Under the Dome (Spoilers)

[awesome possum]

Under the Dome, the latest Stephen King novel brought to the small screen premiered last night as the first of a 13-episode miniseries (with the option for more seasons). The showrunner is Brian K Vaughn (Y: The Last Man, some of the best episodes of Lost) with Jack Bender (Lost), King and Stephen Spielberg serving as producers.

And it was good. Those who know me won't find it surprising that I liked it, as I'm a huge Stephen King fanboy, but this was a pleasant surprise.

I haven't read the book since it was released in, what, 2009, so I'm not 100% up to par on the happenings, though the show immediately takes several detours from the book by changing up characters, removing some and adding others.

There are plenty of mysteries abound here, which may turn some off knowing part of the Lost team is responsible, but they're intriguing enough. Of course there's the Dome and what it is, but plenty of character drama and mysteries buried within.

The crazy son of the clearly power-hungry town councilman - who happens to be the only politician left in town as most of the police and fire depts along with the mayor and rest of the council were at a parade the next town over - seemed far too vanilla at first, but as the episode wears on you can see that there is no one at home... or at least no one you'd want answering the door. He should make for a good antagonist, and his dad too, now that the only person in a position of power to challenge him is out of the picture.

So, did anyone else catch it? What did you think?

[red snow]

Will probably watch it tonight/tomorrow. Was interested anyhow but moreso now I know Brian K Vaughn is involved. I honestly thought he'd given up on TV when he came back to comics with "saga".

I just hope they can avoid the pitfalls of lost by not playing up the mystery of the dome too much. No idea if this was something in the novel as I haven't read it.

[Jerol]

Watched it last night. Some of the characters seemed flat and one dimensional so I hope they round out more.

The two obvious questions for me: how deep does the dome go underground and how does air get through?

[red snow]

Watched it last night. Some of the characters seemed flat and one dimensional so I hope they round out more.

The two obvious questions for me: how deep does the dome go underground and how does air get through?

I haven't seen it yet so no idea whether it blocks out communication or not.

At a guess I'd hope the dome was actually spherical and encasing the whole place or at least very deep.

The Dome could easily be porous letting air through. That or the town has an amazing balance of plants and animals :)

[awesome possum]

I just hope they can avoid the pitfalls of lost by not playing up the mystery of the dome too much. No idea if this was something in the novel as I haven't read it.

In the novel, the Dome sort of takes a backseat to the interpersonal drama going on within the town after the first 100 or so pages. You don't actually find out what it is until the last 20 pages, but Stephen King has been pretty vocal about how Vaughn wanted to change things up - especially the ending to open up the possibility of future seasons.

Like The Walking Dead and True Blood, I think this will only share the character names and some of the basic events from the book. It will be a completely different beast, which in this case is good because the ending was fairly weak (even for a Stephen King novel).

The two obvious questions for me: how deep does the dome go underground and how does air get through?

If it keeps with the book, it goes down too far to dig under and the air doesn't; the air in the dome is the air they have which starts becoming a serious issue after a week or so. Of course that may change, as in the book people could hear each other and communicate to those on the other side but in the show they cannot.

[MisterOJ]

I thought it was a pretty good first episode. Lots of interesting threads happening. I'm on board. I just hope this season has a satisfactory ending in the event that the show is not picked up for a second run.

how does air get through?

Would air have to get in? There's already air inside. And it looked to be a small rural community. I assume there are enough plants inside to produce enough oxygen for everyone to breath.

[Lord Tyrion]

I am trying to avoid spoilers so please bear with me. Can someone quote me so I can only see that and not have to refer back to the posts?

Has anyone watched Revolution? Is it awfully like Revolution in terms of acting?

Just wnat to make sure. I plan on watching this with my girlfriend this weekend.

[Vuron]

I am trying to avoid spoilers so please bear with me. Can someone quote me so I can only see that and not have to refer back to the posts?

Has anyone watched Revolution? Is it awfully like Revolution in terms of acting?

Just wnat to make sure. I plan on watching this with my girlfriend this weekend.

It's a masterpiece compared to the acting in Revolution...

[MisterOJ]

I am trying to avoid spoilers so please bear with me. Can someone quote me so I can only see that and not have to refer back to the posts?

Has anyone watched Revolution? Is it awfully like Revolution in terms of acting?

Just wnat to make sure. I plan on watching this with my girlfriend this weekend.

I watched every crappy episode of Revolution this past season.

So far, what I've seen of Under the Dome is better. However, (slight, slight spoiler here that is specific to the first episode only)

my favorite actor on the show appears to bite the bullet in the first episode.

[Tony Soprano]

I am trying to avoid spoilers so please bear with me. Can someone quote me so I can only see that and not have to refer back to the posts?

Has anyone watched Revolution? Is it awfully like Revolution in terms of acting?

Just wnat to make sure. I plan on watching this with my girlfriend this weekend.

Revolution is horrible compared to Under the Dome. They have some good actors on this show, and so far they've all done a pretty good job.

Edit: Double ninja'd. :P

[Lord Tyrion]

It's a masterpiece compared to the acting in Revolution...

I watched every crappy episode of Revolution this past season.

So far, what I've seen of Under the Dome is better. However, (slight, slight spoiler here that is specific to the first episode only)

my favorite actor on the show appears to bite the bullet in the first episode.

Revolution is horrible compared to Under the Dome. They have some good actors on this show, and so far they've all done a pretty good job.

Edit: Double ninja'd. :P

Thanks all, cannot wait to watch it.

[Golden Lion]

I was on board with this show first when I saw it was based on a Stephen King book (which I'm now reading) and when I saw Zelda from Sabrina in it.

Very strong pilot.

So far from what I've read of the book they are changing a lot, even smaller things like the dome cuts a woodchuck in half and in the show they were for the more gory cow.

And it's only 13 episodes which means it will be rather filler-lite, I imagine, unlike Revolution.

[MisterOJ]

So far from what I've read of the book they are changing a lot, even smaller things like the dome cuts a woodchuck in half and in the show they were for the more gory cow.

Can we talk about the cow for a minute?

I don't normally nit-pick these kind of shows, but dang, was that stupid looking. Am I supposed to believe that if you cut a cow down the middle that it would look anything at all like that?

Seems like they could have had a more believable effect if they'd just had it sheer the cow's head off or something, rather than splitting it right down the middle.

[Golden Lion]

Can we talk about the cow for a minute?

I don't normally nit-pick these kind of shows, but dang, was that stupid looking. Am I supposed to believe that if you cut a cow down the middle that it would look anything at all like that?

Seems like they could have had a more believable effect if they'd just had it sheer the cow's head off or something, rather than splitting it right down the middle.

I guess it depends what you're looking for.

When the cow got split in half I was thinking more along the lines of 'well gross' not 'why cant i see lungs and his stomachs?'

I mean, they have a special effects budget and I can understand why they don't want to blow it on a cow when they have a plane explosion and exploding hearts to do.

[Kobayashi Maru]

Well I read and liked the book,I'm huge SK fan so when I heard this is happening I was pretty excited.

I watched the episode and it started ok.I must admit I always pictured Big Jim to look like this. I don't mind the changes so far but they were a little bit distracting since I spent more time thinking what's same,what's not and how that might affect the story than just appreciating it and watching the episode.

Re: Dome and air.It does let some air through,but not much.

Re: the ending,I dunno I kind of liked it.

Can we talk about the cow for a minute?

I don't normally nit-pick these kind of shows, but dang, was that stupid looking. Am I supposed to believe that if you cut a cow down the middle that it would look anything at all like that?

Seems like they could have had a more believable effect if they'd just had it sheer the cow's head off or something, rather than splitting it right down the middle.

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

I kept waiting for Big Jim to start talking about minerals.

I've read the book and it seems to be sticking fairly close. I hope they improve on the book's ending.

[Werthead]

The book was one of the biggest and most steaming piles of excrement I've ever read, certainly from such a big-name author. I'm hopeful the series will be better with Vaughn's involvement, but I'm not sold on it yet.

As for the air issue:

There is no way for air to get in or out. In the book they only have a few days before the air becomes unbreathable (given the size of the thing and the low population of the town this seemed a little OTT, but King claims to have done his research). I'm presuming the TV Dome has a work-around, otherwise the show won't last very long.

[Leofric]

The book was one of the biggest and most steaming piles of excrement I've ever read, certainly from such a big-name author. I'm hopeful the series will be better with Vaughn's involvement, but I'm not sold on it yet.

As for the air issue:

There is no way for air to get in or out. In the book they only have a few days before the air becomes unbreathable (given the size of the thing and the low population of the town this seemed a little OTT, but King claims to have done his research). I'm presuming the TV Dome has a work-around, otherwise the show won't last very long.

Well in the book they had a huge firestorm which burned off all the oxygen. They seem to be setting that up again with the propane plot line.

[Arbor Gold]

Huh. I thought it was pretty bad. Laughable dialogue, clumsy exposition, some poor performances. The actor who plays the murder guy seemed embarrassed when he had to say that his name was Barbie. "It's a nickname," he explained. Uh, duh?

Anyway, I may watch the next episode, but I certainly don't care about ny of the characters yet. Emo psycho guy looks ridiculous and I'm not particularly concerned about the situation with his ex-girlfriend. For a pilot, I feel like I should be a lot more invested in what's going on, and right now I'm pretty "meh" about it.

Haven't read the book.

[Kronz]

I was not impressed, and I quite liked the novel. After the pilot I will probably not watch it again until they have several episodes I can watch online somehow. Was it just me or were there a ridiculous amount of ads and very short show segments? Suppose I am spoiled with ad-free programming on HBO but I thought it was jarring.

It's been however long since it came out that I read it, but I seem to recall air seeps through. I thought I remembered there being a bunch of people with their faces pressed against it trying to breathe later in the story. But clearly they are only very loosely basing this on the book so who knows what rules are being changed. I'd think the idea of it being air proof would fall apart with CO2 and CO pollution quickly killing everybody. King is definitely not a stickler for hard details but this story seemed at least reasonably well researched.