Under the Dome

I'm not surprised by all the negative reviews. It's one of the most frustrating series I've ever watched, the premise is fantastic, a wonderfully clever plot, but after the first few episodes it seems to lose the plot completely. Series one was pretty decent I thought, watchable, Series two was more of the same, but felt a bit lethargic, Series three was an abomination, and shouldn't have been made, it totally lost the plot.

The acting was patchy, it started well, then seemed to go off the boil as it went on. I think had it been a single series, with a definite explanation it would have worked better, the usual criticisms with shows like Lost, Walking Dead etc is they milk them until they kill them, and have no choice but to cancel, sometimes less is more, in this case it would have been.

Interesting at the start, a few good bits, but way too many missed opportunities, all I can remember thinking was if I saw that cow once more I'd switch off, however I saw it through to the terrible conclusion.

A waste.

Soo... The first season was pretty good: entertaining, with and interesting topic and relatable characters. I taught that the problems of being under a dome could have been better exploded, but still, the first season was good. Then the second season came, and it was soooo good. I really truly love that season, it was so intense, action-packed and I had all the feels! So after the second season, my hopes were pretty up. When I started the third season, I was so sad the show was canceled... until I actually watched the third season. In it's last season, the show turns ridiculous, and so damn confusing; but not confusing in the good way, I mean confusing like: "I don't understand a sh¡t, let's go watch something else." And I just don't know why to build a good plot in two solid seasons, to throw it all to the trash in the third one. I think the writers were in drugs or something when they wrote the last season; otherwise, I don't see how they could screw it up so badly.

An invisible impenetrable dome descends upon the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine. The residents inside struggle to survive and discover the cause. Big Jim (Dean Norris) is the bully businessman trying to take charge. His son Junior is completely unstable. Julia Shumway (Rachelle Lefevre) is a local reporter who falls for mysterious Barbie (Mike Vogel). Norrie Calvert-Hill is the daughter of a lesbian couple who got caught while traveling through town.

This is a great premise from Stephen King. As long as it deals with the characters struggling with each other to survive, this TV show works great. When it tries to explain the dome, the show stumbles. Then it goes into that explanation where all those episode are fake memories. It's a bad move but the show couldn't write a good explanation anyways. It starts off as an 8 but it keeps sliding all the way to the end.

It is difficult to understand in this day and age, and given the author of the story and who its the progeny of (amblin and CBS)- that something like this could be ruined to the state of disrepair that the final transmitted version became. The book wasn't one of King's finest, but it was a good enough story, that looks like it was given to group of 6th grade kids as a community project to "improve." If I had seen this first I would never have read the book, so at least I got that right. I watched the series in growing disbelief at the dreadful story lines, the total revision of a decent plot and the turgid and often abysmal acting. Dean Norris isn't going to look back on this as his finest hour. It was like watching a train wreck, and being unable to turn away. Quite why anyone voted more than 3 for it astonishes me, its really, really bad. Please can it before it gets any worse.

On the whole, there was good pacing and narrative for Seasons 1 and 2. The slow unravelling of the storyline was enjoyable. The majority of the cast were well chosen and suited to their characters.

Season 3 was a let down. There really wasn't any complexity to the season 3 storyline, so trying to fill 13 episodes would have been difficult and that becomes obvious with long scenes, and scenes about nothing - some talking, some arguing and fighting, that adds nothing to the storyline, but does fill time.

Season 3 is at least six episodes too long- the entire season 3 storyline could have been revealed in eight episodes or less instead of 13 episodes.