MovieChat Forums > The 4400 (2004) Discussion > I can't believe no one else has brought ...

I can't believe no one else has brought this up...

posted 11 years ago by carmaninaz
2 replies | jump to latest

It is irritating and scary to me how the easily the writers of this show just blew off the Constitutional protections the 4400 and the P+ would have had. They bring it up in the beginning when they have the ACLU go to court to get the 4400 out of quarantine. By bringing it up, they must then live by those rules, but they don't. From then forward the evil US Gov’t is allowed to just do whatever it wants with impunity.

Now this isn’t a fantasy world type show. There are no unicorns or magical forests. No talking dogs or flying cows. It is supposed to seem like the 4400 landed here in the good old USA in the present. They make it seem like they are using anti-terror laws, but even terrorists in the U.S. have more protections than the 4400 did. The Gov’t would have to write specific anti-4400 laws which would never pass Constitutional muster, so I guess the way around that is to just act like the Gov’t is all powerful, evil and corrupt.

It’s hard to like a show when the whole premise is unbelievable. No, I don’t mean having people with special powers. I mean letting the Gov’t and evil Corporations go completely unchecked while asking me to believe this is happening right here, right now. The 4400 is not the only show to do this. And every time I come across it, it ruins the show for me.

[–] bindimax 11 years ago

My God! Yes! I bought the 1st season at a truck stop because the summarized premise intrigued me, and I was drunk.
And throughout the entire first season, I was screaming, "*beep* YOU! *beep* YOU! *beep* YOU, AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR WHORE MOMS, YOU DHS *beep*
Even the pilot episode saw those two bumbling government agents violate one of the 4400' Right to privacy, only to shoot the man when his powers go off BECAUSE OF THE ACTIONS AND INCOMPETENCE OF THOSE GOVERNMENT BUFFOONS!!!

[–] susanemccool 11 years ago

My most often recurring thought while watching this has been, "Wait, why didn't they . . " Talk about emergency legislation having been passed, for example.

IIRC, in the first season they touched briefly on the public being afraid of the 4400, with the implication that it would support any (?) "protective" action - as so many seemed to support what Ryland later did.

carmanimaz, when you say the gov 't was "allowed" to violate rights, I don't know if you mean by citizens, though, and don't want to put words in your mouth. I have no idea where NTAC fits in the "power hierarchy," but apparently it isn't all that high up , so you may be referring to other agencies /gov 't branches.

I felt they should have spent at least a little more time on the reaction of the public to various events - show talking heads from various areas debating on news shows, for example - to put the agencies' actions into perspective. It seems we're simply supposed to go with "desperate times call for desperate measures," which is lax writing, IMO.