Stephen King's The Stand Miniseries

[Martell Spy]

There's some pictures. Production was halted. I guess I'll add, minor spoilers here.

 

Exclusive: Stephen King’s The Stand Comes to Life Again
A new version of the legendary plague novel—starring Alexander Skarsgård, Whoopi Goldberg, James Marsden, and legions more—was in production just as COVID-19 hit. A preview of our worst nightmares.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/05/stephen-kings-the-stand-exclusive-first-look

The miniseries will shuffle the chronology of King’s book, meaning it won’t play out the same linear way as the earlier Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Jamey Sheridan miniseries that was a ratings hit for ABC in 1994.

Quote

 

When the new show begins, the plague has already struck. The first episode, directed by The Fault in Our Stars filmmaker Josh Boone, opens with survivors in masks and protective gear cleaning up a neighborhood full of the dead in Boulder, Colorado. These men and women are among the last the remnants of humanity, trying to restart society again. Each of them is immune to the Captain Trips virus that wiped out everyone else they knew. They’re wearing masks and gear because removing countless decaying bodies is grim, messy work.

The showrunners said they loved Contagion—which is why they didn’t think it was necessary to repeat Contagion. “King does this great thing that we made the conscious decision not to do, which is to go to the 10,000-foot view of what’s going on,” Cavell said. “That’s not a luxury that our people have. What does the apocalypse look like from the ground where you can’t see what’s happening other places, you can’t see what’s happening to other people, you can only see your subjective experience?”

 

 

[Werthead]

They only had four days left to shoot. Apparently they can work around the footage they didn't film, although their preference is to be able to go back and shoot those last few scenes as soon as the filming embargo lifts.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

 

[Cas Stark]

I'm underwhelmed, which I guess isn't surprising as good adaptations of King material are the exception not the rule.

[BigFatCoward]

13 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

I'm underwhelmed, which I guess isn't surprising as good adaptations of King material are the exception not the rule.

Yeah, love the cast, love the book, trailer kind of sucked. 

[Cas Stark]

4 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Yeah, love the cast, love the book, trailer kind of sucked. 

It did suck, I'm not a huge connoisseur of trailers, but isn't it usually that trailers are often better than the movies, so wouldn't a bad trailer be a serious red flag that despite the cast, its going to be another bad King adaptation? 

[Werthead]

Trailer was perfectly fine. The Stand is a big, silly, melodramatic, occasionally camp and somewhat cheesy novel, which is one of the reasons it's fun. The 1994 ABC mini-series hit the same beats and was likewise enjoyable, and this trailer indicates they're heading in the same direction.

Although it may have also been improved by being viewed immediately after the godawful Watch trailer.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Episode 1 came out today.Anyone watch it yet?

The reviews and IMDB/RT ratings are not good so far.

[Martell Spy]

3 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Episode 1 came out today.Anyone watch it yet?

The reviews and IMDB/RT ratings are not good so far.

I just saw it. Really hard to tell right now thumbs up or down. I'd honestly wait until at least a couple more eps are out, unless you can't wait or don't mind burning 5 bucks early for the commercials version of the service. It's just that as I feared might happen with ep 1 not many of the characters have been introduced yet. I found the episode definitely watchable though, I just didn't get much of the characters or plot/scenarios I wanted to see yet. I really wish they had dropped it all Netflix style.

The new Harold Lauder is terrific and a lot of the episode focuses on him. Definitely reminds me of Todd from Breaking Bad. In keeping with the times, he is clearly an incel in this version. 

The Walking Dude looks awesome, but you only get a few small glimpses in this ep. Stu Redman is boring, but then isn't he always?

I guess I'll spoiler this, but I'm just being ridiculously cautious. I'm not revealing much as there isn't much to reveal.

Spoiler

There's some scenes a bit into the future in Boulder Colorado, but you don't learn much from them as it's mostly focused on Lauder. Much of the ep is at the start of the Plague and Lauder and Franny getting on the road. There's been no Las Vegas at all.

 

[RumHam]

Pretty meh so far. Can someone explain to my why the virus is named Captain Trips? It's just so odd I feel like it has to be from the book. 

[Spockydog]

On 12/17/2020 at 3:12 PM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

The reviews and IMDB/RT ratings are not good so far.

I don't understand this at all. This is really good, much better than I was expecting.

[Cas Stark]

18 hours ago, RumHam said:

Pretty meh so far. Can someone explain to my why the virus is named Captain Trips? It's just so odd I feel like it has to be from the book. 

In the book various different regions used different names for the virus, Captain Trips was what they called it on the west coast.  So, yes its from the book but no real meaning to it. 

[Slurktan]

Can't watch it where I am in Canada sadly.

[Lord Varys]

Bah, the show isn't bad, and the acting is good ... but who the hell came up with the silly idea to make that incel Harold Lauder the main POV in the first episode? He is a supporting character in Fran's story, not the other way around. She loses both her parents and prior to that she has to deal with her dick mother and her reaction to her pregnancy. This is what you expect, not some would-be Lovecraft being beat up.

Also, man, juming back and forth in time is a completely stupid way of telling this story. This is a perfect linear story and the entire story is cheapened by using flashbacks. It confuses things.

Considering how stupid this is there one can only hope they do not use a similar approach in House of the Dragon.

I never imagined Larry Underwood as black, but I like the actor. Their take on Bateman is also pretty good. Sad to see they didn't do Nick Andros' complete story - him hooking up with that story was really a nice part in the original book.

Also, hell, is Randall Flagg not scary. In part, most likely, because a dude in denim usually isn't scary ... but man, the guy is supposed to be very scary when he visits Lloyd Henreid in jail. Also, is it just me, or is Lloyd also not exactly a great gangster? The robbery was pretty much a joke, no?

[Spockydog]

2 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

Bah, the show isn't bad, and the acting is good ... but who the hell came up with the silly idea to make that incel Harold Lauder the main POV in the first episode?

No book spoilers, but his role in the story is absolutely pivotal. 

And he's been brilliantly portrayed by young Mr Teague.

[Lord Varys]

2 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

No book spoilers, but his role in the story is absolutely pivotal. 

From what I can see this thread is not designated a thread where we cannot reference a book that has been published forty years ago. But I did not intend to spoil anybody.

He isn't a main character, and I'd not say that his role to the overall story is 'pivotal'. He does one important thing, and we would understand why he does that with him getting about as much screen time as he gets page time in the book.

But I'm not against him getting more screentime in principle (after all, this is multi episodes miniseries), I just pointed out that he is clearly the main character of the Maine plot in the first episode ... which he simply shouldn't be at the expense of the actual main characters. That is wrong choice on the part of the writers.

It is like them making Ned Cullen the main character instead of Nick Andros, or focusing on Rita instead of Larry. You just don't do that kind of thing.

I guess if you binge-watch the show then the confusing flashbacks and stuff don't matter all that much, but having this kind of thing for, apparently, the entire show and introducing the characters on an episode-by-episode basis really makes things fucked up.

 

[Spockydog]

19 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

From what I can see this thread is not designated a thread where we cannot reference a book that has been published forty years ago. But I did not intend to spoil anybody.

He isn't a main character, and I'd not say that his role to the overall story is 'pivotal'. He does one important thing, and we would understand why he does that with him getting about as much screen time as he gets page time in the book.

But I'm not against him getting more screentime in principle (after all, this is multi episodes miniseries), I just pointed out that he is clearly the main character of the Maine plot in the first episode ... which he simply shouldn't be at the expense of the actual main characters. That is wrong choice on the part of the writers.

It is like them making Ned Cullen the main character instead of Nick Andros, or focusing on Rita instead of Larry. You just don't do that kind of thing.

I guess if you binge-watch the show then the confusing flashbacks and stuff don't matter all that much, but having this kind of thing for, apparently, the entire show and introducing the characters on an episode-by-episode basis really makes things fucked up.

 

I've read this book a dozen times. IMO, Harold Lauder is most definitely a main character. If you drew a venn diagram for Frannie, Stu and Larry, as well as Nadine, guess who'd be right at the centre?

But my opinion is worthless. It is the opinion of the writers that is important here, and I can totally understand why they chose to focus on him, whilst at the same time making him more interesting than book Lauder.

Of course, ymmv. If you're not finding his story interesting, or are simply struggling to keep up with the flashbacks, I've got nothing.

 

 

[Lord Varys]

1 minute ago, Spockydog said:

I've read this book a dozen times. IMO, Harold Lauder is most definitely a main character. 

I know the books, too, Lauder is an important character, but not the guy from whose point of view the early part of the story in Maine is told. The way to focus on him would not be to waste time with his incel and writing crap nonsense, but with his crush on Fran which, for the most part, develops only after everything went to hell and they hit the road.

1 minute ago, Spockydog said:

But my opinion is worthless. It is the opinion of the writers that is important here, and I can totally understand why they chose to focus on him, whilst making him more interesting than book Lauder.

I don't think you can understand that while you don't yet know how things go down with Harold later on. He is curiously absent after episode 1. Which is part of the reason why I think their concept doesn't work that well ... because you just forget characters and plots if they don't show up for a couple of episodes.

The way they are doing this is very close to episodic/anthology story-telling, and that's not that great. I can follow the story well enough ... but it isn't even remotely the same felling as in the novel or the first series, nor the book.

[Spockydog]

8 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

I know the books, too, Lauder is an important character, but not the guy from whose point of view the early part of the story in Maine is told. The way to focus on him would not be to waste time with his incel and writing crap nonsense, but with his crush on Fran which, for the most part, develops only after everything went to hell and they hit the road.

I don't think you can understand that while you don't yet know how things go down with Harold later on. He is curiously absent after episode 1. Which is part of the reason why I think their concept doesn't work that well ... because you just forget characters and plots if they don't show up for a couple of episodes.

The way they are doing this is very close to episodic/anthology story-telling, and that's not that great. I can follow the story well enough ... but it isn't even remotely the same felling as in the novel or the first series, nor the book.

Make up your mind. Too much Harold. Not enough Harold.

And as for the bolded, if you're referring to the dreadful 1994 effort, hallefuckinglujah. Because that was utter shite.

 

 

[Lord Varys]

2 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Make up your mind. Too much Harold. Not enough Harold.

And as for the bolded, if you're referring to the dreadful 1994 effort, hallefuckinglujah.

I don't recall any details of that thing ... but I do remember that they got the chronology of the plot straight. And that's what's I'm talking about here.