After a successful trial run as a "limited series" last summer, USA Network has put "The 4400" (9 tonight) back into production as a weekly program.

		'The 4400' When: 9 tonight on USA Network. Starring: Billy Campbell. 'Six Feet Under' When: 9 p.m. tomorrow on HBO. Starring: Peter Krause.

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).

Tonight'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.

'Six Feet Under'
The fun-loving Fishers are back in the feel-good show of the year, HBO's "Six Feet Under" (9 p.m. tomorrow). I kid. It's really more like "Return of the Living Dead" for this joyless, morose, depressive, uninspiring drama about a family of sad-sacks.

Nate (Peter Krause) and Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) are on the verge of marriage when tragedy strikes. Again.

David (Michael C. Hall) and Keith (Mathew St. Patrick) consider alternative forms of parenting and wind up in an argument. Again.

Claire (Lauren Ambrose) is dating a psycho. Again. This time it's Brenda's creepy brother, Billy (Jeremy Sisto).

Fisher family matriarch Ruth (Frances Conroy) has to care for her mentally unstable husband, George (James Cromwell), and proves she can have a short fuse. Again.

Granted, "Six Feet Under" is set in and around the Fisher mortuary where death is always in the air, but the show's first season made room for at least a little dark humor. Now there's almost none, save for the obnoxious comments of Brenda's mother, played hilariously by Joanna Cassidy, the only cast member who consistently appears to enjoy her role.

"Honey, you don't have to worry about everything going right," she tells Brenda on her wedding day. "That ship has sailed."

I feel the same way about "Six Feet Under."