Under the Dome

I watched all seasons, season 1 was nice. The pace was very slow, but on the edge of tolerable. You could compare it with Lost. The progression of the episodes was logical, how about air, food, water etc? Then season 2 came, some key players disappeared and the book of tricks was necessary to fill in the gaps. This decision did the story not much good. Than season 3 appeared, broke with the first seasons by introducing some sf nonsense and the burden of a artificial created memory. The biggest fail in season 3 however is the introduction of new characters that impossible could have been there all the time. This mixed with the by now stupid story makes you want to skip this series as soon as possible. My advise, watch season 1, try 2 and stop then.

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.

I the series gets a 6 because it started out pretty good, but is barely hanging on in my opinion. I'm an avid Stephen King reader, but had not read this book yet. After 5 or 6 episodes, the story seemed to have too many side plots that didn't seem to have anything to do with the main plot of how the dome came about so bought the book (2 part) and couldn't put it down. I only occasionally watch the series since reading the book - mainly out of curiosity to see how it is progressing. I just can't see how they will drag e series on for more than another season and keep the viewer's interest, especially with the slow pace and all the time spent on side plots. This should have been a three or four part mini-series like what was done with King's "The Stand." I enjoyed that book AND the mini-series.

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.