Under the Dome

[Avilan the Grey]

...I know nothing about this one, I just saw the trailers and concluded that I cannot take the concept seriously.
Not only because of the Simpsons movie, but mostly because of it :smalltongue:

Anybody watched it? Opinions?

[Tyndmyr]

It's existed before Simpsons. Pretty sure I've read at least one 60s/70s era sci fi novel with the same basic premise.

The show's decent so far. Not perfect, but fairly watchable, as the chars don't usually descend into stupidity or the like. Definitely brings up some fun "what if" questions, too.

[Serpentine]

King had already started writing the book when the Simpsons Movie came out. I gather he was substantially put out.

I started reading the book last year, but I ended up putting it down. Not because it was particularly bad or anything, but just because there was that character. That character that's in so many of King's books. The one that you just know from the start is gonna go power-mad and try to take over everything and manipulate people and send everyone into a frenzy and ruin everything forever until finally, eventually, they get their just desserts. At the point I started reading it, I just couldn't handle wading through That Character being a jerk for a whole - very large - book, so I put it off.
I can handle watching that character on TV a lot better, I think. Although apparently they did make quite a few changes.

Anyways... I'm enjoying the show well enough.

[Avilan the Grey]

Oh.
It's based on something King wrote? As in Stephen King?
Forget I asked then.


...EPA! EPA! EEEPAAAA!!!

:smallwink::smallbiggrin:

[Kitten Champion]

Under the Dome was my guilty pleasure summer entertainment.

It's silliness personified, and if you're okay with that, I endorse it completely.

[Avilan the Grey]

Under the Dome was my guilty pleasure summer entertainment.

It's silliness personified, and if you're okay with that, I endorse it completely.

Does it end like the book? (I just googled it, and it is very much a standard King thing, idiot balls, pointless deaths, cruelty and stupid resolution). Quite frankly I cannot see how making a TV series from the book would work, at all.

I predict the TV series went: "Really Interesting first 1-2 episodes" and then sliding into stupid country and by the end just pointless deaths "because that's awful" and no explanation to why, at all.

[Kato]

I got the book as a present so I read it. It's... yeah, it's what you expect from most King books. Really, about no surprise except maybe a little curiosity who is not going to die more or less brutally and what the stupid reveal at the end will be.

I don't feel too motivated to have a look at the show based on the book even if it is decently made and I can't recall every little thing that happened.


The scenario itself is pretty old, yeah, but I never saw anything that handled it in a serious and well-made fashion which is kind of a shame, really.

[Killer Angel]

It's that kind of thing that, IMO, works for a short series.
A series of 13 episodes? it starts to be too long, and a follow-up is decisely too much a stretch.

[Lorsa]

I haven't seen it myself, but based on what a friend of mine said (who's computer I'm writing this from), the show is almost so bad that it bounces back up to being good again. Just not really. So I am probably going to stay away from it.

[MikelaC1]

Not only too long, but another stupid summer series that ends with a cliff hanger. Seriously, the TV cliff hanger idea is way overdone (thanks to Dallas) and when you have to wait 9 months for resolution (if the series is even picked up and no guarantee on that) its a pain.

[Cristo Meyers]

King had already started writing the book when the Simpsons Movie came out. I gather he was substantially put out.

I started reading the book last year, but I ended up putting it down. Not because it was particularly bad or anything, but just because there was that character. That character that's in so many of King's books. The one that you just know from the start is gonna go power-mad and try to take over everything and manipulate people and send everyone into a frenzy and ruin everything forever until finally, eventually, they get their just desserts. At the point I started reading it, I just couldn't handle wading through That Character being a jerk for a whole - very large - book, so I put it off.
I can handle watching that character on TV a lot better, I think. Although apparently they did make quite a few changes.

Anyways... I'm enjoying the show well enough.

You made the correct choice regarding the book, because you pretty much just described the whole read. Though I'd argue that "That Character" isn't limited to King, but he does seem inordinately fond of it...

I remember describing reading Under the Dome to a friend as "watching the protagonists get steamrolled by the villain time and time again and wishing everyone in the damn town would die in a fire..."

...and then they did.

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually a huge fan of Stephen King. I just finished Bag of Bones not too long ago. But Under the Dome just felt like an exercise in watching some kid torture an ant farm (which was, admittedly, kinda the point).

[Avilan the Grey]

...and then they did.

...Which is one of the reasons of my "...why make a TV series about this?" question.

[Cristo Meyers]

...Which is one of the reasons of my "...why make a TV series about this?" question.

Summer Doldrums + "...by Stephen King" = profit?

[Kitten Champion]

Does it end like the book? (I just googled it, and it is very much a standard King thing, idiot balls, pointless deaths, cruelty and stupid resolution). Quite frankly I cannot see how making a TV series from the book would work, at all.

I predict the TV series went: "Really Interesting first 1-2 episodes" and then sliding into stupid country and by the end just pointless deaths "because that's awful" and no explanation to why, at all.

It hasn't ended, for some reason they decided to make a 2nd season, which baffles me to no end. There's not enough basic material here for what I've already seen, they inserted a lot of crap to keep the show going.

And no, it doesn't work, it's in the "so bad, it's good" area for me. The pilot episode and a bit where you see the dome appear is realistically the best part, and that's mostly because of the CGI which was really well done.

The concept is interesting, I've seen Outer Limits which did it much better though and in 44 minutes.

[Equinox]

I didn't like the show. Seems they're cramming too much superfluous material. The second half of the season started at some point like The Benny Hill Show, you know, with everyone chasing everyone pointlessly. The ending cliffhanger, I thought, was poorly done as well.

[Killer Angel]

King had already started writing the book when the Simpsons Movie came out. I gather he was substantially put out.

I started reading the book last year, but I ended up putting it down. Not because it was particularly bad or anything, but just because there was that character. That character that's in so many of King's books.

A little OT, but this is one of the reasons I like more King's short novels.

[MikelaC1]

The pilot episode and a bit where you see the dome appear is realistically the best part, and that's mostly because of the CGI which was really well done.

The cow getting cut completely in half always made me laugh.

[Avilan the Grey]

It hasn't ended, for some reason they decided to make a 2nd season, which baffles me to no end. There's not enough basic material here for what I've already seen, they inserted a lot of crap to keep the show going.

And no, it doesn't work, it's in the "so bad, it's good" area for me. The pilot episode and a bit where you see the dome appear is realistically the best part, and that's mostly because of the CGI which was really well done.

The concept is interesting, I've seen Outer Limits which did it much better though and in 44 minutes.

Well, I guess my gut feeling was right about this one then :smallbiggrin:.

[Tyndmyr]

I consider it generally enjoyable, but then, I haven't read the book. Maybe that's for the best in this case(I've always felt let down by King's endings).

There was at least one moment of "WTF", tho. That part where a new char suddenly appears halfway through the season and is set up as being powerful as hell...yeah. That makes no sense. You're in a dome. People aren't coming and going, that's the whole point. They gave her some throwaway line about being busy, but that doesn't justify it. Busy doing what? It's clear that her method of getting things done involves making other people do them for her. Why didn't we see any of that?

[Avilan the Grey]

I consider it generally enjoyable, but then, I haven't read the book. Maybe that's for the best in this case(I've always felt let down by King's endings).

There was at least one moment of "WTF", tho. That part where a new char suddenly appears halfway through the season and is set up as being powerful as hell...yeah. That makes no sense. You're in a dome. People aren't coming and going, that's the whole point. They gave her some throwaway line about being busy, but that doesn't justify it. Busy doing what? It's clear that her method of getting things done involves making other people do them for her. Why didn't we see any of that?

Warning: Book spoiler of sorts. Do not open if you haven't read the book or want to be kept in the dark for the series
...Because the beings playing with the ant farm felt like putting in a spider with the ants just to see what would happen? Of course then there should be mentions of how he suddenly teleported in...

[Serpentine]

Cristo: Was that spoiler for the book for the movie? Don't mind a book spoiler, but don't wanna see a show one.

A little OT, but this is one of the reasons I like more King's short novels.Yeah, I like my horror (and most sci-fi) in short form more.

I'm actually really enjoying the show...

[Black Jester]

I usually enjoy King's novels. They aren't all masterworks or anything, but most of his works are genuinely entertaining and interesting enough to keep my attention. I read under the dome when it came out and enjoyed the book a lot. As such, I was mildly interested in the TV adaptation, because, well I liked the book and from time to time, there is the rare adaptation of King that doesn't suck (Well, there was Shining. And Stand By me. And the Fog). After watching the first three or four episodes, I wasn't thoroughly disappointed, but the high degree of change to make the source material softer and lighter (which as almost always means "duller, more boring and more contrived") to appease the more general audience and to avoid any political controversies basically killed my interest in the show.

[Avilan the Grey]

Well, there was Shining. And Stand By me.

The FIRST Shining. The one King hated. So he made the new one that sucked.

As for Stand By Me... Am I the only one that likes his non-horror stories so much more?

[Killer Angel]

As for Stand By Me... Am I the only one that likes his non-horror stories so much more?

No, you're not.
Stand By Me is a masterpiece; anyone who disagree, will be fed to the Tommyknockers.

[Black Jester]

When it comes to The Shining, well the 1979 movie is not so much Steven King's work but Stanley Kubrick's. Kubrick took the source material and genuinely made it his own. If it were a cover song it would be the equivalent to Hendrix' Watchtower or Cash's hurt. I can understand why this didn't pleased King that much.
I think that King is at his best when he tries to tell a more narrow story. As an author he dearly loves his sideplots (especially flashbacks) and side characters who do little to nothing to forward the actual plot but establish the atmosphere (in Under the Dome there are at least two passages told from the perspective of the journalist's dog), and that can be cumbersome and lead to the story and character bloat. I like that - it gives the tales a feeling of being part of a larger world and adds a lot of depth to the tales - but it can be tiresome. Still, as a roleplaying enthusiast, I appreciate his world-building qualities.
But whenever King focuses on only one or two characters, and become more focused, most of his tales become genuinely good. And usually a lot shorter.

But yes, Different Seasons, his mostly supernatural-free collection of novellas is pretty much the best King has written so far. Stand By Me is great, Shawshank Redemption is great, Apt Pupil is a lot more scary than most of his supernatural horrors, and while Breathing Technique is not up to that standard, it is at least relatively short.

I am also not sure if King suffers from a) the fact that he is basically an author of genre fiction (and we all know that genre fiction isn't "real literature" after all) and a genuine case of hype backlash, based on his popularity.

[Mono Vertigo]

As for Stand By Me... Am I the only one that likes his non-horror stories so much more?

Nope, I too prefer his non-horror stories. He's definitely at his best when the supernatural takes a backseat (and I'd count The Green Mile among such stories, as what little horror it contains is definitely driven by very mundane humans who don't need any help from the supernatural to do it). Or when he doesn't need more than 50 pages to write about supernatural horror. (The Mist was a good story, however, despite the presence of yet another power-mad fanatic.)
And mentioning The Green Mile reminds me of Michael Clarke Duncan and now I'm sad again. :smallfrown:

[Kato]

I've only read it when I was a teenager but "Gerald's Game" was quite a disturbing "real horror" story to me...
I need to read more of his non-horror books, though, I guess.

[Cristo Meyers]

Cristo: Was that spoiler for the book for the movie? Don't mind a book spoiler, but don't wanna see a show one.


Sorry, it's a book spoiler. I've never watched the show and the book really didn't leave me with any desire to do so, either.


I am also not sure if King suffers from a) the fact that he is basically an author of genre fiction (and we all know that genre fiction isn't "real literature" after all) and a genuine case of hype backlash, based on his popularity.

Hell, I'd say King almost revels in his genre-fiction status. Nothing I've read from him (On Writing, mostly) has ever indicated that he's ever been even slightly bothered by it.

[Tyndmyr]

Read the spoiler, and that definitely has not occured in the show.

I prefer not to get any more detailed than my post above for spoiler reasons, but it does indeed brush the whole thing off with a throwaway line. Overall, the show is surprisingly solid, though.

[Seerow]

But yes, Different Seasons, his mostly supernatural-free collection of novellas is pretty much the best King has written so far. Stand By Me is great, Shawshank Redemption is great, Apt Pupil is a lot more scary than most of his supernatural horrors, and while Breathing Technique is not up to that standard, it is at least relatively short.


Agreed, Different Seasons is by far my favorite King book. Of the others I've read, I liked Desperation and Pet Semetary.

[MLai]

After reading all the criticisms of this thread, I almost decided not to watch this series. But the premise intrigued me.
I told myself "As soon as I notice the show starting to suck, I'll stop watching."
I'm currently finished with eps. 8 of 13, and loving the series so far.
I've seen other King TV series and movies; I know how his stories generally go and I know what you mean when you list off the common tropes found in King stories. I think it's not that bad in this series.
TV critics have said the first 1/2 is riveting TV, but it becomes bad later on.... well, I'm still waiting for it to suck. Maybe the last 5 eps?

[Avilan the Grey]

Okay, just had a crazy urge to sing "Under The Dome" to the tune of "Under The Sea" with Sebastian's happy voice...

[MLai]

Just watched eps. 9 of 13. Looks like this is the eps where Hollywood script interns took the reins away from Stephen King's novel, and started writing their own fanfiction to stretch this into 2 season. The sudden drop in quality and style is precipitous. I'm saddened; up until this eps I was really enjoying this series. :smallfrown:

1. Stupid inserted Villain Sue character suddenly pops up and upstages everybody. After just 5 minutes, I'm yelling at the screen for the Stephen King characters to just shoot her so we can go back to the good story.

2. Everybody suddenly starts acting out of character. The interns obviously have different ideas about how King's novel should go, because character arcs are so suddenly dropped or reversed it defies belief. And suddenly everyone is scenery-chewing with endless trite dialogue like this suddenly turned into a daytime soap opera.