Golden Years

I got this as part of a dvd collection back in 2023, a point in time in which no one buys dvds anymore but I am a staunch supporter and avid fan of physical media. I had seen the rest of the collection before but I never had the chance to see this, so I remember watching it and fast forward to 2025, I had no recollection of it.

If only I had stayed that way.

The miniseries is just pointless. You start off with a decent story that melts into convoluted and unexplained hokum that doesn't really make a comment or tell a story. The characters are sympathetic at first but after the first 3 episodes, you lose interest in either their motives or their character arcs, since the actors seem to forget their reasoning for why they are playing that character.

Harlan Williams was commendably played but the makeup and the soft spoken passive aggressiveness felt rather unconvincing. His wife Gina felt genuine but her meddling, obnoxious nagging and her hard headed naiveté wore thin quickly and you lose interest in caring for her. Terry Spann was played by 2 different actresses, apparently, and it loses the sex appeal the character once thrusted into the series. General Crewes is first seen as sternly dull but evolves into comic relief by the third act of this with no actual resolve. The mad scientist Toddhunter was just despicable and utterly insufferable since he showed up onscreen and never lost that charm, but then again, he acted just like you would expect a man to, if he were named "Toddhunter". I don't know why Stephen Root is in this and I don't care to know, considering that he plays a conniving yet pusillanimous military major, both of which aren't really his best impersonations. The only character to actually make this interesting was the project's antagonist by the name of Andrews. He plays a rather convincing figure who is sent to eliminate the potential investigators or whistleblowers that kickstart the story's premise.

Some of these characters hit their mark and some never did. Most notable, the heinous scientist who caused all this trouble, only to be given some shoddy backstory regarding his controlling or overbearing father and then disappearing right before the miniseries' attempt at a climax.

The original run had an ending that was meant to signify the beginning of an actual tv series but failed to garner any viewer investment and was dropped.

Thus, we get a dvd release of it, with an alternate ending that seems to literally vanish into thin air and leave everything without an actual explanation after making us spend 4 fricking hours trying to put it all together. It didn't work back when it came out, didn't work when I first saw it and after trying to rewatch it this time around.

The ultimate irony of it is that I've said more in my review about it than anything the miniseries attempted to say about it in its entire length. I wish I could like this just for the sake of it being the work of Stephen King but it is probably one of his weaker entries and one of his greatest misses. My only hope is that in writing this in 2025, someone who is hard up for remaking worthless drivel, reads this review and leaves this one alone.

We don't ever need a remake or reboot of Stephen King's "Golden Years".

Ever.

"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.

DVD version: A SciFi movie with a truly original premise and glimpses of real people.

I've not really enjoyed a Stephen King horror movie since Firestarter. Just so you know my bias I like Stephen King horror books but not his horror movies. I do enjoy his non-horror films. Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, Apt Pupil, The Green Mile, and Dead Zone (both TV show and movie).

Golden Years is on the slow side, as is to some extent every movie I listed above. Golden Years succeeds like the above movies when it explorers characters in ways we are not used to exploring them.

Golden Years is about relationships, about the love and relationship of an elderly couple. Rarely in any movie or book do we see two characters this rich a history and depth of love. The action in Golden Years is not a lab experiment gone wrong, it is about the world of two people suddenly shaken to its foundation as they both come to realize that they have no control over their future. Golden Years is the story about the fear of leaving someone behind and the story of being afraid of being left behind.

The movie works well when the characters are connecting, unfortunatly not all the characters connect well. All in all there is much to be admired here. All in all this is simply a made for TV mini-series of the type often slapped together in the 80s-early 90s.

Both the TV version and Video version are greatly flawed due to rather odd editing choices. The ending of all three versions is still a bit weak, due I suspect to the last two episodes being written by Josef Anderson. The old age makeup for the lead character Harlen Williams leaves a lot to be desired and is often just plain distracting.

I am saddened that Stephen King feels he doesn't have anything to write about any more. Golden Years deserves to have many of its ideas fully realized in a novel.

This dramatisation is on the whole a good one. Albeit with a weak ending. A reasonable cast help to flesh out this tale of an ordinary (well more or less) man trying to outrun the all powerful authorities. Personally, I sank into this dramatisation like an old pair of slippers. It felt comforting. I appreciate Stephen King for his sympathetic characters and plausible relationships. Once again Kingdeftly demonstrates his exceptional talent for characterisation and human interplay. It may now be a little dated but is still worth a look. Don't be put off by the last review. If you can see past King's title of "Horror" writer (he is worthy of much more) then you will appreciate this.