{"id":4360,"date":"2013-09-23T11:44:46","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T16:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=4360"},"modified":"2016-07-12T11:50:22","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T17:50:22","slug":"stephen-king-news-from-the-dead-zone-160-under-the-dome-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/stephen-king-news-from-the-dead-zone-160-under-the-dome-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #160 (Under the Dome recap)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

As everyone prepares to get copies of Doctor Sleep<\/em> tomorrow or perhaps even head out to Boulder or NY or Boston to see King, I thought I’d talk about Under the Dome<\/em>, which wrapped its first season last week. I’ll be back later with my Doctor Sleep<\/em> coverage\u2014or you can check out my review in issue #70 of Cemetery Dance.<\/p>\n

Not everyone was enamored of the show. One objection was that some people went into it thinking they were committing to a limited-run miniseries instead an open-ended, ongoing series. When it was renewed, there were howls from some quarters, even though that was always the producers\u2019 hope.<\/p>\n

The biggest complaint, though, was the degree to which it departed from the novel. Every Tuesday morning, the woman in the office next to mine would stop at my door, express her frustration at the most recent changes, shake her head, and continue on to her desk. Stephen King wrote an open later defending the changes<\/a> on his website after only a couple of episodes had aired. He said, \u201cI\u2019m enjoying the chance to watch that alternate reality play out; I still think there\u2019s no place like Dome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The writers and producers didn\u2019t sneak these changes into the story. The opening scene features Dale Barbara burying Peter Shumway\u2019s body. That was as clear an announcement as any that this wasn\u2019t Uncle Stevie\u2019s Under the Dome<\/i>, for better or for worse.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, mostly for the better. If the TV series had followed the novel to the letter, I wouldn\u2019t have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be clear. It won\u2019t go down in the annals as one of the best TV shows ever. This isn\u2019t Lost<\/i> or Breaking Bad<\/i>. Why? It\u2019s hard to put a finger on the reason. I didn\u2019t mind that I often didn\u2019t get to see an episode until a day or two after it aired, whereas missing Lost<\/i> was a major crisis. Under the Dome<\/i> is a show about mysteries, and the characters are intriguing, but it doesn\u2019t have that frisson that comes with the cr\u00e8me-de-la-cr\u00e8me of television. The acting is generally satisfactory but not award-worthy. The writing is mostly decent. The story is engrossing. The special effects can be quite good at times. Faint praise, but praise nonetheless.<\/p>\n

The show delivered consistently strong ratings, with more than 10 million people watching most episodes. The final episode had the second-highest viewership of the season, after the premiere. Compare that to Breaking Bad<\/i>, which peaked at 6.4 million viewers. It\u00a0had strong support from the network and from its cast. Dean Norris (Big Jim) was one of its biggest advocates. My Twitter stream during the hour the episode ran was overrun by cast members commenting on the episode. I\u2019m still not 100% sold on the concept of live tweeting\u2014is it wise to distract viewers from the show?\u2014but the level of commitment is encouraging.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the characters. Every one of them departs from the novel versions in some aspect. Angie lives on the TV show, whereas she\u2019s dead (but not gone) throughout the book. \u201cScarecrow\u201d Joe is older than his novel counterpart; Julie Shumway is younger (and hotter). Maxine Seagrave, Norrie Calvert\u2019s moms, and several other characters are new to the series. Few are \u201csacred,\u201d in the sense that just about anyone could be killed.<\/p>\n

In general, they\u2019re more ambiguous in the TV show. At times you feel bad for Big Jim, or you think that he might redeem himself. Similarly with Junior, who is basically a confused and disturbed young man seeking his father\u2019s approval and love. On the other hand, Barbie has aspects to his personality that aren\u2019t so laudable.<\/p>\n

This added depth is intriguing. Consider Linda, who is forced into the role of chief lawkeeper after Duke dies (and how great would it have been if Jeff Fahey had stuck around a little longer?). Her allegiances drift over the course of the thirteen episodes. Some complained about inconsistent characterization, but in Linda\u2019s case, she\u2019s simply befuddled and confused. She\u2019s not privy to as much information as viewers are. Swayed by stronger personalities and overwhelmed by the demands of her job. By contrast, Maxine, who was uniformly and delightfully evil wasn\u2019t all that interesting<\/p>\n

Unlike in the book, there is weather inside the dome. This is more of a filming consideration than a deliberate decision on the part of the writers, but it gives them some interesting things to play with. The dome itself is different, too. It seems sentient. It communicates via Lost<\/i>-like apparitions, but also displays a temper, sending massive storms when it\u2019s displeased. However, it also sends needed rain, so it\u2019s not altogether hostile, and we learn late in the season that the dome claims to be protecting the people of Chester\u2019s Mill, although from what we don\u2019t yet know. And then there\u2019s the egg. Is it the generator or something more? Have we seen the last of it, now that it\u2019s at the bottom of the lake?<\/p>\n

The producers promised that they wouldn\u2019t make us wait for the answers to some of the big mysteries, and they were true to their word. We found out why Barbie was burying Julia\u2019s husband. We found out why Big Jim was stockpiling propane. The mysterious \u201cpink stars are falling\u201d mantra began to make some<\/i> sense with the revelations about Big Jim\u2019s dead wife. We even learned something of the nature of the dome, though not everything. It appears that some extraterrestrial force is at work, though one less capricious and juvenile than what King created in his novel. Was I surprised that Julia ended up being the monarch? In retrospect, maybe I shouldn\u2019t have been. After all, she was the narrator, and I\u2019d found myself wondering from time to time why that was. It makes sense now.<\/p>\n

Will I be back for the second season? Yes, definitely. I doubt that Barbie is going to dangle (did anyone else think about Roland and Cort watching Hax during that scene?), but I\u2019m curious to see how he gets out of that pickle. How long can Big Jim keep on doing what he\u2019s doing before more people catch on?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still plenty of story to tell, and some shows improve with age. The writers have time to step back and assess what works and what doesn\u2019t. Stephen King will be writing at least the first episode of the second season, so there\u2019s that, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As everyone prepares to get copies of Doctor Sleep tomorrow or perhaps even head out to Boulder or NY or Boston to see King, I thought I’d talk about Under the Dome, which wrapped its first season last week. I’ll be back later with my Doctor Sleep coverage\u2014or you can check out my review in … Continue Reading! “Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #160 (Under the Dome recap)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38],"tags":[13,17,42,46,29,35],"class_list":["post-4360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breakingnews","tag-bev-vincent","tag-doctor-sleep","tag-featured","tag-news-from-the-dead-zone","tag-stephen-king","tag-under-the-dome"],"yoast_head":"\nStephen King: News from the Dead Zone #160 (Under the Dome recap) - 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