taking the Promicin storyline that way and that far as it took away from the whole original point.

RachVG | December 20, 02:53 CET

It just occurred to me that there were 44 episodes. Appropriate, at least.

Still very, very sad though. I just got into it this past summer.

marpocky | December 20, 03:06 CET

Hmm, kinda' reminds me of the readings between BtVS seasons five and six, but that's just my mind playing games with me.

Madhatter | December 20, 03:15 CET

Well, this is just great news. /sarcasm

I've skimmed this topic fearing spoilers, as it just so happens that The 4400 now series finale is only just airing here tonight (in Canada), so this sure puts a damper on things. I'm just going to be sad while watching it now. Frak! :(

It may be a low budget show, and has had some fairly low points story-wise, but it has a great cast that have always made it worth watching. I first started watching it when I recognized Joel Gretsh from "Taken", and Jeffrey Combs has always been a favourite actor of mine- him and Summer are absolutely lovely on the screen together, and of course Billy Campbell is just excellent (I hope he gets that role he was begging for on BSG).

Trek_Girl42 | December 20, 03:21 CET

I'm pretty sure in one of the Sarah Connor interviews Summer said she wasn't doing much of anything on The 4400 anymore, so we won't actually miss seeing her.

Personally, The 4400 lost me this past season and I stopped watching about two-thirds of the way through. Too many of the stories seemed like redoes of episodes in the previous seasons.

cabri | December 20, 04:18 CET

I enjoyed the show until season 3. Then it felt like the writing staff had changed. Episode 3, "Being Tom Baldwin" had characters I had grown accustomed to doing things to further the story but that I didn't feel the characters would be doing. Instead of servicing the characters it felt like they were servicing the story.

I liked the story of 4400. But it shouldn't sit on the same shelf as Joss' work. Nor VM. 4400 helped me to appreciate the work necessary for making a story feel like it naturally occurred because of the characters' choices.

I stopped watching 4400. I typed something along the lines of this post earlier today but deleted it because why throw my opinion into our ether in a place that isn't looking to hear it? I can say this, had I never watched Joss, this would have been a better series. Kind of like, once I've read George R.R. Martin there aren't any more truly excellent fantasy books.

Even so, dislike hearing of something people love being canceled. That's unfun.

RhaegarTargaryen | December 20, 09:09 CET

This is so sad. I was a fan of this show from the first season :(. And season 4 was amazing, with a great set up for season 5. They should at least have a made for tv movie or something to wrap it up.

kurya | December 20, 09:47 CET

Never cared for The Dead Zone, but really bummed about The 4400. Not high art, but a very satisfying show IMO, overall. My main concern is the loss or yet another genre show.
And I so hope that Billy Campbell finds another good show. Probably no hope for that BSG spot he was willing to do for free ;) but how I would have loved that.

Shey | December 20, 16:29 CET