The Mist

The pilot is an emotional roller-coaster. At first you are amused with how bad the writing is, but then you get angry at how bad the writing is. And then it's funny again because you realize it must be a parody. In case the title was not self-evident, this show is about a mist. The mist is coming and it will kill you with the most absurd amalgam of bad acting, bad writing and a tasteless soup of sociopolitical stereotypes. However, I was slightly entertained at how stupid it all was. So I give it a 3.

Title says is all. Modern day series can be as boring as watching water before it boils. And just when you think it will boil, someone shuts down cooking stove.

This suffers from the same problem as a lot of Stephen King adaptations, in that it's very low budget. It's an expected result of his novels being available for use in movies and television series basically for free, since the same people who can't afford special effects or a good filming crew are also going to be attracted to the low cost of basing their work on his novels.

So yes, the effects, shooting, and editing are generally of poor quality. If you go into it expecting it to look like something that enthusiastic drama club kids from high school would put together, you won't be disappointed. The casting and acting is surprisingly good. The dialogue isn't bad.

The script deviates a lot from the book. In some ways that's a good thing, because the book was written 37 years ago, and elements from it would not have made sense in a modern series. It's also an improvement that there's more than one band of survivors in a single location. Changing the lead character's young son into a teenage daughter is also an improvement - while having the little kid to protect gives the protagonist an automatic moral high ground, he would have been annoying in a movie.

Some are criticizing the social themes, but those themes are very much in keeping with Stephen King's general work. He is all about small town dysfunction, hypocrisy, and even insanity. So I don't think the various issues regarding sexuality and bullying are even slightly out of place, even if they obviously weren't a focus of the novel.

But there are a few changes that don't work as well. Why does this small town have a huge indoor mall? How can the mist both be mysteriously related to a nearby army base, but also have happened 150 years ago? And they may have made a mistake in transforming the mist from a straight-forward mist with lots of monsters, into something that has a bit of a life of its own and seems to hold personal delusions which other people can see and hear. The Arrowhead guys are also completely lacking any subtlety, and appear to be extremely stupid. Some of their actions are undoubtedly intended to make the situation seem more serious, but since their characters have no substance, they come of as daft and impulsive instead.

But ultimately I'm going to keep watching it, and I hope there's a second season. It would be interesting to see where or when (or if) the mist ends, what's up at Arrowhead, who the amnesiac really is, and if everyone gets what they deserve.

In The Mist we get to know a small American town in which everyone seems to want to come across as incompetent, over-reactive, small-minded, humorless but above all very unfriendly. Everyone seems to hate each other, and the few people who form the exception, the people who do not constantly act like an idiot, and thus with whom I could best identify, are also the first to die (already in episode 1). This phenomenon is increasingly seen in drama series. At the The Walking Dead I decided to discontinue watching after three seasons (I was ultimately in favor of the zombies, which is not the maker's intention I assume). What makes The Mist even easier to dismiss are the worthless special effects and terrible acting. If you make a television show that is located in a thick layer of mist, you want to make sure that the fog looks like a fog. I suspect the makers were trapped inside their own cloud of incompetence.

Shows like The Mist and The Walking Dead are based on a very simple premise of threat (usually super/bio/natural) and the need for survival as a group in challenging circumstances. These shows can pull in good audiences, but it is impressive how frequently this simple premise cannot be executed boldly and instead runs off into a series of sub-plots that detract from the core premise until the core premise is lost. The Mist suffers this fate.

First, the premise is sound enough. The simplicity of the idea is its great attraction. The problem with this show is, like TWD the premise becomes secondary to the sub-plots and poor character decisions that then consume the show.

So, Stephen King penned 'The Mist' - it's an alternate take on 'The Fog' just taking the concept in a different direction. In this envisioning the Mist descends on a small town in the US cutting of communication and isolating the town. Within the realms of this genre, this is a suitable plot that comes with full license for the associated suspension of disbelief.

We have a good set. The weakness then is the lack of courage to execute on the core premise, instead drifting into the sub plots of the various irrational characters. If this show had been given the benefit of stronger oversight of the storyline this might not have led to the shows demise and could with the right writing have seen additional seasons tagged on.

When a writer must fall back on the stupidity of characters to carry the story then you know the series is in trouble. Even B movies fans like intelligent characters in B movies.

The Mist is a missed opportunity - a show that should have had a stronger tighter focus on the core plot. Less silly character sub plots. A clearer definition of what it was and a willingness to stay true to that.

I believe there is still very much a market for this type of a show - if only writers of sufficient quality could be found to build the episodes that build ON the core premise, not away from it.