I just finished watching all 4 seasons on Netflix, and I have to say that S1 and 2 were really innovative and enjoyable Sci-Fi drama, with characters and stories you would care about. I also liked the idea behind the storyline.
Unfortunately the original storyline was washed away by adding more and more esoteric and religious nonsense in S3 and S4 , which amounted in the praise of a new Jesus (Jordan Collier) with a cult like movement willing to sacrifice half of the population of the earth because of some book and visions, a way that was hardly questioned in the end (altough it ends on a cliffhanger),and was indeed portrayed as good.
The whole mess started out when they added that rival group from the future trying to sabotage the 4400 with grown up Isabelle, instead of focusing on what really happens in the future (which was never made clear) and how the 4400 should prevent it, I mean set some milestones! By that time unfortunately a lot of plot holes started to emerge too, for example abducting Maia again and sending her further back into the past, or Tom committing "suicide" and being send back, Elena being abducted and send back further in the past too. I mean if it's just that easy to send everybody around in time and bring someone back from the dead into another dimension, what's the point of the 4400 anyway? Then everything goes, why not sending someone back to the ancient Romans and change course there, and if you don't succeed try again in the middle ages. ^^ They really should have focused more on the upcoming catastrophe in the future, on how and when it's going to start, how to prevent it.
Another frustrating factor were the relationships of Tom and Diana in S3 and 4. I mean I appreciate the fact that they for one time didn't do the obvious and brought Diana and Tom together, but their relationships seemed random and meaningless to the storyline, even Tom and Elana, but especially Diana and Marco/ Ben.
But the most upsetting part was the "let's bring god to earth" and "the solution for paradise is everybody on promicin" storyline. I guess looking back 2004-2007 was a time were evangelicals were on the rise in America and maybe that storyline reflects that a little bit, but it was unbearable to watch.
The idea behind this whole storyline alone contradicts everything we learned throughout the first 2 seasons, and that is that people with abilities are not automatically better human beings than people without. Just like the regulars some of them used their powers for good, some of the for their own sake or fraud, and some of them to hurt and kill people. I mean even the abilities itself were not in every case designed to do good, some of them were (like healing), others just caused destruction, chaos or violence.
That all was negated in S4 and especially in the finale, just do what some vision/ ability and an old book tells you (dumbest character of the series: Kyle) and give everybody an ability or let them die, because then you'll get heaven on earth, sure, no one out of billions of people will ever use an ability to kill somebody anymore, hallelujah, we are all reborn *facepalm*.
When you start skipping some scenes while watching to get to the end you know something has been lost in S3 and S4, and that's what happened when I watched. I'd still recommend it though if I have to rate all 4 seasons together.
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