Stephen King's The Stand on CBS All Access

[Schlosser85]

I'm not going to say that Skarsgard looks like my idea of Flagg brought to life, although I imagine I'll enjoy him in the role more than Sheridan. As far as smiling goes, though, I'm concerned less with Flagg smiling enough than with him serving as a representation of seductive evil, and in doing so feeling dangerous like he felt in the book. I mentioned Billy Hargrove, but Chris Hemsworth's character in Bad Times at the El Royale had that quality of being charismatic and at times even superficially nice, but you could still tell he was dangerous. I see Flagg as someone who some people would be drawn to but others would recognize as trouble right away, and that's not the easiest line to walk for an actor.

I don't know if Skarsgard can manage that, but ultimately I'd rather have a Flagg I can take seriously than one who just seems like a clown. Incidentally, I mentioned before (elsewhere?) that I liked Aaron Taylor-Johnson for the role, and that was before I saw him in Noctural Animals. He would be genuinely frightening as Flagg.

 

[souvlaki]

I'll be honest, this kind of looks like the 2020 equivalent of the 90's show. It has that similar cheap television look to it. Which is ironic given how far tv has come in production value. It's like we've come full circle.

Agree 100%. Getting serious 90's miniseries vibes from this which is incredibly disappointing. I liked it well enough back in the 90's, but there is really no point in a remake if there is not a huge leap in production quality over the original miniseries.

 

[Sawyer]

Ezra Miller reveals his wild top-secret role in Stephen King's 'The Stand'

 

[:eek:]

Take A Stand Around The World
Posted: December 3, 2020, 16:06:00
Section: TV » The Stand
OK, I’ve got some news about the airdates and how to watch The Stand outside the US.

As reported earlier The Stand will premier on December 17th in the US. The same day it will also premier in Sweden on HBO Nordic which means (when you calculate the time difference of 6 to 9 hours) that Sweden will actually air the show before the US. HBO Nordic will then continue with a new episode each Thursday (same as the US).

It has also been revealed (by ClubStephenKing) that Starzplay channel have revealed, through a press release, that they have bought the international rights and will air the show in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latin America, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom from Sunday January 3, 2021.



Copied from Lilja's Library: Lilja's Library - The World of Stephen King [1996 - 2020]

 

[:eek:]

Stephen King cameos and writes a new coda for limited series, The Stand (syfy.com)

 

[Persona]

Dang, this really comes out in a couple weeks?

Kinda lost track of it cuz the promo stuff has done little to get me hype. The aesthetic feels really off to me.

 

[:eek:]

10 Days Until The Stand Premiers
Posted: December 7, 2020, 16:31:47
Section: TV » The Stand

10 days until The Stand premiers and three things I wanted to make you aware of, things that have been reported differently from site to site.

1. There will be 9 episodes. Some sites say 10 and that was the plan but there will only be 9.

2. This version is based on the uncut version of the book. This is probably the case since they were going to include the character ”The Kid” who only appear in the uncut version.

3. The show will have a new ending. Well...there will be a continuation of the story. King wrote the last episode and is telling us what happened after the book ended. So not a new ending but a very interesting continuation of the book. Here is what creator Josh Boone say about it:

“King wrote us a lovely coda, which is sort of the story he’s wanted to tell for a long time that takes place immediately after The Stand that provides an additional resolution for Franny, who’s sort of not involved in the climax of the book, which I thought was really, really brilliant and a deeply moving script. I was so moved to get to go make it.”



Copied from Lilja's Library: Lilja's Library - The World of Stephen King [1996 - 2020]

 

[:eek:]

Some thoughts on the four first episodes:

Lilja's Library - The World of Stephen King [1996 - 2020] (liljas-library.com)

 

[Persona]

It's out.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Sad that this seems like a dud so far.

I'm waiting for all 9 episodes to be released and then just binge, but maybe a movie or a shorter series was a better way to go.

Or maybe, along with New Mutants, Josh Boone wasn't the guy to bring this to life.

 

[souvlaki]

Sad that this seems like a dud so far.

I'm waiting for all 9 episodes to be released and then just binge, but maybe a movie or a shorter series was a better way to go.

Or maybe, along with New Mutants, Josh Boone wasn't the guy to bring this to life.

No, a longer tv miniseries was definitely the right call for this. If this fails, it’s absolutely because Josh Boone and CBS All Access were the wrong choice. They should have got someone like Mike Flanagan, Frank Darabont or Cary Fukunaga to showrun this. All three are huge King fans and are far more capable of something of this scope than Josh Boone.

Either way, I will give this chance in a couple months when I can binge the entire thing. The Stand is one of my favorite books so even if it’s not great I’m sure I will get at least some enjoyment out of it.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I haven't watched the original tv-mini series in forever, but I thought the premiere for this was pretty solid and I'll definitely keep watching it to see where it goes. Honestly, though that's mostly because I won't have much else to watch since The Mandalorian Season 2 is going to be over soon anyways.

 

[Brother Jack]

I really dug the first episode. I was on the fence about the flashback structure, but I think it works for the character-driven episodic nature of what they're doing. How each episode is presumably only focusing on certain characters and chronicling their journeys pre and post-apocalypse. The editing supported this, and it had more of a cinematic aesthetic than I was expecting. Some really good performances too, especially from Owen Teague as Harold.

 

[Persona]

No, a longer tv miniseries was definitely the right call for this. If this fails, it’s absolutely because Josh Boone and CBS All Access were the wrong choice. They should have got someone like Mike Flanagan, Frank Darabont or Cary Fukunaga to showrun this.

Oh man, now you've got me dreaming of a Fukunaga version.

 

[Erik20]

The one thing I didn't like is how they kind of skipped over everyone dying... You just saw people getting sick, and then the next scene characters are talking about their families being dead.

I wouldn't say it's great, but I wasn't bored so I'll keep watching. I wonder if this will do well with the pandemic going on right now. I felt a bit uncomfortable with some of the early scenes, but after a while I "forgot" about everything going on in the real world and I could just focus on the show

 

[Persona]

Anyone bother to finish this? Is it worth the time?

 

[Eddie Dean]

I gave up

 

[Erik20]

Anyone bother to finish this? Is it worth the time?

I'm still watching. Like I already said it's not great, but it helps knowing it's going to have an ending and it's just one season. It kind of reminds me of those okay shows that aired 10/15 years ago, but were cancelled after one or two seasons, though they were still pretty enjoyable.

I do think this works better if you binge all the episodes because it is a bit slow at times.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I'm still watching it aswell and am actually enjoying it more so than I did the premiere. This would have definitely been a better show to binge all at once, but there's enough going on to hold my attention and I like alot of the actors they have brought in and IMO they have all been pretty solid in it so far.I also liike that this show definitely doesn't shy away from the brutal violence or the gore.

 

[Persona]

Oh wow, for some reason I didn't realize they were doing weekly release.

So few people are talking about it, I keep forgetting I can even watch it.

 

[Brother Jack]

The jury's still out whether the nonlinear structure of this was a good choice. I think it worked great in the first episode, but the following two have shown the limits and frustrations of using so many flashbacks layered on top of each other can bring. I want to judge the thing as a whole piece once it's over.

 

[DarkKnight88]

The fact that the biggest praise I hear is "enjoyable" is not what I want to hear for an adaptation of one of the greatest novels of all time. This should be one of the most talked about shows.

 

[Brother Jack]

The fact that the biggest praise I hear is "enjoyable" is not what I want to hear for an adaptation of one of the greatest novels of all time. This should be one of the most talked about shows.

For whatever reason this book has been a nightmare to adapt to screen. There's been a half a dozen failed attempts just in the last decade, and many more in the 40+ years since it was published. My dream for the book was always something like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, a film trilogy at the largest scale, but then I remember those films were veritable lightning in a bottle and it would perhaps be unrealistic to expect that. So I'm just glad this series got made at all, and I'm trying and mostly succeeding to enjoy it for what it is.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I watched the first episode the other day. Aside from a surprise cameo I wasn’t expecting, it was just bland. I think the problem here, like so many second attempts at adaptation, is that the series assumes the audience already knows aspects of the story and is telling it in a nonlinear way just to be different.

Thinking back to the original miniseries, I hadn’t read the book and knew almost nothing of the story. So when you see all these people dying around Stu and he’s sitting in his room totally fine, it’s shocking. Here, with the flash forward sequences, we can see that some people aren’t affected by the virus before we even get to that point. It’s a poor choice, IMO.

I also don’t think any of there performances are great. I usually like Marsden but he’s just kind of dull here. Franny is bland. Harold is trying, though maybe a bit too hard. Flagg seems a bit more interesting but I’ll have to watch more to see if he truly is, and I’m not sure I’m going to bother.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I watched the first episode the other day. Aside from a surprise cameo I wasn’t expecting, it was just bland. I think the problem here, like so many second attempts at adaptation, is that the series assumes the audience already knows aspects of the story and is telling it in a nonlinear way just to be different.

Thinking back to the original miniseries, I hadn’t read the book and knew almost nothing of the story. So when you see all these people dying around Stu and he’s sitting in his room totally fine, it’s shocking. Here, with the flash forward sequences, we can see that some people aren’t affected by the virus before we even get to that point. It’s a poor choice, IMO.

I also don’t think any of there performances are great. I usually like Marsden but he’s just kind of dull here. Franny is bland. Harold is trying, though maybe a bit too hard. Flagg seems a bit more interesting but I’ll have to watch more to see if he truly is, and I’m not sure I’m going to bother.

I really am enjoying how Alexander Skarsgard is playing Flagg so far. Definitely an interesting spin on the character and he still has alot of the menace and creep factor that I thought Jamey Sheridan brought to the role in the 90's mini series. I actually don't remember a whole lot about that mini series except for the Randall Flagg scenes which were pretty memeorable IMO and my favortie parts as a kid.