Golden Years

When this series aired I watched most of it. I think it was supposed to be a long running series in the vein of "The Fugitive" and "The Incredible Hulk" where the protagonist is being chased around the country looking for a solution to his problems. In this case the hero's problem is his progressive aging in reverse. I liked what I saw of these shows. The acting was good especially the sorrowful relationship between the lead character and his wife. Problem is: They cancelled it before it had a chance to end. (either that or I missed the last episodes).

They never got a chance to wrap up the story either, knowing it had been cancelled. Poof it was just gone. However, like I said before I might have missed the last episodes. But my proof to the contrary is this: I rented the tape. Where I left off in the series. The lead character's wife dies in a fire started by a chase involving King's famous organization the Shop. While getting away hero is kidnapped. It ends with his friends realizing they have to go save him from the Shop. The end. Last episode. On the video: His wife does not die but escapes the fire with him. Right when he should get nabbed by the Shop, he and his wife share a weird moment then phase out of existence. Abrupt, silly and cheap to the extreme. They just wanted to put this video out and decided to tag on an ending not caring how bad it was. They might as well of just shown some stock footage of the first atomic bomb detonations. Almost Pythonesque.

The show did have a cool opening title sequence set to the David Bowie song of the same name

Stephen King is no stranger to television, both with adaptations of his work (from "Tales From The Darkside"'s version of 'Word Processor of the Gods' to the miniseries "The Stand") and original scripts (witness "Storm of the Century" and that episode of "The X-Files"). "Golden Years" was his first venture into television originals, and it certainly avoids the depths of "The Shining" (the Kubrick version, not the one with Rebecca DeMornay), but neither is it as effective as "The Dead Zone."

An elderly janitor (Keith Szarabajka in old-age makeup) is caught in an explosion at the plant where he works; he survives, but he soon starts to grow younger, and with his wife (Frances Sternhagen) he goes on the run from the people behind the plant... this blend of "Cocoon" and "The Fugitive" worked for the most part, with Szarabajka's rejuvenation a slow process instead of an overnight thing (by the end of the series he was still pretty old), and his pursuers (Ed Lauter, Felicity Huffman) weren't out-and-out villains. But the series blew it in the final episode, never producing a real finale - it just seemed to stop, leaving a distinct "That was IT?" impression.

Proof that it's never a good idea to rest on your Laurels.

What was Stephen King thinking writing this dull, derivative yawnfest? A really un-interesting four hours was made out of the simple story of a man caught in an explosion at a factory who starts to get younger, and the various agents of the government who chase him wanting to know what happened. The whole thing could have fitted into an hour, but no , we have to witness every long winded chase and escape plan, plus endlessly tedious scenes of no relevance concerning a completely over the top mad doctor, and un-funny comedy relief provided by an irritating general dogsbody character. To top it all, the thing doesn't even end-just sort of peters out to nothing-no payoff-zilch. Derivative and not worthy of Stephen King's normal high quality-avoid this like the plague. You'll be bored senseless if you watch it, and at 4 hours it is a criminal waste of time.

"Golden Years" is a 1991 series, based on Steven King's idea, for which most of the scenario he wrote personally. The first season consisted of 7 episodes in a total duration of about 6 hours and ended with cliffhanger. Unfortunately, from episode to episode series had weaker and weaker ratings, so it was canceled. For the purpose of DVD release it was turned into a film. It was shortened to 4 hours and an alternate ending was filmed, so it doesn't stay unfinished.

The idea is great, story and characters are developing well and it had the potential to be one of the better King's accomplishments. Unfortunately, it's not. The first hour is so slow and boring that I was on the verge of giving up. Later, the story becomes more and more exciting, and once you get yourself attached to the characters, 4 hours just fly by. Nevertheless, there is an omnipresent feeling that something is wrong. As much as they skillfully turned the six-hour season into a four-hour film, although I did not watch the original version, I always felt that something was missing. But all of this would not have a major impact on the overall impression if there wasn't for a catastrophically bad ending, which so obviously does not belong to this film-series that it's simply painful to see. The story develops for 4 hours in its slow but atmospheric natural pace, and then suddenly ends, as a knife cut, with the end that is forcefully sewn to where it doesn't fit.

However, I recommend King's fans to watch it anyway, as well as fans of the series "X-Files", because the film has an atmosphere very similar to this series, as well as a couple of joint actors that enhance this impression. All in all, I enjoyed it, but I would not watch it again.

6/10

I won't bother to list the cast, as others have done that. I will say that the cast was excellent, and did their jobs admirably.

I have not read "The Book", so I can't compare. The series as it stood, though, was rather good. That is, it had promise. I understand that the original intent was to make a full series but for reasons unknown it was cut short. The ending leaves much to be desired as it causes more questions than it answers. I would very much like to see a continuation of "Golden Years" to see where Mr. King intended to go with the story. I wish the Sci Fi channel would pick this show up and run it again. I have not seen it since the summer the Sci Fi channel premiered and they ran a number of short run shows.