Every time a book as popular as The Stand is adapted for screen, two questions emerge: Will it satisfy the built-in fanbase? And will it also work for viewers who are new to the story? In its very first installment, the CBS All Access iteration of one of King’s most popular books isn’t really succeeding in either endeavor. It’s, of course, far too early to condemn its efforts entirely. And The Stand’s pilot does check a lot of important boxes of the genre while also putting forth at least one intriguing character arc. But it still feels like too much is missing to make it really stand out as a memorable pilot.
I cannot put myself perfectly in the shoes of someone completely unfamiliar with The Stand, but I have to imagine that the first episode would feel overwhelming in its smattering of hasty exposition. Sure, the story is ultimately quite simple—your standard post-apocalyptic epic. A superflu causes a global pandemic (sound familiar?) and wipes out most of the population in a matter of days. The few survivors left are faced with rebuilding the world. Whereas the book moves linearly, the series flips between past and present. In the present, a group of survivors work to clear Boulder, Colorado of its corpses and rebuild society. In the past, we see how the superflu so rapidly unravels these characters’ lives, sowing chaos and something even more sinister.
So, yes, your standard post-apocalyptic epic. And yet, the pilot barrels so rapidly through time, place, and character that I’m not convinced it does the legwork of captivating blank-slate viewers. There are glimmers of the more fantastical elements of the story that pop in: dreams of a cornfield and an old woman named Mother Abagail (played by Whoopi Goldberg); a glowing stone on a necklace; red-eyed wolves; Alexander Skarsgård lurking around in a denim jacket. The pilot can’t answer all its mysteries at once. It’s already somewhat bloated, and a little bit of secrecy is essential to the fantasy/sci-fi genre.
And at the same time, the episode on its own isn’t quite as immersive or thrilling as it wants to be even for readers of the book. The challenge any adaptation of The Stand faces comes down to distillation. It is an immensely character-driven story. While King’s world-building in the book delights, the real reason for the book’s success and longevity is that its people feel real and complicated, their interiors as fully realized as the more surface-level details. It helps that King uses well over 1,000 pages to develop those backstories and trajectories. Hollywood has to use shorthand and shortcuts, which means distilling these characters and their journeys to the most essential elements. Sometimes, nuance is stripped along the way. A film adaptation of The Stand never came to fruition after a full decade in development. The story simply doesn’t fit into a single movie’s confines—at least not without losing much of what makes it great. A miniseries seemed to be the natural solution, and there was one in 1994.
The pilot focuses on three of the sprawling group of leading characters from the book: Frannie Goldsmith (Odessa Young), Stu Redman (James Marsden), and Harold Lauder (Owen Teague). Stu is a handsome and sharp regular dude from Texas who spends much of the episode locked up as a guinea pig being tested due to his immunity to the virus. He’s one of the first handful people exposed, the result of a military/government operation gone wrong and one lower-rung soldier choosing his family over containment, unknowingly sparking the end of the world with that choice. Stu has to swiftly go from regular dude from Texas to action hero once it becomes clear that some of the higher-ups see his immunity and knowledge as more of a liability than an asset. He makes a solid viewer surrogate, dumped into the middle of a chaotic and frightening world where he has to piece things together for himself. His scenes make for the most action-packed and sci-fi-leaning ones.
Then, over in Ogunquit, Maine, a quieter but ultimately more disturbing story unfolds. Only two residents of this seaside vacation town survive: Harold, a tortured teen writer who affixes all his literary rejections to a massive nail on his bedroom wall, and his former babysitter Frannie, who Harold is in love with. Frannie spirals through the grief and shock of the sudden apocalypse, faced with the physical challenge of burying her father and then attempting suicide before Harold rescues her and proposes that they get out of town together. There’s a lot left to be desired when it comes to the character development of Frannie, which returns to that distillation issue. She feels flat here in the pilot, already lacking the specificity and depth she’s richly drawn with in the novel. Which means that by default, The Stand’s pilot is most interested in its male characters, which I’m hoping doesn’t become a pattern.
The episode unfolds largely from Harold’s perspective. There’s a fun sleight of hand that happens with the way Harold’s introduced. We start with him in Boulder, working on a crew that’s clearing out bodies, work that he’s squeamish about. We then see him bullied in the past at the onset of the superflu. It seems, at first, like the episode is setting him up to be an unlikely hero, a misunderstood nerd whose intellect saves the day at the end of the world. Well, that’s probably how Harold sees himself. As the pilot progresses, Harold’s true nature emerges. He doesn’t seem all that sad that everyone in his life is dead. He really does fancy himself a misunderstood genius. He’s smart and resourceful, but he’s also narcissistic, possessive, and dangerous.
Here, The Stand probes how toxic masculinity can so easily spiral into violence. Harold seems mostly harmless at first, his crush on Frannie a little creepy, sure. But he doesn’t cross any overt lines at first. Then, we see in the future that a pregnant Frannie is with Stu. Something has happened to pour gasoline on the flame of Harold’s hate, and he’s playing the long game, practicing false smiles and writing a genuinely terrifying manifesto on pride and hate while promising to kill Stu and maybe even Frannie. No, Harold is no misunderstood boy or unexpected hero. He’s got all the vitriol of an incel. In some ways, Harold’s the scariest part of the episode.
The greatest achievement of the show so far is its casting. Young, Marsden, and Teague are all fantastic in their respective roles. Young does the most she can with the barebones she’s given. Marsden is classic hero material. And Teague delights and terrifies as Harold, potently harnessing the character’s insidious nature. Those fake smiles are genuinely haunting. Harold’s arc in the pilot contains the most hints toward a deeper story than mere post-apocalyptic thrills.
The Stand is ultimately about good versus evil, both sides bolstered by the high stakes of the end of the world. In the pilot, we start to learn a little bit about the people who will be so vital to this chess game between good and evil. It’s a well constructed episode, but it lacks in the character development department, especially when it comes to Frannie. It’s difficult to distill these characters and their stories, a challenge The Stand can hopefully eclipse as it unfolds.
Stray observations
- I know that was a lot of book talk, but I do think that the context of the book and its previous adaptation woes are important to the conversation of this new iteration, so I wanted to get into some of that upfront. Moving forward, most book talk will be reserved for the Strays where I’ll comment on some of the changes made if I think they’re significant. That means there will occasionally be spoilers in these Strays, so read at your own risk.
- On that note, please try to label spoilers in the comments. I personally do find the notion of “spoiling” a book that’s been out for over 40 years to be a little silly, but I know some people care a lot!
- For book stuff, I’m working off of the uncut version by the way.
- One understandable and yet frustrating change from the book is the decision to have Frannie attempt suicide. This does not happen in the book, but it’s an effective Hollywood shortcut to show Frannie changing from thinking Harold is just some annoying kid to feeling some responsibility for and kindness toward him. That change happens in a much more subtle and slower way in the book, which would be harder to pull off here. But it also is frustrating in the grand scheme of things, because we really do get so little character development of Frannie in this pilot, with the suicide attempt being the main focus of her arc, and I fear The Stand is making the mistake that television so often makes by assuming that toxic men (Harold, in this case) are inherently more interesting than the people around them and, more troublingly, the people they harm.
- Can’t wait to see more of Alexander Skarsgård as Randall Flagg, another bit of genius casting.
151 Comments
To respond to your last point, I think that Harold was always more interesting than Frannie. Though I do agree that it is still a problem overall.
Kind of interesting that they decided to skip over Captain Tripps spreading over the world. A massive chunk of the book is the slow buildup to the apocalypse.
A part of me wonders if that was a pre- or post-Covid decision. Since they made the non-linear decision, I wonder if the excised some of the Captain Tripps stuff. I’m a big fan of the book and I have been questioning whether I want to watch for that reason.
They started filming in Sept 2019 I believe so before.
Right, but if they edited it not chronologically you could slim down scenes and slim down details if you didn’t want such a heavy focus on sudden flu pandemic violently kills most of humanity.
Considering how much the first episode jumped around in time, I’m guessing we’ll see some more of Captain Tripps’ spread, but probably not as much as I had hoped.
The jumping back and forth in time didn’t sit with me. I know what’s happening because I read the book and saw the mini series, but a novice is going to wonder wtf is going on. Why show Fran & Stu in a situation that happens much closer to the end of the story? I didn’t even realize that was Harold helping out with the burials, and was wondering when he had the chance to go from being picked on for spying on Fran, to working out and running while they were in Maine. I didn’t realize this was in the future. In the original they show the bond between Fran and her father, they give us a few days of them being together as he gets sick and her caring for him before he dies. And they go more into detail of how Harold is an annoying little creep who had a crush on her, I think she had some poems or something he wrote for her, that she read to her father and they laughed over. I don’t get the decision to tell the story like this. I was pleasantly surprised to see JK Simmons in the Ed Harris role, but I don’t recall him helping Stu escape. He was around a while and finally killed himself. Oh well, I’ll stick around and see how it turns out.
It seems almost deliberately confusing. My wife, who hasn’t read the book, had no idea Fran was pregnant and when we see her and Stu together in Boulder, she assumed they had gotten together after they got there and then Stu got her pregnant. There is a small moment when she approaches her dad in the garden and asks if she can talk to him about something, but other than that, there is no hint that she was pregnant before Captain Tripps hit.
That’s right! She was pregnant! Didn’t they show her with the boy who was the father at the beginning, them breaking up or something? I totally forgot about that. I misremembered and thought it was Stu’s too!
I don’t remember about the series, but in the book, they don’t break up. She tells him she’s pregnant and he’s immature about it, but they leave on good terms. She thinks she might be growing apart from him, but everything happens before anything can happen there.
That’s right! She was pregnant! Didn’t they show her with the boy who was the father at the beginning, them breaking up or something? I totally forgot about that.Yes, his name was Jess (I think). They meet at a Dairy Queen where she tells him she’s pregnant and they decide what to do, and it’s clear they’re not going to stay together. This episode alluded to her pre-Stu pregnancy very briefly when she tells her father “I need to talk to you about something”—I’m sure that’s what she was referring to.
I was okay with the time flipping around, except for the scene with Stu and Blandy in Boulder. It was just confusing. I don’t mind a couple time jumps as part of the storytelling but good lord, there were 3, 4 different time jumps in 45 minutes? That’s a lot.
I was pleasantly surprised to see JK Simmons in the Ed Harris role, but I don’t recall him helping Stu escape. He was around a while and finally killed himself.He didn’t help Stu escape, no one did. Stu had to trick and beat his way out of the CDC compound in Vermont. I’m pretty sure Starkey was at the original DOD lab whence Campion escaped (it’s been awhile since I’ve read the book).
I’m so ok with that right now. In it for the post-, not the apocalypse.
Having just watched it I think it works. By narrowing the focus to just two characters in the first episode and using flashbacks (Fran is just kind of there so far, so doesn’t count. I expect and hope she’ll get her “focus episode” later), they’ve given themselves a lot of freedom to hit the important beats of the whole “world ending” without painstakingly walking us through every single step from every important character’s perspective.
It’s a smart move, and saves screen time to let the character beats really breathe. It actually reminds me of Lost, so far, in how it’s filling-in backstory. There are so many characters, doing the whole “give EVERYBODY a pre-apocalypse introduction, then they all watch everyone die, then track ALL of them as they have multiple Mother Abagail visions and gradually make their way across the country,” is repetitive and likely to drag and eat up valuable time. With the flashback structure they don’t have nearly as many narrative and timeline, “and then this happened, and then that happened” check-boxes to mark off on an episode-by-episode basis. We’re an hour in and they’ve already done what was necessary to fill-in both the macro of how the whole thing went down from an institutional standpoint (through Stu) and, like, 75% of Harold’s emotional arc. That’s some solid filmmaking shorthand. Time will tell, but I think that’s going to work a hell of a lot better than trying to give Harold five minutes every episode to pine/rage/make mean faces to show how his emotional arc is going.
SPOILERS:
I also loved a lot of the smaller choices and changes from the novel. Harold practicing the phony Tom Cruise grin in the mirror was a fantastic little piece of business. Fran’s harder edge with regards to her relationship with Harold was also a good choice. In the book and 90s mini-series, she’d treated him as a harmless irritant. This Fran knows Harold’s a creep and doesn’t mince words. It also makes his pining for her even more of a delusional fantasy. There isn’t even a hint of affection there, no “she’s nice to me so therefore she wants to fuck me,” bullshit justifications. She freakin’ loathes him and as much as says so to his face. It’s the right way to play it in 2020, at a time when we’re done with having sympathy for won’t-take-no-for-an-answer incel man-children who hate the world for not giving them what they think they’re owed.
Revealing that Stu and Frannie are together and expecting a child in Boulder without context is something I think will be jarring in a good way for new viewers. We see Harold’s hopes built up and dashed all at the same time.
Making “the government” a hell of a lot more competent and sane than the jack-booted thugs of the conspiracy-minded 70s book and the cartoonishly unfeeling and incompetent government of the 90s mini-series (by making Dr. Ellis reasonable and compassionate instead of a weasely asshole and giving General Starkey some humanity) without making them blameless or “good guys” was a wise choice, as was putting Starkey in a room with Stu instead of being either alone or ranting to some underling.
All in all, I think it’s a great start.
I remember a great part oif the book in a dark highway tunnel and deeeaaaaadddd bodies.
thats NYC’s Midtown Tunnel, and I bet it’s going to be the centerpiece of an entire episode. You just can’t skip that part. It’s terrifying and nightmarish still 30 years later, and every time I’ve ever gone through that tunnel since I was 8 yrs old I’ve thought of it (my parents were weird and let me read Stephen King waaaay to early).
I want to go through that tunnel. It will be on my list of things to do when I visit NYC.
They will find a way to fuck up the tunnel scene. I guarantee they open the episode with them in the tunnel, but not having watched the slow collapse of new york and their escape it won’t have any effect.
i feel like we’ll see more of the “downfall” plague scenes in the next eps or two? I hope? I imagine?
Jeez, this could tank.
The Captain Tripps segment of the book was amazing to read when I was a teenager. I read the book (and saw the miniseries) at the same time British satellite telly started doing reruns of Survivors (a seventies British post-apocalyptic series which itself featured a mysterious plague). King really pulled out the stops in writing about the steady and utter collapse of American society. I’d hope they’d include the “no great loss” sequence from the book – as horrific as some poor wee sensitive souls would find it.
Yes! The way things gradually stop. TV goes from normal to constant news to just some stuff to static to off because the power went out. All the stuff in NYC. It was just great.
Oh my God, the “no great loss” chapter—absolutely justified the revision, all by itself. Fantastic mosaic of the aftermath. That plus the [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER] scene where Nadine is playing with the Ouija board with her friends in college and Flagg reaches out to her.
OH MY FUCKING GOD YES TO THE OUIJA BOARD. I’m not going to lie, but the way King wrote Flagg’s writing made me think of someone whispering and hissing down a phone line.
I feel like their plan is to go back and forth like they did here, but with each character. Which sucks, because that means they’re going to only briefly touch on things. I swear, though, if they don’t have Larry’s trek through the tunnel, I am going to be horribly disappointed.
Watching civilization slowly disintegrate and collapse is the best part of the book and the 94 Miniseries, and it’s also integral to introducing us to the characters. In this case they they’re spreading it out is all so frantic and disjointed, I just reread the book and even I found is disorienting.
Prefacing this by saying I haven’t watched the episode yet, but I do wonder if the non-linear storytelling is going to hurt the story. So much of The Stand is the build up to well…The Stand. The arcs are all about how those involved grown and change because of the apocalypse and the choices they make linearly to get them to where they are in the end – good and bad. Not doing that chronologically seems like a questionable choice.
Exactly. I remember Harold as always creepy (his gaze, his secret post-apocalyptic fantasies fulfilled was a nice touch) but how he’d turned out to be still very open and unexpected. I wouldn’t have wanted to get this story with spoilers.
A long time ago I thought that Josh Peck (Nickelodeon’s ‘Drake and Josh”) would have been good as Harold Lauder, especially based on the book version of him. And honestly, I never thought Molly Ringwald was the right pick for Frannie.
So far it is definitely hurting.
I watched a few minutes of the pilot, it doesn’t explain how it all started like the original, which I would think is essential to get the viewer engaged, but maybe they show it later. That original opening is fantastic.
I love the book and really enjoyed the original mini-series so I have some biases going into this one. Still, I am really excited to see what this version will be like. I will say that I was not prepared for the time jumps really and they were a little confusing. It might be because I was tired and on cold meds when I watched it, but I actually had to back up once to make sure that I had not missed something after one of the time jumps. They seemed to me to be a bit jarring. The casting so far seems really good but I do not like the lack of development of Fanny’s character. Right now it seems more like she is just an object of Harold’s obsession and former babysitter rather than a fully developed person who has her own whole story line and personality.
My big concern about this is that the book has some rather, shall we say, dated depictions of black people, and after New Mutants I REALLY don’t trust Josh Boone to get that times have changed.
You see that a lot in books of a certain age, even when you can tell that the author is on their side. In the nuclear war classic Alas, Babylon, you can tell that Pat Frank likes and sympathizes with black people, putting them pretty far forward in the story, but the portrayal is still cringeworthy to modern eyes.Steven King, though, was still in love with the “Magical Negro” trope later than most.
Stephen King’s rejection of good taste is probably the key to his appeal, but he misses the mark it leads to stuff like Spearchucker TV (which I guess was meant to be ironic? I have no fucking idea – it was “sewer orgy” levels of whatthefuck).
Don’t worry, they spend most of the first episode trying to humanize the toxic white incel.
“Hollywood has to use shorthand and shortcuts …”This was the perfect distillation of how the end of the world got started and I think was even one time the miniseries was up over the book.Here it is again with the lead in context of the man who took the virus out of containment and hence doomed the world (though it really does seem that the supernatural/higher powers set him up as the fall guy in a sense as that disease was getting out no matter what).I sincerely doubt we’re going to get a scene this good in the remake, especially since I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen in anything IMO at least.
I loved the original miniseries and read the book. I was on vacation with my 3 year old niece when I read it, and she would see the paperback on my nightstand and called it “the book with the big and the many words”. IIRC, the miniseries was 4 two hour episodes, so making a 9 hour series seems about right. I like Marsden being cast as Stu, as I like him for the obvious reasons, but he’s a good actor too. I will always see Molly Ringwald as Frannie.I also like Alexander Skarsgaard, he doesn’t seem as creepy as Jamey Sheridan, but he was terrifying in Big Little Lies so maybe we just haven’t seen him in action yet. I’ve only seen the scene in the jail. I had CBS All Access and cancelled it, but this is making me want to sign up again, just to see how they pull it off. It’s not getting great reviews so far. Agree, that opening scene is fantastic. For a mini series in 1994, I think the only thing I found hokey is the ending with the bomb in Las Vegas and God’s hand coming down. Sorry if I spoiled it but like the reviewer said, it’s been 40 years since the book and 26 since the mini series.
I’m happy to give Skarsgaard a chance, because I think Jamey Sheridan was one of the castings that just didn’t work for me(The other was Laura San Giacomo, who I love, but she was totally wrong for the part). I don’t think they are capable of matching the two greatest casting decisions the original made, Bill Fagerbakke as Tom Cullen, and as Matt Frewer Trashcan Man(Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also had an excellent cameo as the Monster Shouter)…those two were a Hall of Fame level bit of casting.
It’s been so long I just remember Sheridan being really sinister. But again, Skarsgaard was fantastic in Big Little Lies. Agree Laura didn’t seem right for that role. It’ll be interesting to see what Amber Heard brings to it. Also agree re Fagerbakke and Matt Frewer casting. I think I recognize the actor who’s playing Tom from The Office. He’s the warehouse worker who defaced Pam’s mural. IIRC, this revived Rob Lowe’s career after his debacle at the Democratic Convention in Atlanta and I believe this was after his horrendous appearance at the Oscars. I think Marsden can play the down to earth aspect of Stu, but he’s so handsome we’re immediately drawn to him, and Gary Sinise was more the guy who just grew on us because of his decency. I wonder if they’re using “Don’t Fear the Reaper” as the opening theme. Whenever I hear that on the radio I have memories of watching this.
I also have to give a shoutout to Ray Walston as Glen Bateman. A legendary crusty old man actor playing a legendary crusty old man character.
It’s been so long I just remember Sheridan being really sinister. But again, Skarsgaard was fantastic in Big Little Lies.When they didn’t do the stupid “demon-face” thing with Sheridan’s Flagg, he was really creepy when he smiled as Flagg. I always thought he did a good job of conveying that sort of “unsettling All-American” vibe.
OUCH! Totally forgot about that terrible devil head thing. It was cheesy even then. I never really warmed to Sheriden as Flagg, to be honest. But that character has ALOT of heavy lifting to do as a villain and it’ll be tough for anyone to pull it off.
He’s got a creepy smile as Flagg, but not quite enough charisma to pull it off superbly. I do like how he fits the way King describes him as “hatefully happy”.
Agree Laura didn’t seem right for that role. It’ll be interesting to see what Amber Heard brings to it.Amber Heard?! Are there just no tall women in TV anymore or something? Isn’t Nadine supposed to be really tall?
Yeah, it seems there are a fair amount of 30 to 40 something tall actresses in Hollywood who could play the part: Laura Prepon would be great casting, Adrienne Palicki, Karen Gillan, just to start with.
How did he get infected if he wasn’t in the building? Did it get out into the open air that fast thru the ventilation system?
Yes.
Well, you saw a puff of something reaching the guard shack, so I’m guessing yes.
That’s what I thought.I just watched the first 5 or so minutes of the new one. It sure doesn’t grab you like the original. Unless it flashes back to the MP getting off the base later.
Are you talking about the original mini series Campion? Cuz I agree that being on the fence guardpost and still catching it means that the containment protocols on that site were BUNK! The chain link fence wasn’t going to hold it in. You have to purposely ignore that glaring plot hole.
Yep
Part of the point of the story is man’s hubris in creating something that could kill everyone and thinking that it wouldn’t get out.
“Life finds a way.”
Yeah, in the book he’s a tower guard, so still inside the facility. Not quite as close as he is in this series, but still better than being on the gate, which in a facility like this is going to be quite far away from the buildings.
In that clip, alone, he’s JUST outside the residences. I think he runs across the block to get his family. The thing that I had either never noticed, or had forgotten, is they spend a lot of time setting up that the underground facility has air tubes jutting up all over the neighbourhood. It would have gotten out whether Campion closed the fence or not. Also, Campion not closing the gate had NO impact. Nobody else ran for it. Apparently he was the the only family man, no one else heard the siren and said “Welp. Time to book I guess.” He was Patient Zero as far the book and the mini series is concerned. Same with this version. The only thing this version does is let Campion off the hook a little bit….(I mean, if the door ain’t gonna close anyway, shit, I might as well just head out. Y’all got any objections? No? Nobody? Okay, Ciao.)
I think the 94 series did it wrong by having him be at the gate to get out of the base. I really don’t see how, logically, he could get it from there. Unless he got it before that day. In the book, there is a countdown before he gets locked in and he slips out before the countdown finishes. Most people wouldn’t be able to get out out before the countdown finishes and, besides, most of those people apparently died immediately. IIRC, he has it because he has to go through parts of the base to get to the exit and it’s got out that far (it’s never explained, but I’m assuming from the number of people shown dead in their tracks that it’s a *lot* more potent the closer you are to where they were working on it and the fact of it getting out into the air makes it weaker the farther it goes. Maybe they have a protocol that would vacuum it back in if it got out but it killed everyone near it so fast they didn’t get the chance.)
Well, you could come at it from a different perspective, if you use the visual evidence. Campion got the disease from his family, who are in the middle of the neighbourhood littered with air vent tubes from the facility. It sort of helps to explain why he’s the lone survivor of the little family. I think the facility’s thought was that they would trap all the families inside too, to also die. In that scenario, the air vents were put specifially in to get everyone above ground in the complex as well.
I hadn’t thought of that. It would make sense in the 94 series. I don’t think the trapped the residences in part works, though, because he only had a short time to get from his post to his house, gather the wife and baby, and take off and I don’t think he would have made it before they sealed that off. Even sealing the houses somehow would have happened faster than that, I think. If it was any slower, more people would have escaped.It is meant (at least in the book) to take different lengths of time to kill on different people and some people got better for a day or two and then died (SK did a lot of research on this, asking epidemiologists how something like this would work. Which is probably why some of the stuff is so familiar.) So, it makes sense to me both ways–he gets it first and passes it to them, but it kills them quicker because of whatever reasons or he gets it from them so they die first.
I always had a problem with the guy in the opening credits who died playing ping pong. Otherwise, I agree that it’s a pretty great sequence.
I enjoyed this episode so far despite its flaws, but just watching that gives me so much nostalgia for the original miniseries that I would just settle for an HD remaster of that.
The fact the ditched this as the cold open in favour of Goldberg’s voiceover in a corn field and then the body crew is so baffling. Whoever has the reigns on this thing really is clueless.
The Stephen King’s Stand.
I read the original cut version of the book once in the late 80’s shortly before the uncut edition was announced. I remember being at the bookstore (Waldenbooks!) when they opened the day it was released and devouring it in just a few days. Read it many times since then. Frannie’s story was absolutely the weakest of the three. Using her suicide attempt as a shortcut to show her warming to Harold enough to leave with him was fine, I guess, but her entire arc in this episode was frustrating. Both because of things they added and things they left out. But at least we got the ‘Frannie half-finishes a slice of pie before burying her father’ scene from the book! I’m going to watch it again tonight with my wife, and I’m very curious to see how she follows it and what she thinks having never read it.
I thought she left with Harold because she didn’t really have any where else to go in the book. She kind of tolerated him til they hooked up with Stu and then Harold got pissed and took off.
I think that’s right. Fran leaves with Harold because she knows she has to do SOMETHING and she has no plan that’s better than Harold’s. She doesn’t like him much, but he’s the only game in town (ha!)….and as I recall her heart breaks for him a little bit because he tried to clean up a little bit for her. He’s like a useful, pitiful, ugly puppy.
From what I remember from the book, she is also extraordinarily mean to him, at least at first. Which does not at all justify his behavior or make him less of a creep, but the book really does go out of its way to paint him as a disgusting fatboy. King goes to town with his descriptions of overweight people, not just in The Stand but other novels too.Contra the author of this piece, I hope the series does spend a little bit of time to make Harold as nuanced as he is in the book. I don’t *like* the guy – he is a creep, after all – but he’s not just a stock villain. He’s got a lot more depth than someone like Flagg.
Yeah he starts out as just annoying, and then when Frannie’s father dies, she realizes he can help her get out of town. He tries to be a bad ass but failsI don’t think it’s till they hook up with Stu and Glen and he sees Stu kiss her that he has his break and starts plotting.
I read it recently and she wasn’t that mean. Harold is mega obnoxious to her and she has to put him in his place and generally has very little patience for him, and her lack of patience comes off as deserved. But it wasn’t the kind of unexplained cruelty they showed in this episode where she acts like another neighborhood bully who hates his fucking guts because he’s awkward, and won’t even talk to him when he’s the last man on earth.
They just kind of showed her as a dick without explaining where she was coming from in terms of her knowledge of Harold and her being pregnant and losing her dad who she had a strong relationship with. All we see is her having a massive hate on for Harold because he’s Harold, which puts her in the same category as the bullies. It’s like they forgot we’re supposed to like Frannie.
I haven’t read the book for some time, and actually I think I will since I’m due a re-read. All that to say my recollection of events in the book is still fuzzy, but…Understanding they have a limited window of time for this and too long of the world falling apart would be a waste here. Would it not have been a better approach to follow Harold and do a montage/time lapse so we can see the months go by and his increasingly odd ways to pass the time (up to an including his mowing the lawn in his speedos)? That way, we can see Frannie see some of this, and her warming up to him/pitying him that way.I felt their story was super rushed. Doing it that way would also have shown Stu being stuck in that lab for longer, as opposed to the way it seemed here, where it felt like he was there a couple of days.Perhaps it they ditched the flash forwards they’d have time to do the actual plot justice? I guess we’ll see. Perhaps the series will be creative genius and I’ll eat my words…
I read The Stand for the first time a few years ago, and mostly loved the hell out of it, except for some of King’s dated, if well-intended, attitudes towards gender and race. Interested to see if they try updating their approach while staying true to the book’s spirit.
My biggest issue with King’s treatment of race is that he rarely has a black character who is just a run of the mill person. They always have to have some sort of background where he can include a vernacular he invented in his head or got from watching movies. He also likes to show how terrible a character is by having them say racist things and it comes across as uncomfortable and weird, like he says things that are unnecessarily harsh for the type of story he’s writing (i.e. he’s telling pop culture horror, not writing To Kill a Mockingbird) but don’t worry because its the bad guy doing it.
Just finished watching the episode, and you’re absolutely right about Harold’s actions conflicting with his view of himself. I’m not saying a more earnest Harold couldn’t have worked, but I figure for our purposes, we need to see the spark of darkness he already had. As for the scene with Frannie attempting suicide, I wonder if that’s gonna get a call back later.(Spoiler) After all, when Stu suggests everyone take sleeping pills to try to dream of Mother Abagail again, Frannie does tell him about the pregnancy – I could see her also telling him about the suicide attempt – something like “I gambled with my life and my kid’s life already, I can’t do it again.” (Spoiler)That last scene with Flagg showing up in Campion’s car and hovering over his baby was supposed to be scary, but I almost felt more anger than anything else, as in “OI, asshole, keep your hands off the kid!”
It wouldn’t be an avclub review if the reviewer didn’t chide the show for being too “male focused”. No one owes you anything
Shut up dweeb
Right back atcha! Maybe you don’t need to read av club reviews?
The fact that I have to share a planet with people as dumb as you genuinely bothers me.
Well, this clip from how the plague started shows that the reason Campion’s door didn’t close was because Randall Flagg’s foot was blocking it.Jesus Christ, that is terrible.Then there’s having Flagg appear in a reflection in the back seat. The supernatural/higher power influences that set this all in motion were meant to be extremely subtle until after the collapse of civilisation. On top of how cheap the so called airlock and the scene in general looked, this is not promising in the slightest. 1-0 to the 1994 version so far and that had a host of problems beyond its excellent, outstanding opening.
With The Stranger playing
To be fair. The Campion of 1994 miniseries was manning a rolling chain link fence gate. He was, effectively, the parking lot attendant. If he was their last best line of defence, they were already doomed.
That’s the one small flaw with the excellent 1994 miniseries opening IMO. In the book, it sounds like Campion is in something more like the 2020 version with doors that automatically magnetically lock and his failed at least long enough for him to get out of his post (the doors only closing because the person inside hits a button is odd in a different way – the book gave the impression that the doors shutting was automatic when the sensors were triggered – which also makes a load more sense in removing the dependency on a person sealing the door in time/at all).But yes, in the 1994 version you would have to wonder how it got to Campion all the way up there (I put Campion’s escape and surviving for so long as part of the supernatural side of things making sure the plague happened – but before this a bit more subtly and out of direct sight than foot in door) and the fence if not electrified could be something people could climb over or even if, looking at the nature of it, could potentially be driven through. I suppose there might have been a degree of having to work around an existing facility, I did note youtube comments from someone who worked on the scene about the location and some things about filming it.
Fear not. The fence was electrified. I think the opening is still great. But one can’t apply much thought to some of it.
Not entirely sure if the fence was actually electrified or whether the electrics were sparking out because it jammed on Campion’s car going through. Either way, an electric fence isn’t going to stop a car ramming its way through it because the current would go through the path of least resistance which doesn’t include the driver or passengers.Anyway, a minor quibble (would still give the scene 10/10 at least) and perhaps it was all based around the pre-existing structures they selected to film at which of course are a bit different to what was described in the book.In the book, it sounds like Campion was in a guard post that was supposed to seal when the automatic alarms were triggered but didn’t long enough for him to get out of the inner base and the outer part where the families were wasn’t particularly stringent given that the guards at the outer perimeter didn’t even look twice when he left. Odd design for a biohazard facility to have anything other than a high security area well separate from civilian and lower security areas but complacency all the way down helped propagate all this, I guess was the point.
Ugh, really? That’s a terrible change. One of my favorite things about Flagg was the idea that he’s more of an opportunist than a schemer. The first time he’s introduced in the (expanded) version of The Stand King makes it pretty clear that Flagg is just bumming around on Earth, waiting for something to happen. He doesn’t cause the Superflu- he’s just there to take advantage of the vacuum it creates. That’s way more interesting (and spooky) than him orchestrating it.
When the scene started, I was thinking, “Woh, this is pretty good, why the hell didn’t they start with this scene” – and then yeah, foot in the door, and then the abbreviated escape scene at the end. I love how the show has the soldier look at his family in the picture before deciding to feel, rather than just showing him fleeing, grabbing them, and leaving in a frantic panic. It’s like how they can’t just convey what Harold is through Fran meeting him and their interactions afterwards – they gotta show us he’s a put-upon would-be writer with bullies and a crush on her first.
Indeed. In the book it was pretty clear the reverse was true — the plague helped create Flagg, not the other way around. He had spent the ages as a low-level demonic force feeding off the negative energy of mankind’s evil, and the creation and subsequent release of the superflu was an act of such monstrous evil that it essentially supercharged him.
Also, the attempt to do a scene similar to the opening of the 1994 series with a Yeats poem instead of Don’t Fear the Reaper was so obvious and did not work at all. I love JK Simmons, but his reading of the poem was meh.
Not going to lie, I could have used more BOC.
Maybe I’m looking back with nostalgia, but I remember to og miniseries was pretty dang good.
Oh, that is really disappointing. Part of what’s so heartbreaking and terrifying about the book is that the superflu is 100% caused by human hubris, blindness, weakness. And we’re constantly being reminded that even in the wake of this calamity and knowing what caused it, humanity overall isn’t going to change. This is just – as Fran puts it – “a season of rest.”
And part of what’s terrifying about Flagg is that he doesn’t (can’t?) really carry out his evil schemes on his own; he relies on the qualities listed above. The humans who serve him have free will; he lures them in through their anger, hunger, lust, fear, ignorance. Just as the citizens of Boulder have Mother Abagail to lead and inspire them, but it’s always their choice whether to do the things she asks them to do, and their human frailties often hold them back from doing the right things.That’s what makes the book so affecting. And if the creators are going to make changes like this (why? to simplify and shorten the story? or because they think it needs to be punched up somehow?), it’ll be reduced to just Good vs. Evil, which would be a shame.
Well, we got in the phrase “toxic masculinity” which I’m sure will thrill recognitions and a bunch of others in the readership here. Harold is a creep, sure. A wallflower, wimpy, shut in, awkward, cowardly creep. That, to me, is not a definition of the site’s fave buzzword. Here, you use it as “Villain character who is male”There were flashes here that I thought were okay. But it’s a fucking TERRIBLE start. I just don’t understand the point of immediately dropping the dime that Harold is going to end up a villain. This effectively KILLS character development. No matter how he acts on the road with Frannie, no matter how many people like him in the Body Crew, (they DO figure out a decent way to give him the nickname Hawk without having him slim down, though. Credit where it’s due) the end has already been revealed. He has nowhere to go. They’ve effectively taken away his last act choice in a voice over in the first hour.Stu Redman is a resourceful, quiet capable person. It’s shown in lots of little ways. They fuck it all up by deleting two moments from the book that are easy to add. Redman sees Campion’s car coming rapidly just before it hits the pumps. But he is quick enough and stays cool enough, to turn the pump switches off. Stu also is able to get HIMSELF out of Stovington. He’s figured out what’s coming, and has a plan. Here, he’s just let out. All, apparently so JK Simmons can read the (strangely truncated) Yeats poem.All of it is just so haphazardly strung together that I wonder whether they just discovered they didn’t get everything they needed and just did their best.I’ve read the book ten times. So I’m making a perhaps not-so-successful effort to see it from a new person’s perspective, but I just don’t think the story does enough for any character to resonate. It straight up erases Stu’s character. It also takes away Fran’s baby story. What a strange choice to focus on the scumbag first.
All valid points. You’ve proven yourself intelligent. Why do two words ruffle your feathers so?
Well, two words are enough to start friendships, cause wars, or seal bonds of matrimony. Two words have power. But I’m just waxing rhapsodic. Those two words, themselves, don’t bother me all that much.
Agree with your points totally. Stu doesn’t start out “toxic”, he’s just a kid who has a crush and is trying to find his way. He never gets a chance to mature or have anyone to teach him that just because a person you like doesn’t reciprocate, it’s not okay to plot their demise.What he has is the Devil in essence egging him on and telling him she and Stu and the rest of them deserve it. He serves a purpose telling the story, their has to be someone in the Boulder group that betrays them.The scene in the future with Stu & Frannie really almost made me angry. I was like “WTF? Why are they showing this NOW??”Marsden’s Stu seems way too old for this Frannie, but Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald didn’t bother me. Gary is eight years older than Molly, James is 26 years older than Odessa.
Harold, not Stu. Not enough coffee yet.
I agree with just a small correction for you. I think you mean “Harold” there at the beginning.It’s a good point that Harold has a dark father teaching him the wrong thing as he matures on the road. I don’t like Harold, but I pity him.
Yes I caught that and added a comment to correct. Thanks!!
Well, the character of Stu in the book is quite a bit older than the character of Fran. She’s just graduated high school and he’s already been in the military (gone to Vietnam in the book) and got married and been widowed. I agree, 26 years is a lot, but James Marsden doesn’t look his age (which is good for me because I honestly thought I was cougaring by thinking he was hot, but he’s only three years younger than I am. phew)
I thought book Frannie was in college?
OK, I just read her bio on the wiki for The Stand and I stand (heh) corrected. She was already in college. I think I thought she was just getting ready to go to college because her boyfriend, Jessie, was her high school boyfriend and those don’t usually survive one of them going to college, especially when the one going to college is the girl.
IIRC she was applying for colleges at the time she… well, you know.
Fran is actually in college–there’s a scene in the beginning where she remembers going to the college medical center and fumbles through an awkward conversation about medically needing the Pill and she wishes she could’ve just said “Gimme the pill, I’m gonna f***.”
Yeah, if you read further in the thread, I said I looked up her bio and realized I was wrong and she was in college.
But Stu in the story was way older than Frannie anyway.
He’s just let out? WTF? The book’s resolution to that scenario was one of the better sequences in the novel, one of my favorites in fact, it was quite terrifying in its own way. The more I read about this series, the more its seeming like a big bucket of crap.
Well. This episode was. I hold little hope for the others.
so many definitions for what is toxic and what isn’t. I hear toxic stuff all the time and it’s not always characterisation, it’s the train of thought that I simply don’t want to hear or deal with when i’m trying to get in to a fresh, new story. I guess I have matured out of the image. #sadmoment
I haven’t read the book, but I generally like Stephen King’s stuff, he is at least interesting.
I think the Yeats thing was supposed to be their version of Don’t Fear the Reaper over the facility where it originally got out in the 90s series. They failed miserably, if so.
It might be that too — however.The poem The Second Coming is something King references a lot. A character in this book does reference it….before dealing with a stew related mishap and then offing himself. One of the lines of the poem is “things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”. Stevie boy likes that line a lot (actually, I use it from time to time as well) They cut HALF the line for some reason, plus a bunch of other lines. And, in the book, he reads it to an aide after having loosed the disease on every other country in the world (“Share and share alike” says he). Here, without context, he reads it to a strangely un-bewildered Stu, whom he has never met. It reminded me, immediately, of the middle of the The Dark Tower movie, where, suddenly, in the middle of the movie, and apropos of nothing a female voice over, who we’ve never heard before, and won’t again says “The Man In Black fled across the desert, and The Gunslinger followed.” This wasn’t even what was happening in the plot at the time. The poem is in here just cuz King fans will note it.
Yeah, I’ve read every SK book, seen most of the adaptations, read this book three times and listened to it once and I didn’t get the reference. But, I’m also not big on poetry. I felt like it was their version of the Don’t Fear the Reaper scene because of how they showed a lot of things similar to what they did during that song in 1994 (also, I watched that entry and there is one that is exactly the same in both, in a lab, with one guy sitting at the lab table with a microscope near him, slumped over and another person in the corner, slumped backward. It was crazy, because I have only seen the 1994 series once and that Don’t Fear the Reaper part a couple times many, many years ago, but I had *just* watched the premiere of this series and so when I saw that in the Reaper video, it jarred me. Because I had just seen it. It was crazy.) I think it is definitely both.I’ve noticed a few things that I think they are trying to throw to book fans as Easter eggs but they were relatively big scenes in the book: When Fran says to her dad, “Can we talk” and they never do. That’s a pretty big deal in the book, her revealing her pregnancy to her dad. When Harold’s mom says from her sick bed, “Don’t forget to mow the lawn” and they never show him mowing the lawn in his swimsuit, which is what makes Fran start to feel sorry for him in the book. There was a third thing and I forgot what it was. But, why even put those in there if you aren’t going to show the scenes they reference? So weird.
There was a third thing and I forgot what it was.Is it Harold driving up in the car, and Fran realising how ridiculous he is? Or Harold risking his life to paint the sign on the barn roof? King does a good job of having Fran flip from pity to disgust at Harold throughout their journey to Boulder.
It was Harold mentioning her brother dying and then showing the picture of the whole family while focusing on her brother. Then they never show the impact of his death on the family. Which, fine, we’re not going to delve deeply into people’s backstories, but then, why even bring it up? Just like the lawn mowing comment and the almost but never telling her dad she’s pregnant. Why bring it up if you aren’t going to show it (I really think they should have shown both of those scenes, though. The one where she sees Harold mowing the lawn sparks her sympathy for him and the one with her dad shows a lot more how their relationship was than her burying him with his medals and a family picture.)
For me, the 1994 miniseries wasn’t that good. But oh man, that opening with “Don’t Fear the Reaper” was so promising! The rest didn’t live up to that promise, but still ….
I kept thinking of the perspective of the viewer who doesn’t know the book, and what kept coming to mind is “why would anyone care about any of these people yet?” They’ve built absolutely no stakes for anything that happens. Okay, so Harold is a fucking weirdo creep and now he’s a villain even though he could have been good. Okay, fine, it’s not like we ever liked him anyway. Stu was some random guy in doctor prison and then he got out which is good for him and now he’s with Franny who is kind of a bitch? Sure, whatever. And some other guy is going to make a drive in theatre. Good for him. And Whoopie Goldberg is in a cornfield and there’s an evil wolfman.These are all problems easily solved by telling a properly fleshed out story, preferably in linear order. And its not like they don’t have time to do it right- the Miniseries did it in six hours and CBS has nine!
I agree totally and said so also about Harold. It seems like a big mistake to already spoil that Harold is a bad person still in the future. His entire arc was whether he would turn out good or evil. It kind of just reveals the whole thing in the first episode for a not needed episode ending.
Bleh. That non-linear storytelling just does not work in the episode – it’s doesn’t work setting up the story, and it drains much of the tension out of it. Even the Fran-Harold stuff gets undercut by the jump-forward reveal. I was just bored by the end of it.I’ll watch the next episode, just because I want to see if Nick is well-handled. But I’m not hopeful, TBH. She feels flat here in the pilot, already lacking the specificity and depth she’s richly drawn with in the novel.That’s because the show seems to think we need a lot of time developing Harold from his POV to know that he’s a narcissist with a raging sense of victimhood. They can’t just convey that he’s got a crush on Fran and a raging sense of victimhood from his interactions with her – they got to show him being at odds with bullies and his family, seeing his story submissions rejected, etc, etc.
The Stand’s pilot is most interested in its male characters the character arcs it portrays in the episode.I think you’re reading vastly more into Frannie’s supporting storyline here than you should given what we’ve watched so far.The A plot in this episode is Stu, who is the central character in the book and thus in any adaptation should go first. The B plot focusing on Harold is actually a pretty daring choice given how unsympathetic he is, but it actually makes some sense. If they made a choice to have Team Flagg get a representative, he’s the readily accessible villain at the very beginning of the book – and as presented here, he’s vastly more relatable than the version presented by Corin Nemec (of one season Stargate SG-1 replacement fame) as a pimply, insecure, monotone, unsympathetic twit.Does focusing on how Harold became a proto-incel – where at least now you understand why this kid is so screwed up, almost to the point of wincing for him in between wanting to punch him – take away from Frannie’s screentime and thus depth? Yep. But Frannie’s plot at the beginning of the book isn’t as important as what she does later in it, and if they stick with an A and B plot for the rest of the series, she should have her moment. Harold can now swap into a supporting role until he goes Viva Sin City, and that’s actually a pretty reasonable edit as it clears part of the time crunch that should allow for a lot of other characters to have their moment in the sun – including likely Frannie.Frannie’s portrayal by Odessa Young otherwise isn’t nearly as strong as Molly Ringwald’s, but she’s got plenty of time left – as does the series as a whole to work on its female characters when its time for their arcs. Until then, it feels like your criticism on this front is premature.I was amused they finally did put in the Presidential fireside *cough*chat, and the general treatment of Stu is much more reasonable than in the 1994; Dr. Ellis treats him more appropriately, even if Skoda’s Starkey is basically a cameo rather than the center of precisely how FUBAR the whole thing is.Will the format confused those who’ve not read the book? Hard to tell, but so far I do think its a better opening than the earlier adaptation on the whole.
I agree this Dr Ellis was better. I like Hamish as an actor, (Old Christine!!) but I don’t recall the other “doctor” who was obviously a Black Ops plant. In the original the Army picks up Stu and the rest of the survivors and puts them in trucks and drives them to the new base. It was almost scarier as it showed them rounding up people and they had no idea where they were going.
The other “doctor” in the book was Dr Elder (actually a government hit man) and I believe in the 1994 miniseries they just added what he did in the book more or less to actual doctor Dr Dietz.
Correction:
Corin Nemec of PARKER LEWIS CAN”T LOSE fame, is what you meant.
THANK YOU! Coolness, Park.
Haha, I thought it was awesome, but I have been an avid reader of King for a long time. Flagg’s character is supernatural and the boot in the door was a good one to me, seeing it all mashed up after he lets it close. Other than that the way they decided to present the story is jarring though, I’m sure people going in without knowledge of it might be put off, especially considering the circumstances this was released in.
I thought it was great too. For sure held my interest, as well as that of my entire family and they haven’t read the book. Way harsh review, man.
I didn’t like the boot in the door. I’ve always read Flagg (under his many names) as being more of an opportunist, more of a vulture or hyena. He doesn’t cause the chaos himself, he just swoops in and feeds off of it.
The boot in the door was interesting. If you consider that the miniseries started with the crow, which was implied to have some deeper meaning, then it isn’t totally new and different. But I totally agree that the treatment of the incident as the inevitable outcome of man’s evil and hubris, with Flagg using it as an opportunity, works better and feels more chilling.
So, I just saw the crow as Flagg (who, in the book, can turn into a crow or see through the eyes of a crow or something like that) showing up because he sensed something bad was going to happen (if you’ve ever read any of the Odd Thomas books, there are things he calls bodachs that are like these shadowy beings that show up a few days before a tragedy because they feed off sorrow and pain and evil. I figured he was kind of like that in his knowing in advance.)
I watched the original miniseries. Freaked me the fuck out and I’d read the book previously. I sorta had a gay-dude crush on Molly Ringwald (still do in fact.)I like the timey-whimey set-up. And I have to say I’m fascinated by Harold Lauder (Owen Teague). He’s awesome. Watching his reactions to simple shows of affection makes me really wish his fate would be different. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a hair trigger, but having been bullied most of my youth (for being gay, not a creeper peeping tom) I kinda feel for the guy.And Alexander Skarsgård can continue to GET. IT. I did love that twist with his boot stopping the door, thus allowing this all to play out.Finally, the discomfort of watching this during a real pandemic kind of adds to the tension. Especially listening to the President’s message DENYING THE TRUTH about the virus’ origin. JFC.
I have to ask – I started to watch this last night, but quickly stopped when the show went from some corn fields with Mother Abigail speaking into Stu speaking to others in Colorado about taking the Stand after Tripps has taken it’s toll. Was that the right track? Because it felt like watching opening credits and then moving to the middle of the story and I thought it might have been a misloaded episode.
No you’re right they jumped back and forth in time, it was confusing if you aren’t familiar with the story. Apparently this version assumes you’ve read the book where the original told the story as if you knew nothing about it. IIRC
Thanks! I didn’t want to spoil things for the rest of the house who aren’t as familiar with the novel (I made them watch the original miniseries last December, but I don’t know how much they’ll recall.) I guess it’s safe to go ahead and watch tonight then.
I was a little annoyed that Mother Abigail told her that she was in Hemingford Home Colorado. The Hemingford Home in The Stand (and other SK works) is in Nebraska. Hence the corn (their university teams aren’t the Cornhuskers for nothing.) That just bothered me.
It seemed like a pointless change to the story, like they did it for a state film tax credit.
In the book, didn’t they all travel up to Mother Abigail in Nebraska, then she joined them for another road trip to Colorado? Sorta seems like the sort of plot detail that’s worth smoothing out to just have them all go to Colorado in the first place, unless I’m forgetting something important that that relates to?
You’re remembering correctly. But hey, shorter road trip! I’m becoming more convinced of my state tax credit theory. Either that or they wanted to make a subtle dig in the ribs to the red staters. I’ve never been to Eastern Colorado but looking on google maps it doesn’t really look like corn country.
y’all caught who that POTUS was talking/coughing in the background, right?
Walter White himself.
and even He sucked and was a bad choice
I thought this was just ok. I thought it was wierd that they still had it look like they would cut to commercial. Do they think this will go to regular tv? I wouldn’t think so.
The weirdest part is that for those of us who watched it with ads (lower level of CBS All Access subscription), the commercials did not come at the obvious commercial breaks. Just in the middle of a scene.
I didn’t realize there was an option with ads. This used to happen with YouTube videos. They must have come on every 12 minutes or something. I watched a youtube program last night and the commercials came at a natureally built in break in the show. Jeez, CBS can’t get it together to do that?
The weirdest part was how often the ads would come seconds before the built-in break, so we’d come back from ads for the last 3 seconds of the interrupted scenes.
Speaking as someone who does not know the story, this was impossible to follow, and not in a “oh, cool teasers, can’t wait till they draw that out and explain it” way, but in a “this is not worth it, there’s no hook” way. I did once read like the first 600 pages of the book but I barely remember it. My girlfriend didn’t even have that context and she was absolutely miserable.
As someone who recently read the book I can tell you this was a disorienting mess any way you cut it. It makes no sense to tell the story this way.
Book spoiler:I don’t think it would have been that hard to show Fran changing her idea of Harold by showing the lawn mowing scene. That was when she realized he wasn’t OK and he needed some kindness and then they sat and drank warm Koolaid and talked. I think it would have worked just as well, if not better, than the post suicide attempt scene.
Could not see the point in updating this to the present day. They haven’t used the internet to add any dimension to the story, it just reeks of “how can we expect da kidz to watch it if we don’t mention Instagram occasionally” type desperation
I agree. And as much as I loved the revised edition released in 1990, it nonetheless still felt very much set in the ‘70s [SPOILERS]—the dystopian look at NYC, and nobody was singing anything like “Baby, can you dig your man?” in 1990. And this series is supposed to take place after the invention of the internet and social media, but young people still have names like Frannie, Harold, Amy and Ralph, and possess analogue media like 45s, and know how to use a turntable. It’s not a big deal but I did notice.
Damaged people are more interesting. It is fiction. This isn’t a rah rah book. The plot is mostly driven by exactly the kind of troubled people that Harold is. The “good people” are mostly reactive in the book, and I think in most of these kinds of stories as well. You really cannot change this or the plot loses all meaning. Unless people do not want to tell these kinds of stories at all (and any Lifetime movie belies that argument) you kind of have to go with the fact this is exactly who Harold is and he is one of the most important characters to the whole plot of the novel. Other than that, I agree with the review. If you never read the novel, this is a tough thing to watch as I have to admit that I mostly could follow it since I know exactly what the story beats are having read it more than once. I tend to think the time jumps were a mistake, as yeah, “readers” know Harold is evil, but to newbies, it is kind of spoiling his journey by showing he is evil in the “present”. The book kind of played with the idea that maybe Harold would have some redemption. I thought Stu was frankly in the same boat as Frannie. They really did nothing with his character other than it being an exposition dump of how the end of the world happened from the “people in charge” perspective. I am willing to see how it goes
Help me with this, please. Harold and Frannie are sitting around using candlelight because the power is out, and then he plays music on a turntable that runs on…. battery power?
I will, indeed, help. This is straight from the book. The turntable is described as something that you take to the beach in the book. Don’t look at me, I’ve never seen one either. But the turntable was, in the story, something that runs on batteries.
dream casting (mix & match of actors, mostly from ~1980 but a few from current adaptation):
Stu: Sinise is still best. He has that everyman quality, similar to Hanks. Very down-to-earth and trustworthy.
Frannie: Jodie Foster. I always saw Foster while reading the book. She was the right age in 1980.
Harold:
Someone i knew in high school. An obnoxious dude in every classroom, a
know-it-all. Totally a Harold, even a bit overweight as in the book. Can’t think of an actor who would fit that role.Mother Abigail: Whoopi is perfect.Flagg: Oh my. Skarsgard is PERFECT. So quiet & menacing, with a smile. Much better than Sheridan.Lloyd: Ferrer was perfect.Nadine:
Rita Coolidge; she had the calm, earth-mother, nurturing vibe. Not sure
if she did much acting, but that’s who i envisioned while reading the
book. Nadine was a teacher and had a bond w/Joe, the wild boy. Which is
totally lacking b/w Heard and Joe in the current series. She seems not
to know how to deal w/kids @ all (as written; i blame the screenwriters.)Rita:
find a 50+ year old actress who looks it! It can’t be that hard.
Heather Graham looks too good for the part. Airbrushed? Botoxed? Try
Heather Locklear,or Diane Lane for a character who’s led a sheltered
life and can’t handle the new reality.Flagg w/a “key” in prison? It’s all electronic, the key is symbolic (what i remember from the book). I think they’re doing the same with his foot holding the door open to let Campion escape. It seems “he can do magic again” is happening sooner in this version than in the book.
All that back
& forth in time? which is often not labelled, so you have to figure
out where you are…terrible. It detracts from the story as you spend
seconds wondering “are they in Nebraska” (Nope, apparently left out;
straight to Boulder!). A straight line is preferable for a fairly
straightforward story. Even doing it “Memento” style (backwards) would
be more interesting. It would make the “before” scenes at the end more
poignant. Like when we look back on January 2020 now.
Memento style….hmmmm. That’s a neat idea. In principle.
Was I the only one that got Jim Carrey vibes from Harold, especially in the scenes where he was trying to act “normal” around Stu and Frannie?