Dead Zone Marathon

If, like me, you miss USA's long-running series Stephen King's The Dead Zone, some good news: The Dead Zone joins the schedule of cable channel Sleuth this week, kicking off with an all-day marathon starting Monday at 6 a.m. and going all the way through 5 a.m. Tuesday. After that it resumes its regular schedule of weekdays at 3 a.m. and 6 p.m. (See the listings for more info.)

The Dead Zone (2002 - 2007) followed Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall), who woke up from a six-year coma able to see visions of disasters needing to be prevented and other flashes of the past, present, or future, all by touching someone. Meanwhile his childhood sweetheart and fiancee, Sarah (Nicole de Boer, whom sci-fi fans also know as Deep Space Nine's Ezri Dax), married Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno) during his coma, and together they're was raising Johnny's son J.J. (played for the first 5 seasons by Spencer Achtymichuk and in the last season by Connor Price, who also starred in Good Luck Chuck). The series also starred David Ogden Stiers as a wayward evangelist and John L. Adams as Johnny's physical therapist and stalwart sidekick Bruce.

Not surprisingly for a premise originating with Stephen King, The Dead Zone touches on the darker side of Johnny's gift – he's scorned, stalked, and used by all comers; but the show's anchored in Johnny realizing the importance of his mission and overcoming all obstacles to prevent the catastrophes he sees – even Armageddon. His complex relationships with Sarah and Walt are helped by de Boer's easy emotional fluidity and Bruno's rock-solid reliability. If you haven't seen The Dead Zone, and you happen to have this channel, take this opportunity to check it out.

What is Sleuth, you ask? It's an NBC Universal Cable network, launched at the start of 2006. Right now it's available to about 5 million homes. Sleuth is dedicated entirely to mystery and crime series and movies, using material from the NBC Universal vaults.