Wipe your mind clear of the 1983 Christopher Walken-starrer. This Dead Zone has former Brat-packer Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith, gifted – or inflicted – with psychic visions after a car crash. Stephen King’s novel had Smith trying to avert nuclear apocalypse by killing the US President; here, his visions are more down-to-earth (bank robberies, explosions, missing children). For a while, anyway...
Hall is a magnetic lead and the scripts are inventive – if rather syrupy – while the visions themselves are marvellous: time spectacularly stands still whenever Smith touches an object. Now in its fourth year in America, The Dead Zone is intelligent, classy and fun; shame these 13 episodes don’t come with anything more exciting than couple of featurettes, though.
BEST BIT: One of Johnny’s first visions: a stunning explosion in a frozen-in-time Saigon market.
