After a successful trial run as a "limited series" last summer, USA Network has put "The 4400" (7 p.m., Sunday) back into production as a weekly program.
The focus of the show has narrowed, and a few characters have gone missing (though they're referenced in dialogue), but "The 4400" returns fairly well intact. The only disappointing missing element is a sense of the epic scope the limited series gave last summer. But it was probably inevitable that feeling would dissipate once the show became a weekly series.
"The 4400" concerns the return of 4,400 humans, abducted over a 50-year period and returned to Earth all at once. The returnees didn't age physically, but many of them now have new abilities, from the healing powers of teenager Shawn Farrell (Patrick Flueger) to the precognition of young Maia Rutledge (Conchita Campbell).
While the miniseries studiously addressed the 4400's reintegration into the culture, the series relies less on fish-out-of-water scenarios, although Maia, abducted in 1946, does get teased by friends for having a crush on Frank Sinatra.
The series continues to follow multiple stories at once, including lovers Richard Tyler (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) and Lily Moore (Laura Allen), 4400 abductees who are on the run from 4400 haters with Lily's baby daughter.
Millionaire returnee Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell), who positions himself as the charismatic leader of the 4400, has written a book detailing the revelations at the end of last summer's limited series about how the 4400 were abducted to save a dying human race in the future.
At National Threat Assessment Command, the government agency formed to keep track of the returnees and investigate all things concerned with them, agents Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie) are once again partners, though they have a new boss, Nina Jarvis (Samantha Ferris).
Sunday's two-hour season premiere feels a little bloated as Diana and Tom investigate the strange activity of patients at a mental hospital. I also couldn't help but wonder if Lily and Richard will ever get a story arc that doesn't require them to be constantly on the run.
That said, the season premiere does lay out some tantalizing future plot possibilities that are sure to keep fans guessing about the true purpose of the 4400.