The Stand

Maybe I'm the target audience for this current adaptation of The Stand. I didn't read the book and didn't see the 1994 mini series so I watched it with no preconceived biases. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it based on the awful reviews. Yeah, none of the actors are going to win an emmy and it seemed to bounce around a bit so there were times I was confused but I just kept watching and everything fell into place eventually. The storyline was good, not great, so I'm guessing the book was better, as many have pointed out. All in all, I'm glad I ignored the 1 star reviews and watched it. Maybe now I'll read the book and compare.

I don't like making comparisons, but I can't help it in this instance. The 1994 miniseries had it's flaws, but at least it stuck to the main themes of the book; the human beings as pawns in a game of good and evil, who they are and become. Only one episode left of the 2020 version and I feel nothing for any of the characters, simply because I don't know them.

It is based on a massive book, but the 1994 miniseries managed to create a cohesively evolving story and characters. And that in a 6 hour long series. This version has 9 hours and yet the story is so all over the place that so many things don't make sense anymore. As if the writers were puzzling and piecing, cutting and pasting, until they just gave up, rather than working until it made sense.

This version seems to hope it can get by on chock value, but it completely misses the point when turning New Vegas into a Sodom or Gomorrah, rather than a fascist state, for example.

It's a hot mess, and if you're too lazy to read the book, then watch the 1994 version instead.

Save yourself time and watch the original or read the book.

Too much flashing around, sideways, forwards, backwards.

Whoopi Goldberg and Alexander Skarsgård are terrible miscasts.

I personally loathe Whoopi Goldberg as an actress. She strikes me as a washed up hippie in every single role. Casting her here as Mother Abagail she lacks the necessary motherly qualities for the role and comes across as... a washed up hippie. She looks the role but it isn't her.

Alexander Skarsgård meanwhile... he just doesn't have the element for Flagg. He comes across as a boring guy that would be best cast as a ride along cop in a police movie. He's not in the right element here.

Most of the other characters are mostly OK, but not stand outs.

Now split this up into 1hr runtimes. It drags out an already long story longer. Without the elements of continuity due to the flashbacks and such it's less immersive.

Read the book watch the original. Don't waste the time here.

Why does everyone think they can rewrite King and make it better? I can't think of one time this worked out but they still insist on rewriting King just in case THEIR version is better. It isn't. I'm 15 minutes in on episode one and it's a confused mess. I know the novel well and read both the abridged and unabridged version. There's an ocean of material to work with so if you're tossing it all and making up your own story it's pure ego! And I might say it isn;t a tenth as good. I doubt I'll watch anymore. I'm expending too much energy trying to untangle their mess with my memories of the novels. The original mini series sucked but at least they vaguely followed the story! Why pay a fortune for King rights then rewrite the story??? All they care about is a sellable name, they don;t even want his story, they just want his name and a concept then they'll write their own script that won;t be a tenth as good as if they followed the novel but hey, they got their ego stroked and people will still watch it even if it's incoherent garbage.

It's a nine part TV adaptation of the Stephen King novel of good versus evil. It's not any better than the 1994 version. More money may have been spent but it's not better. The structure is more disjointed which leaves the characters less compelling. I don't like Whoopi Goldberg in this role. The last episode feels stretched out which leaves it without tension. After the climax, the series needs to end. It's an unnecessary update of this material. If it needs doing, it needs some better imagination to bring new life to the story.