Under the Dome

...just became my number one "I'm gonna watch this one!" series for the upcoming summer.

[yt=check the song in the trailer!]NyDMR1zrulQ[/yt]

Oh cool. I'm just reading the book (my first King in almost 15 years) and thought this would make a good miniseries.

"Under the Dome" is cookie cutter Stephen King

Possible Spoilers below
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1) A human, natural, or supernatural disaster occurs to a small group of people and serves to kill the rest of humanity or isolate this group from the remainder of the world.

2) The isolated group contains a range of archetypes from human society both good, bad and indifferent.

3) It quickly becomes apparent that the group of people are actually as much or a greater threat to each other than the disaster that served to isolate them in the first place.

4) Many of the group die. Often by murdering each other proving once again that mankind is the greatest threat. Not supernatural mists, weird time travel, super flu or aliens.

5) The entire thing is suddenly wrapped up with 10 minutes remaining and all the survivors seem to agree that valuable lessons have been learned.

Story over.

and yes, I've read "Under the Dome".

CBS did a good job with Golden Years (a King original project) back in the early 90's. I'll give them a chance with this.




If this was on NBC, it could fuck the fuck right off. I don't trust NBC with something like this.

Wasn't this a Simpsons episode?

Close, it was the plot of the Simpsons movie.

This may be true of most (not all) of his books, but I haven't found it true of TV series.

"The Dead Zone" was a helluva series, and "Haven" is pretty enjoyable and neither fit your description.

I don't know, I read half the book (I haven't had a chance to finish it yet) and from what I've seen so far they are making a LOT of changes, which doesn't bode well. The cast is being skewed younger (typical Hollywood), and the trailers just look....bad. I don't have high hopes for this one.

Premieres tonight. Really looking forward to it. (was kind of hoping for a two hour premiere though...)

Here's the TVGudie article about it...

http://www.tvguide.com/News/CBS-Under-the-Dome-Stephen-King-Novel-1067051.aspx

They're name-dropping Lost, Twin Peaks, and Twilight Zone, huh.

Well, they pretty much had to change the books ending because at the end of the book

Complete spoilers below.
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Almost everyone dies then one of the alien teenagers removes the dome and lets the survivors out.

I'd add - "Some child has a connection to what's really going on" to the list.

That said, Stephen King writes enjoyable prose at a phenomenal rate. His characters are indeed relatable, obvious even, and the crucible they are soon tossed into, while often creepy and implausible, makes for a fine storytelling setting.

His style makes for easy movie adaptations, and there have been some good ones. And admittedly, more than a few clunkers.

I'll agree that King's books and the movie adaptations tend to "go down easy". They are watchable and you don't have to read or watch them four times and say WTF!

So did anyone actually watch the show last night, or are we content to discuss the book? I recorded it but haven't watched it yet.

I just watched it. Not bad. I'm willing to give it a few episodes to see where it's going. Though I could really, really do without the "jealous boyfriend" subplot

i watched it too. not bad. and the jealous boyfriend may be a stupid storyline, but the actor sure creeps me out. hoooly... well played!

I did. It had the "feel" of a King TV show (as opposed to a King film which is a different animal). If you watched "The Dead Zone" (series) or "Haven" I watched both and LOVED the former, liked the latter) then you recognize this as a King story from the jump.

I thought it was well cast, reasonably well written and acted, but REALLY did need to be 2 hours for the first ep. There was just too much stage-setting crammed into one hour.
also, the "Big Jim is up to no good" reveal was too early, IMO.

Still, there's a lot to work with here and I'm fascinated to see whether or not they will really play to the logical implications of the isolation (such as running of of things like toilet paper and batteries) or just pretend not to notice, Voyager-style.

am I the only one that thought dude looked a LOT like a young John Travolta?

Yes.

yes. that evil - not in a good way - smile sends shivers down my spine.

Here's a fantastic letter penned by the Master of Horror himself to all the batshit crazy fanboys who don't like things that don't conform to their very specific worldview. Mr. King's observations could apply to many other entertainment franchises, not just his own works.

It sounds like the tv series is a considerable improvement over King's novel.

I finally caught the pilot over the weekend and liked it. It wasn't as cheesy as I feared, and I was impressed by some of the risks taken by the writers. Even the character changes don't upset me in the slightest, and I can look at Rachelle Lefevre all day long.

As long as it keeps up with the quality I'll keep on watching.

I should hope so.
I peeked at the ending on Wikipedia, and found it stupid.

Most Stephen King endings are stupid.

....the hand of God....ghost riders in the sky....alien teenagers....evil packman critters....the list goes on and on

Don't blame him too much.

He's been influenced by Lisbon Falls, Maine.

Creepy fucking place.

King has said that he has trouble with endings and that the one the writers for Under the Dome have suggested is better than the one in the book.

This happened with the movie of "The Mist", as well.

I actually HATED the ending of the movie The Mist.

Of course I would. It was a repudiation of prudence and rationality. Characters who did stupid, irrational things--like walking out into an environment where they could see NOTHING and in which there were KNOWN to be highly dangerous creatures--survived more or less unscathed, while those who were cautious, careful, and proceeded along some kind of rational plan of action wound up dead or worse.

Pretty good movie up until it fumbled the ending.

I found it too predictable, and overall the movie was a tad boring, the whole thing basically took place on one set with King characters banging away while we wait for something to happen.

Hey, maybe it'd work better as a play! A musical even, with all new songs by the Rock Bottom Remainders!