The Dead Zone Marathon

ShadowDog's

Second Annual (41 Hour) Dead Zone Marathon!

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Hours 6-10

Ground Rules
1) Start marathon at 6am EST on June 11th. Finish marathon (All episodes from Seasons 1, 2, and 3) by 10pm EST on June 12th, just in time for the premiere episode of Season 4! Finish by watching that episode.

2) Watch at least one episode per hour, meaning I can take no longer a break than 15 minutes per hour.

3) Post at least one episode commentary at the top of each hour. Also post regularly at Official Dead Zone board to prove I am still awake.

4) Diet Pepsi amounts are marathon totals, not per hour.

5) Because I've already marathoned Seasons 1 and 2, those seasons will be viewed this time with audio commentaries on.

Reader Feedback

"My son is quite Mad. Where did I go wrong? Break a leg." -Dexter I	"Good luck! Please don't be insane after this. ;-) Besides sanity is overrated. :-D" -MSR	"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." -hallfan

Current Hours

Hours 1-5

Episode Commentary Key:

Visions: Prolonged marathons tend to cause hallucinations - er - visions.

Grouch of the EP award: There are some GROUCHY people in this series! Who was the surliest person in this ep?

General Remarks: What I thought of the ep, in general.

Commentators: Who commented on this episode? (where applicable)

Commentary Highlights: Again, where applicable.

Funny line of the ep/commentary: TEE HEE!
Trivia Question: Every now and then I'll ask a trivia question. Be the first to answer!

1.6 "The House"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 24
Visions: None yet, but I fear them.

Grouch of the EP award: Girl's Parents. Why don't you slam the door in Johnny's face while he's taking again?

General Remarks: This fascinating episode was awesome at the time and just gets better with time. As good as it was, it raised a lot of timeline questions that have never really been solved. But I wouldn't give up this episode for anything so I don't let the timeline stuff bother me anymore.

Commentators: Jason Stretch and Robert Chernellwith

Commentary Highlights: It's hard to get engaged with commentators who you haven't heard before and who didn't act in the episode, but these two production crew guys were personable and kept their focus. The inside special effects info was good. One funny comment was this one after Johnny gets the door slammed in his face: "I notice that a lot of people are mean to Johnny." Another laugh out loud story was the one about Chris Bruno chasing someone who had stolen his chair across a football field. ROTF!

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "You know, if he'd just lock his doors those kids wouldn't keep getting in there. The audience is screaming 'lock the doors!'" -Jason or Robert (I have no clue which is which)
Oldie but goodie: "Man, why do white people always stay in the damn house?" - Bruce, convinced Johnny's house is haunted.

1.7 "Unreasonable Doubt"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 24
Visions: I got a vision of a caffeine overdose so I switched to water for this hour.

Grouch of the EP award: Ben Cartwright. He raises the grouchy bar pretty high in this episode! "Don't you patronize me! Don't you DARE patronize me!"

General Remarks: I'm not a fan of movie ripoffs being episodes of TV, but this was a surprisingly strong ep. The actor who played Ben Cartwright is really really strong and stole this episode. I especially love his Chris Rock rant (which Michael Taylor admits in the commentary that Michael Pillar rewrote).
Not really a nitpick, but wasn't it a really lucky coincidence that the gangbangers just happened to block out the security camera right before the robber was ready to make his move?

Commentators: Anthony Michael Hall and Michael Tayler

Commentary Highlights: Michael Taylor admits that the Aquafina bottles were outrageous product placement (Pepsi makes Aquafina, so it's fine by me) and even suggests that Johnny should have a vision is just a Aquafina commercial. "You just did one." -AMH says in response. These two also had a good rapport, which leads me to believe that AMH creates such a comfort zone that any commentary with him and someone else will run smoothly.

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "I went to a couple 7/11s and it would be very hard to rob those stores. They have cameras everywhere. There were no blind spots. Then I went to a Mom and Pop store and they had a much cruder setup." -Michael Taylor, explaining his research for the script.
"So then you robbed that one." -AMH
"Yeah, then I robbed that one. They don't pay me much in this job, you know." - Michael Taylor

1.8 "The Siege"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 30
Visions: None.

Grouch of the EP award: Conrad. He has his reasons but he's the ultimate grouch.

General Remarks: I really love the tenseness of this episode. Johnny is making minute by minute decisions, feeling his way one vision at a time, and it gives an almost "24" episode quality to this story. The story really ramps up once Conrad discovers that the Sheriff's wife is one of his hostages.

Commentators: Stephen E. Miller, Shawn Pillar, Michael McKnight

Commentary Highlights: I'm a "behind the scenes nut" since I work in the indie business so the stuff about the difference between writing a script by yourself and then the lines not working during the blocking phase was fascinating to me. Don't know how interested the common fan will find it though.
Stephen Miller's remarks about how good the reputation of the Dead Zone production has with actors and crews around town were revealing.

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "The door! Step number three, Conrad! Lock the door!" -Conrad after watching Johnny waltz in the front door of the bank he is currently robbing.
"He wants a TV." - Johnny, upon coming out of the seiged bank.
"Roscoe, get us a TV." - Walt
"Where am I going to get a TV?" - Roscoe
"Go into one of those apartments over there and grab one, I don't care." - Walt
"What if they're watching it?" - Roscoe
Walt glares.
"Okay, okay, a TV." - Roscoe departs quickly.

1.9 "Enemy Mind"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 38
Visions: I spent this episode on the treadmill, so I had to keep my focus or get sucked in the machine.

Grouch of the EP award: Even before Johnny steals his car, Bruce is really irritated in this ep. Uncharacteristically so. Maybe he has finally realized that he is never seen with a girlfriend.

General Remarks: This is probably my least favorite episode of the season. It's not a badly written or acted ep, so I think it was just me not liking Johnny out of control of himself. I like him more proactive, figuring out his visions, and generally being the hero. Like the last ep, for instance.
But even if a less interesting episode, there is always a ton of good. The stretchy tree people in Johnny's rave vision were creepy, as were all of Johnny's paranoid visions of the people in his life looking mean and conspiring against him.

Commentators: John L Adams and Julie Patzwald

Commentary Highlights: Julie and John have a good rapport as well. I think John Adams is another actor who can comment with anyone and have it come out smooth and easy. John is fantastic in questioning the people he is commenting with, asking sharp, focused, and interesting questions. Without someone like this a lot of commentaries tend to drag. It doesn't hurt that he is really funny off the cuff. Especially when explaining how Johnny could never really toss Bruce's 200 pound, six foot tall body to the ground.

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "You did a really good job preparing, because when you showed up on the set I thought they had dragged some bum in off the street. I thought they had cast straight out of Gastown." - John Adams, commenting on Julie's portrayal of a runaway drug addict.

1.10 "Here There Be Monsters"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 44
Visions: None.

Grouch of the EP award: Cletus the Redneck mob leader. He'd win moron of the ep as well. Hyuck!

General Remarks: I hate seeing Bruce get beat up, and I'm not a fan of crazy mob stories because they've been getting done since the original Twilight Zone episodes. But there are a lot of great moments in this episode. From Johnny's hysterical teaser ending request to get his food to go to a lot of funny moments during the trial there is a lot of fun in this ep. I didn't really buy the crazy mother being the killer. I think she just needed more screen time and it would have made more sense to me. We saw so little of her that she just didn't seem real to me.

Commentators: John Adams, Shawn Pillar, and Steve McKnutt

Commentary Highlights: All three guys were great again, and I'd be repeating myself to say why. John asked pointed and interesting questions again and everyone had good observations. For instance, the talk about time of day shooting jibes very well with my personal experience. Nice to know I'm not the only one who intends on shooting at 10am and ends up not getting a location until 3:30pm. The lighting discussions were also interesting.

Funny line of the ep/commentary: "Caught up in Mayberry." - Dana Bright, arriving in town after Johnny is put on trial for witchcraft.

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