Under The Dome: Season One Review (Major Spoilers)
Also reviews for the latest DC Nation Short, the special Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular, and the latest episodes of Marvel's Avengers Assemble, Marvel's Hulk And The Agents Of S.M.A.S.H., Once Upon A Time, Almost Human, Grimm, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the season finale of Power Rangers: Mega Force, and the latest episodes of MAD, Bob's Burgers, American Dad, Dads, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Dracula.
Upcoming reviews include The Critic: The Complete Series, The Simpsons: Season 16, Futurama: Volume 8, Family Guy: Volume 10, Family Guy: Volume 11, Monsters University (Blu-Ray), Planes (Blu-Ray), Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United, The Wolverine: Extended Edition, Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 9-11, Doctor Who: The Day Of The Doctor (Blu-Ray), Much Ado About Nothing, The Hobbit: Extended Edition, Power Rangers Zeo: Volume 1, And Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters: Season 3.
Spoilers for Under the Dome also include the book. I do a LOT of comparisons so if you haven't read the book yet beware.
DC Nation
Deadman #3:
My jaw dropped and my flabber was gasted. This short's subject matter involved vandalizing gravestones. This is completely innapropriate subject matter for childen. Aside from the fact that it is VERY imitatable, usually defacing resting spots has a racist or anti-Semitic component to it as well. It is SUCH a terrible offense that I can't believe the moral is that the vandalizers punishment is simply to clean the graves off. The idea is completely offensive to me. When I was a kid, some of my pets' graves were vandalized, and I felt absolutely violated and humiliated. To have such a horrible thing happen to human tombs as a cutesy subject matter is beyond my comprehension. 0.
Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular
The stuff with the Muppets was okay but the stuff with Lady Gaga pretty much sucked. I cannot believe the skimpy clothes she wore in a special for little kids. Yeesh.
Kristen Bell was the human who worked best with the Muppets. Her trying to teach Bobo to dance was a scream as was Bobo asking her if she was wearing soap.
Half good / half bad. ***.
Marvel's Hulk And The Agents Of S.M.A.S.H. "Red Rover"
I am very amused the Leader screwed himself out of having Doctor Doom free him because he accidentally, (and idiotically) revealed to Doom that their goals were one and the same, and in direct conflict with each other. That is a bad guy team-up no-no.
I'm getting to like Red Hulk. I probably wouldn't as much without Clancy Brown voicing him, but he does, so here we are.
That totally wasn't terrible. ***1/2.
Marvel's Avengers Assemble "Hulk's Day Out"
Do you notice whenever this show does a Hulk spotlight, it is outstanding, and the rest of the time it is mediocre? That should tell the writers something.
I love that we got back to those little glass figurines. What was once a throwaway joke, became a serious insight into the kinds of things Hulk values. I love the idea that Hulk goes off on a lot of different side adventures when he's away from the Avengers. And that being with them gives him the freedom to have FUN on his days off and enjoy himself. I especially like that he hangs around with Spider-Man. This episode makes Ultimate Spider-Man canon to this show in my book, and it's so cool because Spider-Man was the first friend he ever made in this continuity. I love it.
Hawkeye was the one obnoxious thing about the episode. We get it. You don't like Hulk. Nobody else on either the team, or the audience at home, shares that opinion.
Still, a fantastic episode. I wish I could say that more often. *****.
Once Upon A Time "Save Henry"
Good and bad.
Good, because I was right that Pan's support among the Lost Boys was built upon a house of cards and lies, and that they would betray him easily.
Bad, because based on the flashbacks, I am more convinced than ever that Henry falling for Pan's trick last week was out of character. Notice how upset Baby Henry was with Regina. That means even as a baby he was intuitive about the true nature of evil. Only when Regina started showing him love did he accept her. There is NO way he would have believed Pan last week. So last week seems even worse written than it did at the time.
I question the wisdom of Regina creating a potion to help her forget her troubles regarding Henry, but then I have always questioned Regina's wisdom, period. I guess they needed to do it to make the episode fit into continuity, but I think it was stupid even for her. The only reason I bought she would do it is because she is so delusional that I can easily believe her creating a delusion on purpose.
And it's not that Pan never fails. He has just never gone up against anyone willing to fight back. He p***ed off the Wicked Queen, the Savior, The Dark One, and the True Believer. He's toast. All of his bravado is just that. He could give David Xanatos lessons on how to build yourself up as a villain to scare people and sound bad@$$. After all, even most Gargoyles fans believe Xanatos is smarter and more competent than he actually was. Pan is no different.
I look forward to getting back to Storybrooke next week. I've had enough of Neverland. ***.
Almost Human "The Bends"
I'm thinking Rudy could become an audience favorite and a break-out character after this episode, which is NOT I would have thought before I saw it. I hope they don't pull a Kenneth on 30 Rock, and overuse him till we're sick of him, but this episode showed that he could be used in a comical fashion, whereas in the first episodes he appeared in, I was just skeeved out by the guy.
I'm really loving Karl Urban and Micheal Ealy's banter with each other. They are both perfectly cast which is a rarity for both leads on a TV show, particularly if they are a buddy cop duo.
Loved Rudy accidently cutting farts during the suspenseful moment. Frankly, I think that it was only because of that act of spontaneous vulnerability, that he wasn't killed on the spot. After he beefed, it seemed like the bad guys weren't exactly sure what to make of him, and decided to keep him alive if only so they could have some time to rethink what they were gonna do with him. That's pretty cool.
Very interesting episode. I am no longer creeped out by Rudy. That is quite an accomplishment. ****.
Grimm "El Cucuy"
That little old lady stole the episode. Her best line was when she innocently says "You're a Grimm? Why I had NO idea!" The way the line was delivered would have sounded perfectly reasonable had she not had blood dripping down her face. And she was right. They couldn't hold her for that. Not a jury in the world would believe and convict her. Heck, I'm not sure I would and I saw her do it.
Juliet learning about Nick's mom was interesting but I was getting a little annoyed with her pestering questions about it. Yeah, she and Nick are together now, but they weren't for a long time, and she might have wanted to consider that this might have been a touchy subject.
That ultrasound means one of two things: 1. The baby is Renard's and there is no question about it. 2. They might do the ultimate fake-out and say that Adalind still had the genetic markers of a Hexenbiest, and that's where he got it, but it was his brother's. I'm discounting the second theory immediately. Why? Because I don't think the producers would jerk us around like that. That would be a hugely blatant cop-out and not something the audience would forgive. My rule for this plot turn in this show (because it's David Greenwalt) is that if Darla's baby was Angel's, Adalind's will be Renard's. Simple as that. And this would have applied BEFORE the ultrasound too.
I was glad the neighborhood watch guy was a red herring. That would have been completely predictable had it not been.
Fun episode. ****.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Slash And Destroy"
Garbage. Explain to me again WHY I should be happy that the Turtles recovered the Mutagen at the end of the episode? All season long they have been SO clumsy and careless with it that they have done more damage than the Kraang or Shredder EVER did. These guys aren't stealthy ninjas. They're Larry, Moe, and Curly. Only less competent.
I'm almost out. This show is infuriating me. *.
Power Rangers: Mega Force "The End"
Disappointing to say the least. But since there IS gonna be a sequel series maybe they will save a good ending for that one. Still, I am majorly bummed we didn't get to see any "historic" Rangers during the first season even though the producers promised we would. That was the whole reason I tuned in in the first place. That huge sprawling battle between an army of every Ranger ever and the bad guys didn't happen yet either. I didn't like this season but the fact that there will be another one means they could fix their mistakes if they so choose. But I don't have high hopes. ***.
MAD "Alfred's Game / We Are X-Men"
At least this awful Ender's Game parody didn't do what the magizine spoof of Star Trek: First Contact did and base the entire thing around a leaked hoax script. You think THIS was embarrassing? MAD had a TON of egg on its face in 1996. And wasn't We Are Men canceled already? The timeliness of this episode is greatly in question. But hey, Gargamelrose Place was funny, even though it too was based on a canceled show. I liked MAD making fun of Lady Gaga complaining about a magazine made her look too beautiful. MAD is all too happy to help. We should ALL have such problems. **1/2.
Bob's Burgers "Purple Rain-Union"
Giddy madness. I loved Louise's logic for everyone getting black eyes ESPECIALLY since as Bob pointed out it didn't make any sense, and that they were going to talk about it later. The plot wasn't any great shakes but the funny jokes kept on coming. That's cool with me. Family Guy has been roasted for less. ****.
American Dad "Independent Movie"
Ho boy. This will not end well.
I am lucky this is a friends locked journal because I have a feeling my review of this episode will be the complete opposite of most American Dad fans, and I don't feel like starting a flame war over it. Be gentle to me, even if my review isn't to the episode.
I'm betting most people will think this is the best episode of the season. I think they are wrong. I'd call it one of the worst but this season of American Dad has been SO atrocious that it is firmly stuck in the middle rung of suck. But boy, did it suck.
First off, I share the producers' negative feelings towards indie movies, particular quirky dramedies. They may think they are being different and funky, but at this point they are ALL the same, and suffer from as many tacky cliches as the worst Micheal Bay blow-'em-up flick. That is not my problem with the episode.
The problem is that Seth MacFarlane once again thinks he can pretty much just reference or allude to something verbatim and call that comedy. That's not how a good parody works. You have to turn the genre you are making fun of upside down or say something fresh about it. While it is true that indies haven't been parodied that much, just saying "This exists!" isn't funny. Family Guy used to get reamed for doing the same thing with 80's sitcoms and cartoons. Why should I give American Dad a pass for lazy humor just because it's something that very few people have taken a REAL shot at before?
Everything in the episode could have happened in a cliche indie. Even the jokes wouldn't have seemed out of place at all if the indie was comedy. That isn't a spoof. It's a reference, and just referring to something isn't intrinsically funny. The comedy comes from what you DO with that observation. And Seth MacFarlane often has a VERY difficult time telling the difference.
Also, American Dad, what did I JUST tell you about basing entire episodes around the revolting Snot? True, he faded into the background as the episode went on, but he still had WAY too much screen time. Roger would have been a better indie road trip buddy for Steve.
I'm betting my negative assessment will be one of the few bad reviews this episode gets from AD fans. But the episode earned it. *.
Dads "The Glitch That Stole Christmas"
Admittedly, the entire last act was preposterous with a totally unearned ending. And yes, overall the episode sucked, and was business as usual. But I won't lie about it. I actually laughed a record three times during the episode. I'm pretty ashamed of that fact, although I DO think the three jokes I laughed at were pretty good. Let's examine them:
"Rule #1 for Mall Santas" was supposed to be a shocking joke, but I actually think that probably IS the first thing Mall Santas get told. So I laughed because the joke despite being uncomfortable, and more than a little icky, was probably sadly spot-on.
The second joke I laughed at was the best. David as Santa telling the kid's mother that her son was going to grow up to be gay. TONS of shows do lame jokes like this but right after Peter Riegert says it, he tells his mother to accept him for who he is, which is NEVER done on shows like Everybody Loves Raymond or Family Guy. I believe the exact quote was "Your son is gay. Accept him for who he is. He's a good kid." I have never seen a single variation on the joke, where the person who made it, did it to empower the kid. I'm as shocked as anyone that the first TV show in history to ever do it was "Dads". There has obviously either been a recent MAJOR cultural tipping point, or there is something seriously wrong with the universe. I'm leaning towards the latter, but the hopeful part of me wishes it was the first.
The third was a dumb laugh line that I still found funny: "You're stuck in a chimney and I'M the idiot." Ironically, that dumb joke could also be leveled at the lousy writers who came up with that entire inane scenario, so I was sort of laughing AT the show as much as with it.
Best episode ever. So two stars. LOL! **.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Christmas"
I really like how they resolved Terry getting back into the field because there was NO believable way that shrink was gonna let him pass the psyche eval. Gina is totally not as terrible as I thought.
Do you know what I love about Holt's relationship to Peralta? He CONSTANTLY underestimates Jake. He expected him to blow off the assignment, and the writers revealed despite the fact that Jake was partially using the scenario to aggravate the Captain, he was also taking it VERY seriously. I question the wisdom of throwing 2 handcuff keys down the hotel room grate, but it's a comedy, so I can let that slide.
I was VERY surprised to learn that Boyles' crush on Rosa was one-sided. That has NEVER been my interpretation, and the episode gave her a VERY convincing reason for why Boyles was worthy of her, so my opinion essentially remains unchanged. She totally likes him.
Very good. ****.
Dracula "The Devil's Waltz"
The first half of this was absolutely fantastic so it saddens me that I cannot give it a perfect score because of the second. But once Renfield was rescued, there was absolutely nothing that interested me going on.
But boy, did that Renfield stuff make up for a LOT. It was sooooooo good. This actually found a new twist on a torture interrogation. The torturer actually empowered Renfield to say that he was completely in control of the situation. This was an interesting tack to take, because even if it was a lie, it was sort of true at the same time. The fact that it was sort of true made her saying it even crueler than it was.
I loved Renfield laughing when Grayson rescued him. There was SO much color in that laugh. A mix of joy, relief, madness, and even genuine humor. It was over. And it was gonna end badly for that lady. Did you see that look in the torturer's eyes when she saw Drac easily dispatch her goons in the most bloodily violent way possible? I always have secretly wanted to see that look on Jack Bauer's face when I was watching 24. I stopped watching that show once I realized the ugly emotions it was stirring in me. But I REALLY hated Jack Bauer and thought the idea that he was the show's hero was ridiculous. He'd be considered the villain on any other show. He'd be the corrupt Starfleet security officer Kirk or Picard had to take down. He was only a hero because he tried to stop even worse people than him doing even worse stuff. But he'd be an evil character on any show that wasn't as badly written and manipulative as 24. I look at James Spader's character Red on the Blacklist as the same as Jack Bauer. Yes, he's helping the good guys stop bad guys. But he's still a criminal and a villain. The Blacklist isn't badly written enough to pretend he isn't. "Dracula" portrayed the torturer as evil as she actually was too. Good for the producers.
That went off on a tangent, didn't it? ***** for the first half, ** for the second. Overall: ***1/2.
Under The Dome: Season One
I would call Under The Dome: Season One the most aggravating show on television in 2013, if the final season of The Office and the second of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn't exist. The show takes a completely political book (Stephen King's 2008 allegory for the disastrous Bush Administration "Under The Dome") and completely takes almost all of the politics out of it. And when they DO involve politics, they are always veiled slams at liberals. I wish the producers of the show had believed in Stephen King's message, and actually had the guts to film it for a TV audience, instead of watering it down to offend as few people as possible. It is not possible not to offend someone with a story with a partisan political bent. Just trying to add balance for the sake of not getting letters from pants-wetting Republicans is completely wrong-headed. Frankly, if the movie adaptation of Atlas Shrugged did the same thing to Ayn Rand's novel Under The Dome does here, Republicans would be FURIOUS and frankly, rightly so. I'm sick of Democrats and liberals apologizing for being Democrats and liberals. If you REALLY believe in a story, than you have to have faith that you can make the audience believe in it too. Not even trying is a cop-out.
Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed in King too for letting this happen to his book. He's a producer, and has MUCH more creative imput on this show than he did on either The Dead Zone or Haven. It's kind of cool that he's mellowed in his old age, and just lets the producers do their own thing, so he can be surprised along with the audience... but to be honest, I miss the FIREBRAND Stephen King. Where is the Stephen King who had conniption fits over Stanley Kubrick's film version of The Shining, and the awful Lawnmower Man film that had nothing to do with his short story? King was SO p***ed off about The Shining that he wrote his own (inferior in my opinion) screenplay for a Shining TV miniseries, and the Kubrick film changed MUCH less from that book than the Under The Dome TV show does from its. What King objected to most about The Shining, (Kubrick changing the entire moral of the story) is if even possible, even worse here. I miss the Stephen King who would have shopped the show around at another network before hiring a cast that looked that J Crew Models for his small town of realistic looking characters. The ONLY ugly actor on the show is Leon Rippy (and I admit the casting crew DOES get props for that). Even the overweight radio woman, Dodee, has a face that is gorgeous. If she weighed as much as the woman who plays Julia Shumway she would be on fashion magazine covers. I guess you could chalk that up to a positive role model for overweight women, or just another bit of improbable casting (which is where I stand).
It's weird, but Haven deviates more from the source material of The Colorado Kid, than this show does, and I have no problems with it. Maybe that's because the actual moral of The Colorado Kid, (that some mysteries can't be solved) is a much less important message than how it is VERY crucial who we elect to office during times of crisis. Also, that "unsolvable mysteries" moral is identical to From A Buick 8's, so not only is King repeating himself with that one, but there could still be a movie version of that other book to bring that neat idea to the screen after all.
There ARE a couple of good episodes on the set and I will still be watching next season. But I really think this show is more or less a disaster. The current Stephen King based show to watch is Haven. It is excellent and probably the best current genre show on television after Doctor Who. Under The Dome has so far been nothing but a disappointment. Season Overall: *1/2.
Pilot:
The Pilot did SO many things wrong, that I imagine even if the rest of the season, HAD been better, that it would be almost impossible to course correct from the many mistakes it made. First off, whoever's boneheaded idea it was for Barbie to be a murderer, much less one of Julia's husband, completely failed the message of the book. It is true that Barbie becomes a scapegoat for Rennie in the book, but in the book Barbie was a completely innocent man. Knowing that he killed Julia's husband and proceeded to sleep with her, in some ways, make Rennie's horrible actions seem almost justified. Speaking of Rennie, why this show made "We're all in this together" his catchphrase is beyond me. Rennie is a Republican. There is no Republican alive who would be caught dead saying that, even if they were like Rennie is here, completely b.s.-ing you. I also am REALLY amazed that they gave Rennie and Junior a father / son moment (although to be fair it wasn't just this episode). In the book Rennie and Junior can barely stand each other, and Junior was planning to murder Big Jim when news of the Dome stayed his hand. They do NOT need to make Big Jim sympathetic. He is King's stand-in for Dick Cheney. He's a bad guy, and a fascist. We don't need to try to understand why. The writers are totally overthinking it. There were two or three positive changes from the book: although keeping Angie alive seemed like a risky move when I first saw the series, (Junior screwing her corpse in the book gave us a dark insight into where his tumor riddled brain was at) I cannot argue with the results from the rest of the season. Angie has become a survivor, and a leader of the group of heroes which is a much more positive message for women survivors of abuse. It was also smart to make Joe a teenager rather than a 12 year old, because any aging the kid does won't be as noticable if he isn't sprouting up 8 inches over the hiatus. And making him Angie's brother seems like such a no-brainer and natural fit that you wonder why King didn't do it first. Still, this Pilot left much to be desired, and even if it DOES do a lot of good set-up for the latter half of the season with the Pink Stars and the Monarch, I am still unhappy about it. **.
The Fire:
Having Big Jim be the one to save the day was a mistake. They writers could claim he was being opportunistic here but there is no denying it was clever and a hero moment. Ugh. Not much else to say about this episode. **.
Manhunt:
Loved The Simpsons Movie reference because that is the FIRST thing critics of the book accused it of ripping off (to Stephen King's annoyance.) I can't believe Julia took Junior's story about Barbie at face value. To be fair to her, she caught Barbie in a few lies, but Junior is hardly the most credible witness in any given situation, and she has clearly seen that he is a psycho. I forgot that Ollie made his first appearance here as the sexist and racist hick who gave Carolyn the business. I friggin' loathe that guy. ***.
Outbreak:
Passable, but I have two major complaints: the novel's version of Julia Shumway would NEVER put the town at risk for such a selfish reason. She was one of the few people in Chester's Mill who always had the town's best interests at heart. The second complaint isn't as big, but it still grates a little. It shouldn't really matter either way, but I don't think it was cool that Junior earned his place on the police force. In the novel Rennie deputizes Junior and his seedy friends before anyone can object, sort of drawing a parallel between George Bush and the Patriot Act. I guess the allegory wasn't needed, but my first thought was that it was another political whitewashing, even though looking at it again, it probably wasn't. On the plus side, the cliffhanger was excellent, as was the stuff with Joe and Norrie. Creepiest bit was Joe sitting up in the middle of his seizure, and shushing the camera with an evil smile. I doubt they will EVER fully explain what THAT was about, but it still gives me the willies. ***1/2.
Blue On Blue:
Fantastic episode and the first great one of the series. They must have SERIOUSLY worked hard to get Joe and Norrie's kiss as the missile hit just right. It was perfect and gorgeous. I had two complaints when I first saw the episode, but I don't have them anymore rewatching it. The first complaint was my disappointment that Visitor's Day was so uneventful, whereas in the book it was a total disaster, and got many people killed because of Rennie's incompetence. If I had been in charge of the series, I probably would have put Visitor's Day a LONG way down the road, and not as the fifth episode. But I would NOT have been ingenius enough to have the day be a prelude to a missile launch on the Dome. That is brilliant and if this series continues to explore things King COULD have, but didn't in his finite book, I'll be happy. The second complaint is a MUCH bigger egg on my face. I had originally thought Rennie's "perfect murder" of Lester Coggins was too clever by half. Aside from the fact that Rennie beating Coggins to death in the book showed his savage side, and just having him push him against the Dome was too easy, and let him off the hook a bit, I objected to the fact that a murder that perfect and effortless, that NO-ONE in town would be able to pin on him, was way too smart for someone like Big Jim to pull off. Big Jim may be evil in the book, but he is also INCOMPETENT and REALLY stupid, which is just as disastrous for the town. I can't believe I, of all people, gave him that much credit. The revelation at the end of the season that the people on the outside caught Rennie commiting the murder on camera, thereby insuring that if the Dome comes down he'll be a wanted criminal, was stupidity on par with the Rennie from the book. To be fair to me, the writers NEVER gave me any sense before that that they were gonna be that clever about it, so they got me good. Nicely played. *****.
The Endless Thirst:
I'm torn about whether I like the food riot in the book or the show more. The reason it was started in the book was WAAAYYY better. Jim Rennie paid a homeless drunk to throw a brick through a store window to create a problem Barbie and Julia couldn't solve. In the end Barbie talks everyone down with a passionate speech and Rennie is foiled. Now that is an irresistable set-up, but the ending was a bit of a let-down. Here, the consequences of the food riot are MUCH more dire and disastrous (which is always better). It comsumed all of downtown and not just the supermarket. And only an act of God (or the Dome) was able to stop it. So the book had a better beginning to the food riot, but the show had the better ending. ***1/2.
Imperfect Circles:
Very moving episode. I don't think it ranks as one of the season's best, though it is far from its worst. My one major complaint stands: Barbie looks like a complete scumbag for sleeping with Julia with her husband's death hanging over both their heads. But again, that was due more to the bad writing of the Pilot than what they did here. ***1/2.
Thicker Than Water:
I was never too crazy about the power struggles between Big Jim and either Ollie or Maxine. In the book, Rennie takes control right from the start. His power is absolute and never in question. This makes him seem more dangerous, untouchable, and unstoppable, and the heroes' struggle against him seem almost hopeless. There is a sense of dread in the book that never lets up. The series producers say in the accompanying interviews that they never want to let up either, but it's hard to do that when there isn't a clear sense of who is in charge. Hopefully, season two will be better as by the finale, Rennie HAD amassed the amount of power he did in the book. **1/2.
The Fourth Hand:
You have NO idea how much this episode infuriated me. I absolutely DESPISE it and it seems even worse upon second viewing. The idea of Big Jim Rennie coming to take away the town's guns is laughable. First of all, Under The Dome is a liberal book with a liberal message. The idea of the "evil gubmint gonna terk yer gunz" plays on idiotic conservative fears (which, by the way, have absolutely no basis in reality). A wingnut who has never read the book, might wind up thinking it is a blazing indictment of the Obama Administration, (Big Jim's a Big Gubmint soshulist!) or at least the one they've constructed in their tiny tea-bagger minds. And if you go by this episode, they'd actually have a case for it. Big Jim in the book would NEVER confiscate the townsfolks' guns. For any reason. Not even to secure them for himself. Why? Because he's a Republican, and he knows that BECAUSE he is a Republican, that the town's gun nuts would never use them on him. He's one of them. They wouldn't turn on one of their own, and he is JUST smart enough to know that. The show may think it is being clever by offering "balance" to Rennie, so as not to offend Red States but you know what? They're offending ME, and I can't be the only Democratic fan of the book who feels this way. Worst episode of the year. By far. 0.
Let The Games Begin:
I initially had a very negative reaction when I first saw the episode, but unlike The Fourth Hand, it doesn't bother me as much now that I've seen the rest of the season. Yada yada, fight club cliche, blah blah blah, yakkity shmakiddy. Yes. Parts of this episode are lame. There is no denying that. But it is also better than I first gave it credit for. The two things that still bother me the most are Julia forgiving Barbie so easily and Junior being the Fourth Hand. I don't think they could have EVER come up with a satisfactory answer to the Julia thing, so that bothers me less. That this dumb plotline existed is the Pilot's fault, and this episode had the unenviable task of cleaning up its mess. The fact that it was unsatisfying is expected. It never should been started. Junior being the Fourth Hand is MUCH more problematic. I will readily admit that this means that next season's storylines will be extra juicy. The kids have an extra element who will report back everything they've tried to keep secret to the series' Big Bad! And they unfortunately appear to need him! That is an irresistable twist with many storytelling opportunities. Still, it makes ZERO sense plotwise. Seriously. If the Dome is really IS sentient (or if its creators just speak through it), and it / they really DO want the kids to get rid of Big Jim, making Junior such an integral part of it only makes the task a thousand times more difficult, even if Junior IS the one who is supposed to pull the trigger. The writers can rationalize it with the fact that it will make good stories. How exactly will the Dome, or the Dome's creators? Unless the Dome is completely effing with everyone, and doesn't have any master plan beyond chaos, (much like the aliens in the book) I can't picture a rationalization of "Why Junior?" that I'd ever believe. We'll see, but I think much like making Barbie a murderer, the writers painted themselves into a plot hole corner and it will be impossible to explain away. This show seems to be more about Big Ideas without giving a thought to what the natural conclusions of those Big Ideas would actually be. It reminds me of The X-Files a little, to be honest. That is not a compliment. ***.
Speak Of The Devil:
THIS is the Big Jim Rennie from the book. He gets lucked into some VERY fortunate situations and makes the absolute worst of them for everybody but himself. What is so interesting about his "clever" gambit is how completely and utterly stupid it is too. Big Jim thinks things in the moment, but never thinks them through. There are too many balls in the air right now for his plan to suceed. What happens when Julia wakes up and proves Barbie's innocence? Because once she proves that it will show that Big Jim lied about a LOT. Frankly, I am totally disappointed in Linda. Aside from her Cornelius Fudge impersonation of missing all of Big Jim's malevolent and gleeful expressions during the crisis, why she would believe Rennie when it is TOTALLY obvious he was creating a scapegoat for his own actions is beyond me. Linda's surrogate in the book ultimately chose Barbie's side after first being tricked by Jim into thinking he was a murderer. Her changing her mind was one of the reasons she was one of the handful of survivors from the end of the book. Linda actions here however (and ESPECIALLY in the season finale) hint to me that there is no redemption coming for her. And if there is, I won't accept it. Her foolishness is BEYOND inexcusable here. There is no way I will forgive her for her actions. And did I mention that the Dome choosing Junior was dumb? Is the show going for the "Junior is Gollum" arc of him being the one to have to do the thing the heroes can't bring themselves to do? Because if it is, that would suck. Junior does NOT deserve such a lofty place in the narrative. My theory about the kids having to kill Big Jim is that Big Jim is Greg Stillson from The Dead Zone. The Dome said it did what it did to protect the town from what was coming, but what if the Dome sort of screwed up its priorties? Maybe it solely existed to keep Big Jim Rennie for being unleashed upon the world by running for higher office, then winning the Presidency, and then causing a nuclear holocaust? Because that's pretty much what he did in the book. What if the Dome itself locked him up to prevent him from doing that to the rest of the world? This theory has MORE than one hole in it, such as the Dome claiming to be protecting the town from some unknown oncoming threat. But frankly, that doesn't make much sense either. Big Jim IS the threat. The Dome wouldn't tease coming down over his death if he wasn't. There are a lot of things that don't add up about this entire scenario, and while I think making the Dome sentient and adding a geniune sci-fi aspect is cool, it is obvious they didn't really think everything through. This is Chris Carter and the Black Oil all over again. ****.
Exigent Circumstances:
Loved it. If it is possible, Big Jim is even stupider and more short-sighted here than in the book. In the book Rennie showed his true colors to almost NO-ONE unless he killed them. Here, there are now a boatload of witnesses to his crazy behavior. What I like about it is that Rennie seems to relish being the bad guy, but all he knows about diabolical plans is what he learned from action movies from the 80's. When someone asks you how they know you will keep your word not to hurt their friends after they're dead if they cooperate, saying "You don't", certainly sounds cold-blooded and bad@$$, and like a movie villain. What it is NOT, is the smart thing to say to the person whose death will mean the death of their friends, especially if that person has something you want. That means Barbie has no CHOICE but to fight him. He can't help his friends if he's dead, and Big Jim pretty much just openly said he was going to kill them with Barbie out of the picture. Big Jim is DUMB and I was tired of the series pretending he was anything but totally incompetent. One more mark against Linda (and Phil): what possible motive could Barbie have for killing Dodee? Because if they fish around her body long enough they are gonna find a bullet, and Barbie killing Dodie before he destroyed the radio station would make no sense. Big Jim is lucky Linda and Phil are such saps. In a smarter town, he wouldn't get away with it. In fact, this is pretty much proven by Carolyn's instant distrust of Jim, and seeing right through him from the beginning, with having seen MUCH less suspicious behavior from Rennie, than Linda has. But Carolyn is from out of town. Rennie is lucky Chester's Mill is full of suckers. Not every town would be. ****1/2.
Curtains:
True to form, the season finale greatly aggravated me. For every thing they did right, they did three things wrong. My biggest complaint doesn't even have anything to do with the book, but we'll get to that. First, having Rennie frame Barbie for murder and having him imprisoned is NOT something they should have done in the first season. That is pretty much the "worst case scenario" posited from the climax of the book. Unless they are going to greatly restructure the show so that it is no longer a straight adaptation of the book, and more of a "loose" deal, they completely shot their wad. Barbie and friends can only be on the run for so long, or Big Jim has to be found out. It has to be one or the other, otherwise the series can't believably continue. But by having either Barbie on the lam for the rest of the series, or Big Jim being found out, they have changed the fundamental dynamic of the show way too soon. Another book related complaint next. I suppose I COULD be on board turning Big Jim into a religious fundamentalist with delusions of godhood, had this series not so completely wussed out on taking a political stand in every single episode, including this one. While every liberal knows that Republican leaders frequently have religious delusions about their own greatness (see George W. Bush saying God told him to run for President) a dull-witted conservative audience member could say to themselves "Big Jim thinks he's God! Sacrilege! He must be a heathen liberal!" The writers probably think they are clever for making it so it can be taken both ways so as not to offend anybody, but Big Jim's political leanings should NOT be ambiguous, and that he is a Republican should NOT be up for debate. The fact that they haven't said ONCE that either Big Jim or Julia are Republicans is a MAJOR failing of the series, as their party designations comes up ALL the time in the book, and is in fact a driving force of Julia's motivation to stop Big Jim. Either offend conservatives, or don't bother making the series. You can't do both. And for the biggie. The thing I cannot forgive, and is even worse upon a rewatch. Does the series seriously expect me to believe Phil, a hip African American, who has had bad dealings with the police, would EVER be okay with Big Jim building a gallows to lynch Barbie? I guarantee you a white person wrote that scene. The scenario borders on the grotesque. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country did a similar limit testing of the audience, by having the black Adrmiral Cartwright, (played by Brock Peters) say these horribly vile and racists things about the Klingons, to point out the irony that sometimes the oppressed can become the oppressor without even realizing it, or noticing the parallels. I wasn't too crazy about that lesson either, (it reportedly disgusted Peters to have to deliver those lines) but it was plausible. In Star Trek's universe, racism between humans had supposedly been eliminated 200 years previously from when the movie took place. It was ugly, but the fact that you could KIND of believe something like that could possibly happen in the far future, was not out of the realm of possibility. Under the Dome however, is set in the present. Lynchings are still within living memory for many black people, even if Phil is too young to have experienced that kind of world himself. He has STILL had bad dealings with the almost all white police force of Chester's Mill, and almost certainly has older relatives who could have told him horrors stories about what it was like for a black person in the South, during the early to mid 20th Century. The show is REALLY trying to test our patience about something like this and my question to the producers is this:. Why? Why out of EVERYTHING is THIS the political hill you are willing to die on? Almost NO politics on the show, when the book is NOTHING but politics, but THIS is the example they want to give people "food for thought" over? It's pretty darn disgusting, to be honest. And LINDA being okay with it? I can never forgive her for this. Ever. This episode had a lot of cool sci-fi ideas, and great conflict, but I got the sense that it STILL isn't willing to take a stand on the big stuff, and is asking us to believe that a fiction like "reverse racism" actually exists. I hated the episode for that. *.
Deleted Scenes:
Imperfect Circles: A good cut. While it would have made sense for Big Jim to blame Ollie for the death, even though Rennie was the one who murdered the guy, Rennie seemed a tad... gleeful about learning that guy died. While I know perfectly well that Rennie is a sociopath, his one edge he has over he's enemies is that they can't see what a truly evil person he is until it is too late. Rennie could have danced on the guy's corpse, and still looked saner than he did here. He was Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate. He wouldn't fool ANYONE, even the morons in this town, with how he was acting in this scene. *1/2.
Let The Games Begin: The scene of Linda lifting Junior off probation shouldn't have been cut. Yeah, her rationalization in the episode isn't all that convincing, but I think after what Junior did we NEEDED to see the scene of Linda letting Junior off his leash. ***1/2.
Curtains: An unneeded scene between Angie and Julia. **1/2.
"Under The Dome": Filming The Pilot:
Four things: 1. I am seriously flummoxed at the fact that Stephen King played such a huge behind the scenes role of this series. Considering his hatred of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining, I'd figure he'd be the FIRST to complain about the series completely changing and whitewashing the book's moral, which it did even more so than Kubrick did with his Shining film. 2. Dean Norris claiming Rennie is a "good guy", and wants what's best for the town, saddens me, not just because it is antithetical to the book, but because the way the first few scripts were written, you realize that could have been a plausible interpretation of the character by the actor (the interview was filmed during the making of the Pilot). 3. If I were Aisha Hinds I'd be totally offended that I had a male stunt double who wore make-up and hoop earrings. 4. I love that the producers actually took into consideration the logic of filming the Dome and when you could and couldn't see it, or hear what was on the other side of it. That's a level of care I never even noticed, so that means they did their jobs flawlessly. ***1/2.
CBS Launch Promos:
These were cool. ****1/2.
Stephen King And "Under The Dome":
Stephen King seems MUCH more laid back in his later years about people messing with his material. This is NOT the same guy who insisted audiobooks of EVERY book he's ever written be unabridged. That's kind of cool, but the series could have used a firmer hand from him. King also confirms that the novel never would have been written without the invention of the internet to make research a breeze. I'm not gonna say King is a lazy writer... but he definitely IS the kind of guy who would rather tell a story about an evil killer clown in the sewer that eats children than have to figure out the logic and authenticity of weather patterns under the Dome. So... yeah, this book couldn't have existed had King been forced to put in the hours of research at a library rather than just having the information readily available at his fingertips. ****1/2.
"Under The Dome": From Novel To Series:
I think the big thing they talked about in this featurette is the casting. Honestly? Dean Norris makes a good Big Jim Rennie and the kid who plays Joe (Colin Ford) is amazing (as is Angie's Britt Robinson and the girl who plays Norrie) but almost everyone else is a total misfire. Mike Vogel is WAAAYYYY too handsome to play Barbie. Barbie always struck me as a borderline ugly guy in his early forties. Someone you wouldn't look twice at and had the face of a worn out fry cook wearing a paper hat. You can't HELP but look at Mike Vogel because he is so young and good-looking. Julia Shumway's actress is a similar problem but even worse. I always pictured Jula looking like a middle aged Barbara Steele did when she played Julia Hoffman on the early 90's Dark Shadows revival: older forties, early fifties, olive skin, black hair pulled back in a bun. Sort of a fading beauty The actress who plays her looks like a flower child and is WAAAYYY too young. Junior is the biggest miscast of all. They NEVER should have made him a hunky dreamboat. Junior always struck me as ugly and it was his unattractiveness that he inherited from his father. Sort of the kind of guy who was losing his hair in his early twenties and probably forty pounds overweight. The illustrations for the book show him as a unibomber looking douchebag with a goatee and that sounds like that could work too. But Alexander Koch borders on a male model and it would be hard to believe even Britt Robinson would rebuff his advances before he did what he did to her. I realize it's television and that good looking casts are pretty much now a network mandate, but older shows used to have roles for unconventional looking character actors too. Look to another Stephen King TV project for great casting: Storm of the Century has a mix of good looking actors like Tim Daly and people you believe could live in a small town in Maine. Chester's Mill might as well be L.A. where everyone has had work done. It is definitely the first King TV project without "real" looking actors. ****.
The World Of "Under The Dome"
About the sets and locations. ***1/2.
"Under The Dome": The First Season
About the making of the first season. ***1/2.
Joe's Blog:
These are some of the text posts and videos from the fictional blog at the show's website. I liked some of these more than others (I think Joe reveals WAY too much information in some of them to be believable) but I hope they keep these up for season two. I do have to question how these can possibly be uploaded to the web with the Dome in place, and communication with the outside world gone, but I think that is something they probably don't want us thinking on too much. Overall: ****.
Meet Joe McAlister: This is just text. ***.
My First Video: This was obviously shot before the Dome came down. ****.
The Dome: More text, this time about the day the Dome appeared. ***1/2.
Tour Of Radio Station: This is a video of Joe annoying Dodee. ***.
My New Roommate: Joe was acting WAAAYYY out of character here. The writers may have thought they were being funny, but one of the coolest things about Joe and Norrie's relationship is how tentative and youthfully innocent it is. I don't need to see Joe acting like Andy Samberg. That isn't who the character is. *.
MOAB: This is Joe and Ben talking about the bomb that was set off to blow up the Dome and failed. ***.
Things Are Getting Cray: This is written in the aftermath of the food riots. ****.
Dedicated To Alice: This touching tribute is the Joe I know from the show and the book. *****.
Ghost Joe: Here Joe gives his theories on the Monarch. They seem as convoluted as one of the Riddler's riddles from the Adam West Batman TV show. And sadly, they also sound like they could be correct, which does not speak well of the series. ***1/2.
I Was Right: I question the wisdom of putting all of the top secret info about the Mini Dome and the Monarch on a blog (especially the part saying the Dome told you to murder Big Jim Rennie). I hate it when Webisodes and online content overreach. **.
Life Goes On: Considering what happened to them both at the prison, Joe and Norrie are WAAAAYYY too calm and collected during this. Any normal person would be freaked the eff out. **1/2.
Gag Reel:
Pretty good. I didn't expect much but was pleasantly surprised. ***1/2.
Blu-Ray Menus: Fully animated. Paramount / CBS always does the best menus. ****1/2.
Upcoming reviews include The Critic: The Complete Series, The Simpsons: Season 16, Futurama: Volume 8, Family Guy: Volume 10, Family Guy: Volume 11, Monsters University (Blu-Ray), Planes (Blu-Ray), Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United, The Wolverine: Extended Edition, Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 9-11, Doctor Who: The Day Of The Doctor (Blu-Ray), Much Ado About Nothing, The Hobbit: Extended Edition, Power Rangers Zeo: Volume 1, And Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters: Season 3.
Spoilers for Under the Dome also include the book. I do a LOT of comparisons so if you haven't read the book yet beware.
DC Nation
Deadman #3:
My jaw dropped and my flabber was gasted. This short's subject matter involved vandalizing gravestones. This is completely innapropriate subject matter for childen. Aside from the fact that it is VERY imitatable, usually defacing resting spots has a racist or anti-Semitic component to it as well. It is SUCH a terrible offense that I can't believe the moral is that the vandalizers punishment is simply to clean the graves off. The idea is completely offensive to me. When I was a kid, some of my pets' graves were vandalized, and I felt absolutely violated and humiliated. To have such a horrible thing happen to human tombs as a cutesy subject matter is beyond my comprehension. 0.
Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular
The stuff with the Muppets was okay but the stuff with Lady Gaga pretty much sucked. I cannot believe the skimpy clothes she wore in a special for little kids. Yeesh.
Kristen Bell was the human who worked best with the Muppets. Her trying to teach Bobo to dance was a scream as was Bobo asking her if she was wearing soap.
Half good / half bad. ***.
Marvel's Hulk And The Agents Of S.M.A.S.H. "Red Rover"
I am very amused the Leader screwed himself out of having Doctor Doom free him because he accidentally, (and idiotically) revealed to Doom that their goals were one and the same, and in direct conflict with each other. That is a bad guy team-up no-no.
I'm getting to like Red Hulk. I probably wouldn't as much without Clancy Brown voicing him, but he does, so here we are.
That totally wasn't terrible. ***1/2.
Marvel's Avengers Assemble "Hulk's Day Out"
Do you notice whenever this show does a Hulk spotlight, it is outstanding, and the rest of the time it is mediocre? That should tell the writers something.
I love that we got back to those little glass figurines. What was once a throwaway joke, became a serious insight into the kinds of things Hulk values. I love the idea that Hulk goes off on a lot of different side adventures when he's away from the Avengers. And that being with them gives him the freedom to have FUN on his days off and enjoy himself. I especially like that he hangs around with Spider-Man. This episode makes Ultimate Spider-Man canon to this show in my book, and it's so cool because Spider-Man was the first friend he ever made in this continuity. I love it.
Hawkeye was the one obnoxious thing about the episode. We get it. You don't like Hulk. Nobody else on either the team, or the audience at home, shares that opinion.
Still, a fantastic episode. I wish I could say that more often. *****.
Once Upon A Time "Save Henry"
Good and bad.
Good, because I was right that Pan's support among the Lost Boys was built upon a house of cards and lies, and that they would betray him easily.
Bad, because based on the flashbacks, I am more convinced than ever that Henry falling for Pan's trick last week was out of character. Notice how upset Baby Henry was with Regina. That means even as a baby he was intuitive about the true nature of evil. Only when Regina started showing him love did he accept her. There is NO way he would have believed Pan last week. So last week seems even worse written than it did at the time.
I question the wisdom of Regina creating a potion to help her forget her troubles regarding Henry, but then I have always questioned Regina's wisdom, period. I guess they needed to do it to make the episode fit into continuity, but I think it was stupid even for her. The only reason I bought she would do it is because she is so delusional that I can easily believe her creating a delusion on purpose.
And it's not that Pan never fails. He has just never gone up against anyone willing to fight back. He p***ed off the Wicked Queen, the Savior, The Dark One, and the True Believer. He's toast. All of his bravado is just that. He could give David Xanatos lessons on how to build yourself up as a villain to scare people and sound bad@$$. After all, even most Gargoyles fans believe Xanatos is smarter and more competent than he actually was. Pan is no different.
I look forward to getting back to Storybrooke next week. I've had enough of Neverland. ***.
Almost Human "The Bends"
I'm thinking Rudy could become an audience favorite and a break-out character after this episode, which is NOT I would have thought before I saw it. I hope they don't pull a Kenneth on 30 Rock, and overuse him till we're sick of him, but this episode showed that he could be used in a comical fashion, whereas in the first episodes he appeared in, I was just skeeved out by the guy.
I'm really loving Karl Urban and Micheal Ealy's banter with each other. They are both perfectly cast which is a rarity for both leads on a TV show, particularly if they are a buddy cop duo.
Loved Rudy accidently cutting farts during the suspenseful moment. Frankly, I think that it was only because of that act of spontaneous vulnerability, that he wasn't killed on the spot. After he beefed, it seemed like the bad guys weren't exactly sure what to make of him, and decided to keep him alive if only so they could have some time to rethink what they were gonna do with him. That's pretty cool.
Very interesting episode. I am no longer creeped out by Rudy. That is quite an accomplishment. ****.
Grimm "El Cucuy"
That little old lady stole the episode. Her best line was when she innocently says "You're a Grimm? Why I had NO idea!" The way the line was delivered would have sounded perfectly reasonable had she not had blood dripping down her face. And she was right. They couldn't hold her for that. Not a jury in the world would believe and convict her. Heck, I'm not sure I would and I saw her do it.
Juliet learning about Nick's mom was interesting but I was getting a little annoyed with her pestering questions about it. Yeah, she and Nick are together now, but they weren't for a long time, and she might have wanted to consider that this might have been a touchy subject.
That ultrasound means one of two things: 1. The baby is Renard's and there is no question about it. 2. They might do the ultimate fake-out and say that Adalind still had the genetic markers of a Hexenbiest, and that's where he got it, but it was his brother's. I'm discounting the second theory immediately. Why? Because I don't think the producers would jerk us around like that. That would be a hugely blatant cop-out and not something the audience would forgive. My rule for this plot turn in this show (because it's David Greenwalt) is that if Darla's baby was Angel's, Adalind's will be Renard's. Simple as that. And this would have applied BEFORE the ultrasound too.
I was glad the neighborhood watch guy was a red herring. That would have been completely predictable had it not been.
Fun episode. ****.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Slash And Destroy"
Garbage. Explain to me again WHY I should be happy that the Turtles recovered the Mutagen at the end of the episode? All season long they have been SO clumsy and careless with it that they have done more damage than the Kraang or Shredder EVER did. These guys aren't stealthy ninjas. They're Larry, Moe, and Curly. Only less competent.
I'm almost out. This show is infuriating me. *.
Power Rangers: Mega Force "The End"
Disappointing to say the least. But since there IS gonna be a sequel series maybe they will save a good ending for that one. Still, I am majorly bummed we didn't get to see any "historic" Rangers during the first season even though the producers promised we would. That was the whole reason I tuned in in the first place. That huge sprawling battle between an army of every Ranger ever and the bad guys didn't happen yet either. I didn't like this season but the fact that there will be another one means they could fix their mistakes if they so choose. But I don't have high hopes. ***.
MAD "Alfred's Game / We Are X-Men"
At least this awful Ender's Game parody didn't do what the magizine spoof of Star Trek: First Contact did and base the entire thing around a leaked hoax script. You think THIS was embarrassing? MAD had a TON of egg on its face in 1996. And wasn't We Are Men canceled already? The timeliness of this episode is greatly in question. But hey, Gargamelrose Place was funny, even though it too was based on a canceled show. I liked MAD making fun of Lady Gaga complaining about a magazine made her look too beautiful. MAD is all too happy to help. We should ALL have such problems. **1/2.
Bob's Burgers "Purple Rain-Union"
Giddy madness. I loved Louise's logic for everyone getting black eyes ESPECIALLY since as Bob pointed out it didn't make any sense, and that they were going to talk about it later. The plot wasn't any great shakes but the funny jokes kept on coming. That's cool with me. Family Guy has been roasted for less. ****.
American Dad "Independent Movie"
Ho boy. This will not end well.
I am lucky this is a friends locked journal because I have a feeling my review of this episode will be the complete opposite of most American Dad fans, and I don't feel like starting a flame war over it. Be gentle to me, even if my review isn't to the episode.
I'm betting most people will think this is the best episode of the season. I think they are wrong. I'd call it one of the worst but this season of American Dad has been SO atrocious that it is firmly stuck in the middle rung of suck. But boy, did it suck.
First off, I share the producers' negative feelings towards indie movies, particular quirky dramedies. They may think they are being different and funky, but at this point they are ALL the same, and suffer from as many tacky cliches as the worst Micheal Bay blow-'em-up flick. That is not my problem with the episode.
The problem is that Seth MacFarlane once again thinks he can pretty much just reference or allude to something verbatim and call that comedy. That's not how a good parody works. You have to turn the genre you are making fun of upside down or say something fresh about it. While it is true that indies haven't been parodied that much, just saying "This exists!" isn't funny. Family Guy used to get reamed for doing the same thing with 80's sitcoms and cartoons. Why should I give American Dad a pass for lazy humor just because it's something that very few people have taken a REAL shot at before?
Everything in the episode could have happened in a cliche indie. Even the jokes wouldn't have seemed out of place at all if the indie was comedy. That isn't a spoof. It's a reference, and just referring to something isn't intrinsically funny. The comedy comes from what you DO with that observation. And Seth MacFarlane often has a VERY difficult time telling the difference.
Also, American Dad, what did I JUST tell you about basing entire episodes around the revolting Snot? True, he faded into the background as the episode went on, but he still had WAY too much screen time. Roger would have been a better indie road trip buddy for Steve.
I'm betting my negative assessment will be one of the few bad reviews this episode gets from AD fans. But the episode earned it. *.
Dads "The Glitch That Stole Christmas"
Admittedly, the entire last act was preposterous with a totally unearned ending. And yes, overall the episode sucked, and was business as usual. But I won't lie about it. I actually laughed a record three times during the episode. I'm pretty ashamed of that fact, although I DO think the three jokes I laughed at were pretty good. Let's examine them:
"Rule #1 for Mall Santas" was supposed to be a shocking joke, but I actually think that probably IS the first thing Mall Santas get told. So I laughed because the joke despite being uncomfortable, and more than a little icky, was probably sadly spot-on.
The second joke I laughed at was the best. David as Santa telling the kid's mother that her son was going to grow up to be gay. TONS of shows do lame jokes like this but right after Peter Riegert says it, he tells his mother to accept him for who he is, which is NEVER done on shows like Everybody Loves Raymond or Family Guy. I believe the exact quote was "Your son is gay. Accept him for who he is. He's a good kid." I have never seen a single variation on the joke, where the person who made it, did it to empower the kid. I'm as shocked as anyone that the first TV show in history to ever do it was "Dads". There has obviously either been a recent MAJOR cultural tipping point, or there is something seriously wrong with the universe. I'm leaning towards the latter, but the hopeful part of me wishes it was the first.
The third was a dumb laugh line that I still found funny: "You're stuck in a chimney and I'M the idiot." Ironically, that dumb joke could also be leveled at the lousy writers who came up with that entire inane scenario, so I was sort of laughing AT the show as much as with it.
Best episode ever. So two stars. LOL! **.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Christmas"
I really like how they resolved Terry getting back into the field because there was NO believable way that shrink was gonna let him pass the psyche eval. Gina is totally not as terrible as I thought.
Do you know what I love about Holt's relationship to Peralta? He CONSTANTLY underestimates Jake. He expected him to blow off the assignment, and the writers revealed despite the fact that Jake was partially using the scenario to aggravate the Captain, he was also taking it VERY seriously. I question the wisdom of throwing 2 handcuff keys down the hotel room grate, but it's a comedy, so I can let that slide.
I was VERY surprised to learn that Boyles' crush on Rosa was one-sided. That has NEVER been my interpretation, and the episode gave her a VERY convincing reason for why Boyles was worthy of her, so my opinion essentially remains unchanged. She totally likes him.
Very good. ****.
Dracula "The Devil's Waltz"
The first half of this was absolutely fantastic so it saddens me that I cannot give it a perfect score because of the second. But once Renfield was rescued, there was absolutely nothing that interested me going on.
But boy, did that Renfield stuff make up for a LOT. It was sooooooo good. This actually found a new twist on a torture interrogation. The torturer actually empowered Renfield to say that he was completely in control of the situation. This was an interesting tack to take, because even if it was a lie, it was sort of true at the same time. The fact that it was sort of true made her saying it even crueler than it was.
I loved Renfield laughing when Grayson rescued him. There was SO much color in that laugh. A mix of joy, relief, madness, and even genuine humor. It was over. And it was gonna end badly for that lady. Did you see that look in the torturer's eyes when she saw Drac easily dispatch her goons in the most bloodily violent way possible? I always have secretly wanted to see that look on Jack Bauer's face when I was watching 24. I stopped watching that show once I realized the ugly emotions it was stirring in me. But I REALLY hated Jack Bauer and thought the idea that he was the show's hero was ridiculous. He'd be considered the villain on any other show. He'd be the corrupt Starfleet security officer Kirk or Picard had to take down. He was only a hero because he tried to stop even worse people than him doing even worse stuff. But he'd be an evil character on any show that wasn't as badly written and manipulative as 24. I look at James Spader's character Red on the Blacklist as the same as Jack Bauer. Yes, he's helping the good guys stop bad guys. But he's still a criminal and a villain. The Blacklist isn't badly written enough to pretend he isn't. "Dracula" portrayed the torturer as evil as she actually was too. Good for the producers.
That went off on a tangent, didn't it? ***** for the first half, ** for the second. Overall: ***1/2.
Under The Dome: Season One
I would call Under The Dome: Season One the most aggravating show on television in 2013, if the final season of The Office and the second of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn't exist. The show takes a completely political book (Stephen King's 2008 allegory for the disastrous Bush Administration "Under The Dome") and completely takes almost all of the politics out of it. And when they DO involve politics, they are always veiled slams at liberals. I wish the producers of the show had believed in Stephen King's message, and actually had the guts to film it for a TV audience, instead of watering it down to offend as few people as possible. It is not possible not to offend someone with a story with a partisan political bent. Just trying to add balance for the sake of not getting letters from pants-wetting Republicans is completely wrong-headed. Frankly, if the movie adaptation of Atlas Shrugged did the same thing to Ayn Rand's novel Under The Dome does here, Republicans would be FURIOUS and frankly, rightly so. I'm sick of Democrats and liberals apologizing for being Democrats and liberals. If you REALLY believe in a story, than you have to have faith that you can make the audience believe in it too. Not even trying is a cop-out.
Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed in King too for letting this happen to his book. He's a producer, and has MUCH more creative imput on this show than he did on either The Dead Zone or Haven. It's kind of cool that he's mellowed in his old age, and just lets the producers do their own thing, so he can be surprised along with the audience... but to be honest, I miss the FIREBRAND Stephen King. Where is the Stephen King who had conniption fits over Stanley Kubrick's film version of The Shining, and the awful Lawnmower Man film that had nothing to do with his short story? King was SO p***ed off about The Shining that he wrote his own (inferior in my opinion) screenplay for a Shining TV miniseries, and the Kubrick film changed MUCH less from that book than the Under The Dome TV show does from its. What King objected to most about The Shining, (Kubrick changing the entire moral of the story) is if even possible, even worse here. I miss the Stephen King who would have shopped the show around at another network before hiring a cast that looked that J Crew Models for his small town of realistic looking characters. The ONLY ugly actor on the show is Leon Rippy (and I admit the casting crew DOES get props for that). Even the overweight radio woman, Dodee, has a face that is gorgeous. If she weighed as much as the woman who plays Julia Shumway she would be on fashion magazine covers. I guess you could chalk that up to a positive role model for overweight women, or just another bit of improbable casting (which is where I stand).
It's weird, but Haven deviates more from the source material of The Colorado Kid, than this show does, and I have no problems with it. Maybe that's because the actual moral of The Colorado Kid, (that some mysteries can't be solved) is a much less important message than how it is VERY crucial who we elect to office during times of crisis. Also, that "unsolvable mysteries" moral is identical to From A Buick 8's, so not only is King repeating himself with that one, but there could still be a movie version of that other book to bring that neat idea to the screen after all.
There ARE a couple of good episodes on the set and I will still be watching next season. But I really think this show is more or less a disaster. The current Stephen King based show to watch is Haven. It is excellent and probably the best current genre show on television after Doctor Who. Under The Dome has so far been nothing but a disappointment. Season Overall: *1/2.
Pilot:
The Pilot did SO many things wrong, that I imagine even if the rest of the season, HAD been better, that it would be almost impossible to course correct from the many mistakes it made. First off, whoever's boneheaded idea it was for Barbie to be a murderer, much less one of Julia's husband, completely failed the message of the book. It is true that Barbie becomes a scapegoat for Rennie in the book, but in the book Barbie was a completely innocent man. Knowing that he killed Julia's husband and proceeded to sleep with her, in some ways, make Rennie's horrible actions seem almost justified. Speaking of Rennie, why this show made "We're all in this together" his catchphrase is beyond me. Rennie is a Republican. There is no Republican alive who would be caught dead saying that, even if they were like Rennie is here, completely b.s.-ing you. I also am REALLY amazed that they gave Rennie and Junior a father / son moment (although to be fair it wasn't just this episode). In the book Rennie and Junior can barely stand each other, and Junior was planning to murder Big Jim when news of the Dome stayed his hand. They do NOT need to make Big Jim sympathetic. He is King's stand-in for Dick Cheney. He's a bad guy, and a fascist. We don't need to try to understand why. The writers are totally overthinking it. There were two or three positive changes from the book: although keeping Angie alive seemed like a risky move when I first saw the series, (Junior screwing her corpse in the book gave us a dark insight into where his tumor riddled brain was at) I cannot argue with the results from the rest of the season. Angie has become a survivor, and a leader of the group of heroes which is a much more positive message for women survivors of abuse. It was also smart to make Joe a teenager rather than a 12 year old, because any aging the kid does won't be as noticable if he isn't sprouting up 8 inches over the hiatus. And making him Angie's brother seems like such a no-brainer and natural fit that you wonder why King didn't do it first. Still, this Pilot left much to be desired, and even if it DOES do a lot of good set-up for the latter half of the season with the Pink Stars and the Monarch, I am still unhappy about it. **.
The Fire:
Having Big Jim be the one to save the day was a mistake. They writers could claim he was being opportunistic here but there is no denying it was clever and a hero moment. Ugh. Not much else to say about this episode. **.
Manhunt:
Loved The Simpsons Movie reference because that is the FIRST thing critics of the book accused it of ripping off (to Stephen King's annoyance.) I can't believe Julia took Junior's story about Barbie at face value. To be fair to her, she caught Barbie in a few lies, but Junior is hardly the most credible witness in any given situation, and she has clearly seen that he is a psycho. I forgot that Ollie made his first appearance here as the sexist and racist hick who gave Carolyn the business. I friggin' loathe that guy. ***.
Outbreak:
Passable, but I have two major complaints: the novel's version of Julia Shumway would NEVER put the town at risk for such a selfish reason. She was one of the few people in Chester's Mill who always had the town's best interests at heart. The second complaint isn't as big, but it still grates a little. It shouldn't really matter either way, but I don't think it was cool that Junior earned his place on the police force. In the novel Rennie deputizes Junior and his seedy friends before anyone can object, sort of drawing a parallel between George Bush and the Patriot Act. I guess the allegory wasn't needed, but my first thought was that it was another political whitewashing, even though looking at it again, it probably wasn't. On the plus side, the cliffhanger was excellent, as was the stuff with Joe and Norrie. Creepiest bit was Joe sitting up in the middle of his seizure, and shushing the camera with an evil smile. I doubt they will EVER fully explain what THAT was about, but it still gives me the willies. ***1/2.
Blue On Blue:
Fantastic episode and the first great one of the series. They must have SERIOUSLY worked hard to get Joe and Norrie's kiss as the missile hit just right. It was perfect and gorgeous. I had two complaints when I first saw the episode, but I don't have them anymore rewatching it. The first complaint was my disappointment that Visitor's Day was so uneventful, whereas in the book it was a total disaster, and got many people killed because of Rennie's incompetence. If I had been in charge of the series, I probably would have put Visitor's Day a LONG way down the road, and not as the fifth episode. But I would NOT have been ingenius enough to have the day be a prelude to a missile launch on the Dome. That is brilliant and if this series continues to explore things King COULD have, but didn't in his finite book, I'll be happy. The second complaint is a MUCH bigger egg on my face. I had originally thought Rennie's "perfect murder" of Lester Coggins was too clever by half. Aside from the fact that Rennie beating Coggins to death in the book showed his savage side, and just having him push him against the Dome was too easy, and let him off the hook a bit, I objected to the fact that a murder that perfect and effortless, that NO-ONE in town would be able to pin on him, was way too smart for someone like Big Jim to pull off. Big Jim may be evil in the book, but he is also INCOMPETENT and REALLY stupid, which is just as disastrous for the town. I can't believe I, of all people, gave him that much credit. The revelation at the end of the season that the people on the outside caught Rennie commiting the murder on camera, thereby insuring that if the Dome comes down he'll be a wanted criminal, was stupidity on par with the Rennie from the book. To be fair to me, the writers NEVER gave me any sense before that that they were gonna be that clever about it, so they got me good. Nicely played. *****.
The Endless Thirst:
I'm torn about whether I like the food riot in the book or the show more. The reason it was started in the book was WAAAYYY better. Jim Rennie paid a homeless drunk to throw a brick through a store window to create a problem Barbie and Julia couldn't solve. In the end Barbie talks everyone down with a passionate speech and Rennie is foiled. Now that is an irresistable set-up, but the ending was a bit of a let-down. Here, the consequences of the food riot are MUCH more dire and disastrous (which is always better). It comsumed all of downtown and not just the supermarket. And only an act of God (or the Dome) was able to stop it. So the book had a better beginning to the food riot, but the show had the better ending. ***1/2.
Imperfect Circles:
Very moving episode. I don't think it ranks as one of the season's best, though it is far from its worst. My one major complaint stands: Barbie looks like a complete scumbag for sleeping with Julia with her husband's death hanging over both their heads. But again, that was due more to the bad writing of the Pilot than what they did here. ***1/2.
Thicker Than Water:
I was never too crazy about the power struggles between Big Jim and either Ollie or Maxine. In the book, Rennie takes control right from the start. His power is absolute and never in question. This makes him seem more dangerous, untouchable, and unstoppable, and the heroes' struggle against him seem almost hopeless. There is a sense of dread in the book that never lets up. The series producers say in the accompanying interviews that they never want to let up either, but it's hard to do that when there isn't a clear sense of who is in charge. Hopefully, season two will be better as by the finale, Rennie HAD amassed the amount of power he did in the book. **1/2.
The Fourth Hand:
You have NO idea how much this episode infuriated me. I absolutely DESPISE it and it seems even worse upon second viewing. The idea of Big Jim Rennie coming to take away the town's guns is laughable. First of all, Under The Dome is a liberal book with a liberal message. The idea of the "evil gubmint gonna terk yer gunz" plays on idiotic conservative fears (which, by the way, have absolutely no basis in reality). A wingnut who has never read the book, might wind up thinking it is a blazing indictment of the Obama Administration, (Big Jim's a Big Gubmint soshulist!) or at least the one they've constructed in their tiny tea-bagger minds. And if you go by this episode, they'd actually have a case for it. Big Jim in the book would NEVER confiscate the townsfolks' guns. For any reason. Not even to secure them for himself. Why? Because he's a Republican, and he knows that BECAUSE he is a Republican, that the town's gun nuts would never use them on him. He's one of them. They wouldn't turn on one of their own, and he is JUST smart enough to know that. The show may think it is being clever by offering "balance" to Rennie, so as not to offend Red States but you know what? They're offending ME, and I can't be the only Democratic fan of the book who feels this way. Worst episode of the year. By far. 0.
Let The Games Begin:
I initially had a very negative reaction when I first saw the episode, but unlike The Fourth Hand, it doesn't bother me as much now that I've seen the rest of the season. Yada yada, fight club cliche, blah blah blah, yakkity shmakiddy. Yes. Parts of this episode are lame. There is no denying that. But it is also better than I first gave it credit for. The two things that still bother me the most are Julia forgiving Barbie so easily and Junior being the Fourth Hand. I don't think they could have EVER come up with a satisfactory answer to the Julia thing, so that bothers me less. That this dumb plotline existed is the Pilot's fault, and this episode had the unenviable task of cleaning up its mess. The fact that it was unsatisfying is expected. It never should been started. Junior being the Fourth Hand is MUCH more problematic. I will readily admit that this means that next season's storylines will be extra juicy. The kids have an extra element who will report back everything they've tried to keep secret to the series' Big Bad! And they unfortunately appear to need him! That is an irresistable twist with many storytelling opportunities. Still, it makes ZERO sense plotwise. Seriously. If the Dome is really IS sentient (or if its creators just speak through it), and it / they really DO want the kids to get rid of Big Jim, making Junior such an integral part of it only makes the task a thousand times more difficult, even if Junior IS the one who is supposed to pull the trigger. The writers can rationalize it with the fact that it will make good stories. How exactly will the Dome, or the Dome's creators? Unless the Dome is completely effing with everyone, and doesn't have any master plan beyond chaos, (much like the aliens in the book) I can't picture a rationalization of "Why Junior?" that I'd ever believe. We'll see, but I think much like making Barbie a murderer, the writers painted themselves into a plot hole corner and it will be impossible to explain away. This show seems to be more about Big Ideas without giving a thought to what the natural conclusions of those Big Ideas would actually be. It reminds me of The X-Files a little, to be honest. That is not a compliment. ***.
Speak Of The Devil:
THIS is the Big Jim Rennie from the book. He gets lucked into some VERY fortunate situations and makes the absolute worst of them for everybody but himself. What is so interesting about his "clever" gambit is how completely and utterly stupid it is too. Big Jim thinks things in the moment, but never thinks them through. There are too many balls in the air right now for his plan to suceed. What happens when Julia wakes up and proves Barbie's innocence? Because once she proves that it will show that Big Jim lied about a LOT. Frankly, I am totally disappointed in Linda. Aside from her Cornelius Fudge impersonation of missing all of Big Jim's malevolent and gleeful expressions during the crisis, why she would believe Rennie when it is TOTALLY obvious he was creating a scapegoat for his own actions is beyond me. Linda's surrogate in the book ultimately chose Barbie's side after first being tricked by Jim into thinking he was a murderer. Her changing her mind was one of the reasons she was one of the handful of survivors from the end of the book. Linda actions here however (and ESPECIALLY in the season finale) hint to me that there is no redemption coming for her. And if there is, I won't accept it. Her foolishness is BEYOND inexcusable here. There is no way I will forgive her for her actions. And did I mention that the Dome choosing Junior was dumb? Is the show going for the "Junior is Gollum" arc of him being the one to have to do the thing the heroes can't bring themselves to do? Because if it is, that would suck. Junior does NOT deserve such a lofty place in the narrative. My theory about the kids having to kill Big Jim is that Big Jim is Greg Stillson from The Dead Zone. The Dome said it did what it did to protect the town from what was coming, but what if the Dome sort of screwed up its priorties? Maybe it solely existed to keep Big Jim Rennie for being unleashed upon the world by running for higher office, then winning the Presidency, and then causing a nuclear holocaust? Because that's pretty much what he did in the book. What if the Dome itself locked him up to prevent him from doing that to the rest of the world? This theory has MORE than one hole in it, such as the Dome claiming to be protecting the town from some unknown oncoming threat. But frankly, that doesn't make much sense either. Big Jim IS the threat. The Dome wouldn't tease coming down over his death if he wasn't. There are a lot of things that don't add up about this entire scenario, and while I think making the Dome sentient and adding a geniune sci-fi aspect is cool, it is obvious they didn't really think everything through. This is Chris Carter and the Black Oil all over again. ****.
Exigent Circumstances:
Loved it. If it is possible, Big Jim is even stupider and more short-sighted here than in the book. In the book Rennie showed his true colors to almost NO-ONE unless he killed them. Here, there are now a boatload of witnesses to his crazy behavior. What I like about it is that Rennie seems to relish being the bad guy, but all he knows about diabolical plans is what he learned from action movies from the 80's. When someone asks you how they know you will keep your word not to hurt their friends after they're dead if they cooperate, saying "You don't", certainly sounds cold-blooded and bad@$$, and like a movie villain. What it is NOT, is the smart thing to say to the person whose death will mean the death of their friends, especially if that person has something you want. That means Barbie has no CHOICE but to fight him. He can't help his friends if he's dead, and Big Jim pretty much just openly said he was going to kill them with Barbie out of the picture. Big Jim is DUMB and I was tired of the series pretending he was anything but totally incompetent. One more mark against Linda (and Phil): what possible motive could Barbie have for killing Dodee? Because if they fish around her body long enough they are gonna find a bullet, and Barbie killing Dodie before he destroyed the radio station would make no sense. Big Jim is lucky Linda and Phil are such saps. In a smarter town, he wouldn't get away with it. In fact, this is pretty much proven by Carolyn's instant distrust of Jim, and seeing right through him from the beginning, with having seen MUCH less suspicious behavior from Rennie, than Linda has. But Carolyn is from out of town. Rennie is lucky Chester's Mill is full of suckers. Not every town would be. ****1/2.
Curtains:
True to form, the season finale greatly aggravated me. For every thing they did right, they did three things wrong. My biggest complaint doesn't even have anything to do with the book, but we'll get to that. First, having Rennie frame Barbie for murder and having him imprisoned is NOT something they should have done in the first season. That is pretty much the "worst case scenario" posited from the climax of the book. Unless they are going to greatly restructure the show so that it is no longer a straight adaptation of the book, and more of a "loose" deal, they completely shot their wad. Barbie and friends can only be on the run for so long, or Big Jim has to be found out. It has to be one or the other, otherwise the series can't believably continue. But by having either Barbie on the lam for the rest of the series, or Big Jim being found out, they have changed the fundamental dynamic of the show way too soon. Another book related complaint next. I suppose I COULD be on board turning Big Jim into a religious fundamentalist with delusions of godhood, had this series not so completely wussed out on taking a political stand in every single episode, including this one. While every liberal knows that Republican leaders frequently have religious delusions about their own greatness (see George W. Bush saying God told him to run for President) a dull-witted conservative audience member could say to themselves "Big Jim thinks he's God! Sacrilege! He must be a heathen liberal!" The writers probably think they are clever for making it so it can be taken both ways so as not to offend anybody, but Big Jim's political leanings should NOT be ambiguous, and that he is a Republican should NOT be up for debate. The fact that they haven't said ONCE that either Big Jim or Julia are Republicans is a MAJOR failing of the series, as their party designations comes up ALL the time in the book, and is in fact a driving force of Julia's motivation to stop Big Jim. Either offend conservatives, or don't bother making the series. You can't do both. And for the biggie. The thing I cannot forgive, and is even worse upon a rewatch. Does the series seriously expect me to believe Phil, a hip African American, who has had bad dealings with the police, would EVER be okay with Big Jim building a gallows to lynch Barbie? I guarantee you a white person wrote that scene. The scenario borders on the grotesque. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country did a similar limit testing of the audience, by having the black Adrmiral Cartwright, (played by Brock Peters) say these horribly vile and racists things about the Klingons, to point out the irony that sometimes the oppressed can become the oppressor without even realizing it, or noticing the parallels. I wasn't too crazy about that lesson either, (it reportedly disgusted Peters to have to deliver those lines) but it was plausible. In Star Trek's universe, racism between humans had supposedly been eliminated 200 years previously from when the movie took place. It was ugly, but the fact that you could KIND of believe something like that could possibly happen in the far future, was not out of the realm of possibility. Under the Dome however, is set in the present. Lynchings are still within living memory for many black people, even if Phil is too young to have experienced that kind of world himself. He has STILL had bad dealings with the almost all white police force of Chester's Mill, and almost certainly has older relatives who could have told him horrors stories about what it was like for a black person in the South, during the early to mid 20th Century. The show is REALLY trying to test our patience about something like this and my question to the producers is this:. Why? Why out of EVERYTHING is THIS the political hill you are willing to die on? Almost NO politics on the show, when the book is NOTHING but politics, but THIS is the example they want to give people "food for thought" over? It's pretty darn disgusting, to be honest. And LINDA being okay with it? I can never forgive her for this. Ever. This episode had a lot of cool sci-fi ideas, and great conflict, but I got the sense that it STILL isn't willing to take a stand on the big stuff, and is asking us to believe that a fiction like "reverse racism" actually exists. I hated the episode for that. *.
Deleted Scenes:
Imperfect Circles: A good cut. While it would have made sense for Big Jim to blame Ollie for the death, even though Rennie was the one who murdered the guy, Rennie seemed a tad... gleeful about learning that guy died. While I know perfectly well that Rennie is a sociopath, his one edge he has over he's enemies is that they can't see what a truly evil person he is until it is too late. Rennie could have danced on the guy's corpse, and still looked saner than he did here. He was Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate. He wouldn't fool ANYONE, even the morons in this town, with how he was acting in this scene. *1/2.
Let The Games Begin: The scene of Linda lifting Junior off probation shouldn't have been cut. Yeah, her rationalization in the episode isn't all that convincing, but I think after what Junior did we NEEDED to see the scene of Linda letting Junior off his leash. ***1/2.
Curtains: An unneeded scene between Angie and Julia. **1/2.
"Under The Dome": Filming The Pilot:
Four things: 1. I am seriously flummoxed at the fact that Stephen King played such a huge behind the scenes role of this series. Considering his hatred of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining, I'd figure he'd be the FIRST to complain about the series completely changing and whitewashing the book's moral, which it did even more so than Kubrick did with his Shining film. 2. Dean Norris claiming Rennie is a "good guy", and wants what's best for the town, saddens me, not just because it is antithetical to the book, but because the way the first few scripts were written, you realize that could have been a plausible interpretation of the character by the actor (the interview was filmed during the making of the Pilot). 3. If I were Aisha Hinds I'd be totally offended that I had a male stunt double who wore make-up and hoop earrings. 4. I love that the producers actually took into consideration the logic of filming the Dome and when you could and couldn't see it, or hear what was on the other side of it. That's a level of care I never even noticed, so that means they did their jobs flawlessly. ***1/2.
CBS Launch Promos:
These were cool. ****1/2.
Stephen King And "Under The Dome":
Stephen King seems MUCH more laid back in his later years about people messing with his material. This is NOT the same guy who insisted audiobooks of EVERY book he's ever written be unabridged. That's kind of cool, but the series could have used a firmer hand from him. King also confirms that the novel never would have been written without the invention of the internet to make research a breeze. I'm not gonna say King is a lazy writer... but he definitely IS the kind of guy who would rather tell a story about an evil killer clown in the sewer that eats children than have to figure out the logic and authenticity of weather patterns under the Dome. So... yeah, this book couldn't have existed had King been forced to put in the hours of research at a library rather than just having the information readily available at his fingertips. ****1/2.
"Under The Dome": From Novel To Series:
I think the big thing they talked about in this featurette is the casting. Honestly? Dean Norris makes a good Big Jim Rennie and the kid who plays Joe (Colin Ford) is amazing (as is Angie's Britt Robinson and the girl who plays Norrie) but almost everyone else is a total misfire. Mike Vogel is WAAAYYYY too handsome to play Barbie. Barbie always struck me as a borderline ugly guy in his early forties. Someone you wouldn't look twice at and had the face of a worn out fry cook wearing a paper hat. You can't HELP but look at Mike Vogel because he is so young and good-looking. Julia Shumway's actress is a similar problem but even worse. I always pictured Jula looking like a middle aged Barbara Steele did when she played Julia Hoffman on the early 90's Dark Shadows revival: older forties, early fifties, olive skin, black hair pulled back in a bun. Sort of a fading beauty The actress who plays her looks like a flower child and is WAAAYYY too young. Junior is the biggest miscast of all. They NEVER should have made him a hunky dreamboat. Junior always struck me as ugly and it was his unattractiveness that he inherited from his father. Sort of the kind of guy who was losing his hair in his early twenties and probably forty pounds overweight. The illustrations for the book show him as a unibomber looking douchebag with a goatee and that sounds like that could work too. But Alexander Koch borders on a male model and it would be hard to believe even Britt Robinson would rebuff his advances before he did what he did to her. I realize it's television and that good looking casts are pretty much now a network mandate, but older shows used to have roles for unconventional looking character actors too. Look to another Stephen King TV project for great casting: Storm of the Century has a mix of good looking actors like Tim Daly and people you believe could live in a small town in Maine. Chester's Mill might as well be L.A. where everyone has had work done. It is definitely the first King TV project without "real" looking actors. ****.
The World Of "Under The Dome"
About the sets and locations. ***1/2.
"Under The Dome": The First Season
About the making of the first season. ***1/2.
Joe's Blog:
These are some of the text posts and videos from the fictional blog at the show's website. I liked some of these more than others (I think Joe reveals WAY too much information in some of them to be believable) but I hope they keep these up for season two. I do have to question how these can possibly be uploaded to the web with the Dome in place, and communication with the outside world gone, but I think that is something they probably don't want us thinking on too much. Overall: ****.
Meet Joe McAlister: This is just text. ***.
My First Video: This was obviously shot before the Dome came down. ****.
The Dome: More text, this time about the day the Dome appeared. ***1/2.
Tour Of Radio Station: This is a video of Joe annoying Dodee. ***.
My New Roommate: Joe was acting WAAAYYY out of character here. The writers may have thought they were being funny, but one of the coolest things about Joe and Norrie's relationship is how tentative and youthfully innocent it is. I don't need to see Joe acting like Andy Samberg. That isn't who the character is. *.
MOAB: This is Joe and Ben talking about the bomb that was set off to blow up the Dome and failed. ***.
Things Are Getting Cray: This is written in the aftermath of the food riots. ****.
Dedicated To Alice: This touching tribute is the Joe I know from the show and the book. *****.
Ghost Joe: Here Joe gives his theories on the Monarch. They seem as convoluted as one of the Riddler's riddles from the Adam West Batman TV show. And sadly, they also sound like they could be correct, which does not speak well of the series. ***1/2.
I Was Right: I question the wisdom of putting all of the top secret info about the Mini Dome and the Monarch on a blog (especially the part saying the Dome told you to murder Big Jim Rennie). I hate it when Webisodes and online content overreach. **.
Life Goes On: Considering what happened to them both at the prison, Joe and Norrie are WAAAAYYY too calm and collected during this. Any normal person would be freaked the eff out. **1/2.
Gag Reel:
Pretty good. I didn't expect much but was pleasantly surprised. ***1/2.
Blu-Ray Menus: Fully animated. Paramount / CBS always does the best menus. ****1/2.