![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/images\/banners\/DeadZone.jpg?w=853&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The past is resistant to change, and so, too, are many fans when it comes to adaptations of Stephen King\u2019s novels. How many liberties should a screenwriter take with a literary work? (\u201cThe book\u2019s always better, everybody knows that,\u201d Sadie says the first time she meets Jake in the 11.22.63<\/em> miniseries.)<\/p>\n 11\/22\/63<\/em> might have an advantage in that it\u2019s a relatively new novel, one that hasn\u2019t been firmly entrenched in readers\u2019 minds as other works. Also, some adaptations remain essentially true to the source material despite making significant changes. Dolores Claiborne<\/em> comes to mind, an underappreciated adaptation that deletes characters, brings others to the forefront, invents scenes, but captures the book perfectly.<\/p>\n This is the case, too, with 11.22.63<\/em>. Once you go down \u201cThe Rabbit Hole\u201d in the first episode (about 50% longer than the seven subsequent episodes), you are in a somewhat different world than the one Stephen King imagined. The rabbit hole leads to 1960, two years later than the date used in the novel. In the past, Jake Epping (James Franco) adopts the pseudonym James Amberson instead of George[1]<\/a>. The change makes sense: the story has another significant character named George (de Mohrenschildt), and caf\u00e9 owner Al Templeton (Chris Cooper) argues that he can still call himself Jake, which will make things easier.<\/p>\n This is only the first of many differences in this Hulu adaptation. Unlike Netflix, Hulu will be doling out the eight installments on a weekly basis, starting on February 15 (President’s Day), so it will take you two months to watch the whole thing unless you decide to save up and binge. I got to see the whole thing at once and I found it to be a very binge-worthy series. However, in this preview, I\u2019m going to restrict myself to discussing the first episode. Later on, I\u2019ll do a \u201cmid-season\u201d report and then an overall review once all eight episodes are available. Also unlike Netflix, the series had to be constructed around commercial breaks, though the intrusions are few and far between and not overly disruptive if you have the commercial-free option.<\/p>\n The first episode starts with a terrifying recreation of the fateful Halloween night in 1960 when Harry Dunning\u2019s (Leon Rippy) father (an intense Josh Duhamel) killed the rest of his family and permanently maimed Harry, a janitor at the school where Jake teaches English, including a class for adult learners. In the novel, Jake\u2019s first experiment in the past is an attempt to change Harry\u2019s fate\u2014in this miniseries, that exploit is reserved for later.<\/p>\n Jake is at a crossroads. His father died recently, his writing is at a standstill, and he meets with his wife at Al\u2019s diner to finalize their divorce. During their brief meeting, Al excuses himself and comes back a couple of minutes later looking like crap. He collapses\u2014he came down with cancer during this brief hiatus, apparently. Al sends Jake through the rabbit hole into 1960 and then presents the teacher with his mission which, in heroic journey tradition, Jake resists. But then Al dies and Jake decides it\u2019s worth a couple of minutes of his time to try to save Kennedy.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to imagine anyone doing a better job of portraying crotchety Al Templeton than Cooper. Even though the character dies during the first episode, that\u2019s not the last we see of Al, who reappears in flashbacks throughout the series, a clever way of distributing some of the exposition instead of dumping it all at once at the beginning. He becomes a kind of Greek chorus, providing voice-over narration for some of Jake\u2019s exploits.<\/p>\n The miniseries gets greater use out of the yellow card man, who isn\u2019t anchored to the mill yard and who will prove to be a tragic figure. His yellow card, it should be noted, does not change color as it does in the novel, but it does feature the ouroboros symbol. His mantra \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be here\u201d is repeated in different contexts by different characters throughout the series.<\/p>\n On his third trip to October 21, 1960, Jake heads straight for Dallas (something he doesn\u2019t do for years in the novel) after an encounter with some thugs that is an omen of worse things to come. At Dealey Plaza he has a \u201cmeet-cute\u201d moment with Sadie Johnson (nee Dunhill, played by Sarah Gadon), who is still with husband Johnny (Grey\u2019s Anatomy\u2019s<\/em> T. R. Knight). What Jake doesn\u2019t realize is that he recently had another passing encounter with her.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n Jake\u2019s cross-country trip introduces him to some of the social changes he\u2019ll have to deal with\u2014from the price of things, to avoiding anachronisms, to the social mores of the era, to segregation in the South, to the inadvisability of cursing around a nun, to the butterfly effect, which means that he has to interact with people as little as possible to avoid causing unintended consequences.<\/p>\n Still, he\u2019s in Dallas in 1960, not hiding out in communities along the way, writing crime novels, so the screenwriters have to give him new things to do\u2014the latter third of the first episode consists entirely of new material. Jake follows George de Mohrenschildt to a campaign appearance by Kennedy (the election is less than a month away, although Kennedy\u2019s stop in Dallas happened in September in the real world) and crashes the VIP reception, giving him the opportunity to brush shoulders with Jackie Kennedy.<\/p>\n Even in 1960, the past knows what Jake is up to and pushes back (the word \u201cobdurate\u201d is noticeably absent from the miniseries!). He\u2019s almost killed by a car, is plagued by cockroaches and experiences a series of amusing near-misses while trying to spy on de Mohrenschildt. After another, more tragic incident, Jake decides the stakes are too great. He heads back to Lisbon, Maine, with a stop in Holden, Kentucky along the way (not Derry!) to try to do at least one good thing in the past.<\/p>\n Some people weren\u2019t impressed when the role of Jake Epping went to Franco. They needn\u2019t have worried. Jake is an everyman, the viewpoint character through which we see everything. So long as he\u2019s charming, that\u2019s all that\u2019s required, and Franco is that. It\u2019s easy, though, to see why he\u2019s smitten by Sadie the moment he sees her, though\u2014she is lovely and endearing.<\/p>\n Once you accept that the story as you know it from the novel is subject to radical changes, all bets are off, which actually makes the miniseries more intriguing. Slavish adaptations are of little interest, because viewers know every beat and major incident. There\u2019s a huge change coming in episode 3 that finds a way to solve the problem of Jake having to talk to himself all the time. It sets up some incidents that aren\u2019t present in the novel but they work because it makes the visual storytelling easier.<\/p>\n The production values are top-notch. This starts with the opening credits<\/a>, which cleverly bring the \u201cconspiracy theory nutcase\u201d clich\u00e9 of a wall of photos and articles joined by pieces of string to life. The show has a Mad Men<\/em> look and feel to it, and, in fact, Franco\u2019s character occasionally reminds me of Don Draper, though he\u2019s less of a bastard\u2014most of the time. The period scenery looks and feels genuine, and the mood is enhanced by good use of music.<\/p>\n Fans of such things should keep an eye on the background and the surroundings for call-outs to things from other King works, including business names (Blue Ribbon Laundry), dialog (Jake is Kennedy\u2019s #1 fan), significant graffiti (alas, no Bango Skank, unless I missed it), and a most memorable automobile.<\/p>\n There is abundant cursing in the miniseries (Al advises, \u201cIf you do something that fucks with the past, the past really fucks with you\u201d) and some sensuality but no nudity.<\/p>\n There have been a lot of hit and miss television adaptations of Stephen King\u2019s work over the past couple of decades, but this is most definitely one of the good ones.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> If you take a close look at his ID papers, you\u2019ll see that George Amberson is James\u2019s father.<\/p>\n![\"11.22.63](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bevvincent.com\/images\/11.22.63%20%28Ben%20Mark%20Holzberg%29.jpg?w=700&ssl=1\")
<\/a>
\nPhoto credit: Ben Mark Holzberg<\/div>\n![\"11.22.63](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bevvincent.com\/images\/11.22.63%20%28Steve%20Wilkie%29.jpg?w=700&ssl=1\")
<\/a>
\nPhoto credit: Steve Wilkie<\/div>\n
\n