I’ve been focusing more on movie reviews this summer since so many series are off for the season (cable excluded), and because my time has been a little scarce to the point that it’s really tough to find time to write those TV recaps as often as I watch the shows. But, I think it’s fair to do premieres and finales, so here’s one from CBS.
Under the Dome
Yes, I read the book. No, I’m not disappointed. I read the book a couple years ago, and I certainly didn’t memorize it, so I wasn’t really expecting to remember much more than the general story as I watched it brought to life on a primetime miniseries.
But, as I tuned in Monday night, I was surprised at how spot on certain moments were in the show as compared to the book. Little things that I wouldn’t remember offhand were suddenly there, in color, just as I had imagined the scene when I read the book. The cow being split in two, Barbie and Julia walking along the dome’s boundary through the woods, even the seizures that the children are having was all exactly as I remember from the book.
Hats off to the casting department, as well. I knew Dean Norris (Big Jim) and Mike Vogel (Dale “Barbie” Barbara) were perfect choices, but I was a little hesitant about Rachelle Lefevre, whom I haven’t seen in many things. She’s definitely got the attitude down for Julia Shumway, but I expected her to be older, closer to 40 than 30, and her voice does have a bit of a grating sound to me, but maybe that’s as it should be.
A few nice surprises were Alexander Koch as Junior Rennie–one episode in and he’s definitely got the crazy down–and Aisha Hinds as Carolyn Hill. I don’t remember her character in the book, but I love watching her in just about anything.
Small sidenote: I LOVE that Mike Vogel finally gets a main character role! This guy is great, and I think Barbie is the role of a lifetime, as far as TV acting is concerned, so good luck to him, and I look forward to seeing plenty more of him over the coming weeks!
I really like how they brought the views from both inside and outside the dome. Obviously, most of the action occurs inside the dome among those characters and the focus is on them, but I think it helps the story to give a little narration and a little perspective from outside the dome as well.
Honestly, I don’t consider Under the Dome to be one of King’s best, it was a little confusing and had WAY too many characters for that, which is probably why it was so freakin’ heavy, and I wasn’t really left satisfied with the ending. I liked it, but it’s not The Shining, let’s say that.
As to the miniseries, I think they’re doing a wonderful job with it so far. They’ve been promoting it like crazy the past few months on Facebook (probably Twitter too, but I’ve mostly been seeing the videos and articles and casting announcements, etc. on FB), and I think they probably gathered together a pretty good sized audience for it. It’s a fun story, and I think it will work beautifully as a mini-series. (Anybody who tried to tame that beast of a book into a 2.5 hour film would be in over their heads.)
Episode one down, and I’m ready for another next week!
QUICK recaps on a couple new shows:
Mistresses
Skip it. Plenty of pretty people, but slow, predictable, and the characters are very unsympathetic.
Devious Maids
Surprisingly fun. It’s a guilty pleasure type of show, but so are most things you’ll find on the Lifetime Channel. It’s heavily slanted to the maids’ POVs, who are all Latina, and while that makes it a little stereotypical (both of the maids and the rich white people they work for), it’s still fun if you’re looking for something to replace Mad Men in your Sunday night time slot.
Up next:
I’ve got a new review posting Wednesday for the new film, Now You See Me, and there’ll be another episode of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon next Sunday. In the meantime, I’ll be watching Franklin and Bash, Burn Notice, and Graceland this week, but I can’t promise any recaps. I’m going to be moving web hosts soon (for my self-hosted blogs), so that’s going to take some prep time, and I’ve got quite a few other things on the to-do list as well.
I really want to talk about the Mad Men season finale, too, but again, my time is getting away from me, so it may be a week or more before I can get to it.
I’m still hoping to see a few new movies soon, too, but money and time are keeping me from it at the moment. Hoping to get out at least for World War Z and or The Bling Ring this weekend, but again, we’ll have to see.
In any case, I’ll be hitting the theaters next week over the holiday for Despicable Me 2 and The Lone Ranger!
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