The Stand - new series

One of my favourite Stephen King books, The Stand, actually showed great promise to be a good series. The original mini series was not great but not a bad interpretation and the actors chosen were interesting and carried the weight of making that interpretation watchable. One of the best scenes was when people were in a movie theatre and someone was coughing and they showed the sprays of mucus/spit.

So here we are in the stage of a world pandemic and an opportunity for a series to scare us even more during these times.

And I am sadly disappointed in this series. Reviews reported disjointed story telling which does, in my opinion, seriously damage the impact of King's pandemic story. Wasted and pointless embellishment of main characters or decreased presence of main characters also seems to have impacted on the series negatively.

I feel like an opportunity to rework the novel into a great screenplay has been lost. All the horrifying stuff of the novel has gone, and all i see is a lackluster attempt to cash in on a current world problem when this series could have been fantastic. Even throwing in a Skarsgård doesn't help.

Anyone else watched it??

No I haven't, but as a SK fan, I must say that the vast majority of movies made from his books are rubbish. No one seems to be able to create anything that demonstrates the level of detail and creativity that his books have.

Have to (mostly) agree. It makes the mini series look pretty damned great actually, and there were some hammy aspects of that I found annoying.

Not all of the actors are bad. The ones I find acceptable when compared with the mini series are:

Stu, Tom Cullen, Flagg, Harold Lauder, Mother Abigail, Julie Lawry

Average: Larry Underwood, Dayna Jurgens, Glen Bateman

Not anything like as good: Nick Andros, Frannie, Nadine. Really bringing it down. In the mini series I was fully behind all three. In this one I don't care if they die now.

I agree they are stuffing around with things to a negative effect. The Las Vegas was much more like I pictured though when reading the book. Like, why should I care about Joe? I really don't.

And that's the major problem - the only character I care about at this point is Stu. The rest seem to have lost their charm.

No I haven't, but as a SK fan, I must say that the vast majority of movies made from his books are rubbish. No one seems to be able to create anything that demonstrates the level of detail and creativity that his books have.

Try Mr Mercedes. Not a bad effort.

Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me are examples of where King's story has been able to be told, Misery was not too bad.

Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me are examples of where King's story has been able to be told, Misery was not too bad.

Yes!! I agree. Shawshank is my favourite movie ever.

This is not getting any better. I actually have no idea why they bothered to make it.

I'm kind of enjoying it. But also kind of not. It could have been so much better.

I've only seen about 3 episodes and lost interest.

Another good Stephen King movie "The Mist". Not the series though. That was beyond terrible.

I've only seen about 3 episodes and lost interest.

Another good Stephen King movie "The Mist". Not the series though. That was beyond terrible.

[spoil]It was a grim ending compared to the book! I agree the series was trash.[/spoil]

DH and I are both big Stephen King fans , with The Stand as one of our favourites.

I agree , the series could’ve been so much better . It’s not terrible , but the only reason why we’re watching is because we loved the book so much . If I had never read the book, I would’ve lost interest before the end of episode 1.

Totally agree about The Mist . I really enjoyed that movie . And of course loved Shawshank. Misery was another awesome one - Kathy Bates was perfect for the role. Sadly , I haven’t seen any other on screen adaptations of Stephen King material that I thought did the book any justice . Doctor Sleep being a prime example.

Actually , how could I forget The Shining - that was very good. Mainly due to Jack Nicholson

I binged watched over the weekend, waiting for the latest..

I'm not a fan of remakes, ( I just crucified Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly recently). I did want to watch this,. I knew it wouldn't be the best, it has pretty bad reviews

My problem is I look at the actors playing the characters in the original then I pick them apart.

And just to make it worse, I watched Part 1 of the 1994 series on you tube on sunday.

Nobody is Nick apart from Rob Lowe. Lloyd Heinreid in the new one is a joke.

Frannie is ok, Nadine forget it. Tom Cullen nope.

Larry Underwood nope. Harold is ok in the new one.

Some of the new actors are hit and miss.

Randall Flagg isn't even a bit scary, only the original will do here.

And I was not ready to even accept another Stu Redman apart from Gary Sinese, but James Marsden is pretty good. I tried not to be biased as I like the actor.

The original was not exactly oscars material, but so much better in my eyes.

But I am glad I've watched it so far.

Again... not up to date

My fav character is Harold, I think the actor is doing a marvelous job.

Again... not up to date

My fav character is Harold, I think the actor is doing a marvelous job.

He is excellent in the show Bloodline on Netflix - he plays Ben Mendelsohn’s son.

It is pretty disappointing compared to the book. The level of detail in the book is just astounding. I reckon it's been 25 years since I read it and I still remember so much of it.

I definitely think the back and forth timeline is annoying. What's wrong with starting a story at the beginning?

It is pretty disappointing compared to the book. The level of detail in the book is just astounding. I reckon it's been 25 years since I read it and I still remember so much of it.

I definitely think the back and forth timeline is annoying. What's wrong with starting a story at the beginning?

a bit OT but I hate when books and tv/film do this, surely there is a start, middle and end why the need for end, start, end, middle or whatever

It is pretty disappointing compared to the book. The level of detail in the book is just astounding. I reckon it's been 25 years since I read it and I still remember so much of it.

I definitely think the back and forth timeline is annoying. What's wrong with starting a story at the beginning?

 

a bit OT but I hate when books and tv/film do this, surely there is a start, middle and end why the need for end, start, end, middle or whatever

If a book is written that way I'm ok with it, but the problem with adapting a book that had a normal linear narrative into a show or film that doesn't is that it was written that way for a reason! In the Stand there is a LOT of character development as you go, and several very long reveals, and he obviously did it that way for a reason.

Something like the Handmaid's Tale it works quite well.

[mention]Seayork2002[/mention] I agree, remember when the TV series Lost started jumping around timelines - that’s when Lost lost me

I really don't like Frannie in this series. In the original, Molly Ringwald was so sweet and likeable that you could really get down with Harold being obsessed and the instalove with Stu, but this girl is boring, sullen and unlikeable. I have trouble imagining anyone falling for her with any kind of speed.

Same with Nadine. She's attractive and blonde, but nothing beyond the physical. Nadine in the original was beautiful and obviously vulnerable and sort of compelling. This one is offputting.

With Nick, I thought he looked right, but oh my god, what a waste. They did NOTHING with him. Maybe he wasn't much of an actor either. Rob Lowe killed it.

The actress that plays Frannie is Australian surprisingly!

Again... not up to date

My fav character is Harold, I think the actor is doing a marvelous job.

So do I..

I really like the actor who plays Harold so I'm somewhat biased. He did do a great job though - he was as good or better than the original.

The thing I'm most disappointed about is Flagg. We have new tech now and the Flagg scenes could have been horrifying. I never found Eric Northman very scary and Flagg in this is not scary either. What a waste, of a decent actor and modern technology.

Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail also doesn’t do it for me .

And the zero character development for Nick - yup, what the ?? I feel like Dayna Jergens was more a central character than him