I wonder if this was the result of post-COVID editing so as not to devote too much time to the Captain Trips pandemic. In any case, that was the best part of the story. Everything after they get to Boulder is anticlimactic.
shareReally? I agree that the best part was watching things slowly break down and become that new world. The stuff that happened after always felt weaker, like King had a great premise and kind of had no idea what to do with it. (Yes, I know, that is almost all King stories, but still)
shareYes. He does have a big problem with endings. I've read The Stand several times and I always find it hard to keep going after they get to Boulder. Funny, though, I didn't feel that way about the 1990s miniseries, but the book really drags at that point. King shoots all his big guns up front and the rest is anticlimactic. What is more horrible than the end of the world?
If he wanted to write an American Lord of the Rings-style epic with this setup, he should have started it a couple of generations after the apocalypse. Starting the book off with the characters experiencing the end of the world was a mistake. Too tough an act to follow.
Looks like the first episode is available now. Have you seen it yet?
shareIt does jump back and forth between pre and post-plague, but it seems like they are cutting a lot of book content.
shareRemoving important things and adding and altering irrelevant things. Another botched "reboot". I do not think I have seen one remake of anything in the last 15 years that lived up to the original version. Hollywood should just stop butchering older stories.
shareDoesn't look worth watching. Larry Underwood is now black?
shareMaybe he will be a Black Country singer and “that white sound sure do get around”..
shareIn the original, literally every protagonist(gods chosen ones in the context of the book) is a white guy, including Larry "cultural appropriation" Underwood. Did you really think that would fly in 2020?
shareAs others have noted, rather than the characters themselves, it's more the nausea-inducing, self-righteous smugness that these projects give off that causes offense in these matters.
Plus the fact that all corrected characters are universally heroic. If this was really about making changes for equality's sake, you might see Harold Lauder as Asian, or Nadine Cross become the Hispanic Nadia Cruz. But no. It's all ridiculous virtue signalling.
[Plus the fact that all corrected characters are universally heroic. If this was really about making changes for equality's sake, you might see Harold Lauder as Asian, or Nadine Cross become the Hispanic Nadia Cruz. But no. It's all ridiculous virtue signalling.]
I wouldn't say corrected. Just updated, and only one major character had that happen along with one minor one. Besides, there's always a minority or three among the villain group as henchmen. That's nothing new.
Look at the heroes from the book and 94 version. Stu, Nick, Larry, Glen, Ralph and Tom. Is it really that horrible that one of the six is now a minority?
Actually, THREE of the six have been corrected to meet PC standards. Larry has been changed from white to black, Ralph is now a native American woman (two for one value, here!) and Nick is now Latino, but not just some regular Mexican-American dude. No. He is an illegal Salvadoran immigrant, so the viewers can learn how evil and immoral it is to deny such a wonderful person free access to our country.
share> it's more the nausea-inducing, self-righteous smugness
^ THIS!
To be fair, this isn't new for Hollywood. As long as I've been alive there have been artists who believe that just because they can spin good yarns they have superior moral insights, are entitled to lecture us on moral matters, and that we the audience have a duty to give their lectures serious consideration. Many Twilight Zone episodes were good or even great, but when Serling lapsed into Pastor Rod mode I'd switch the channel. This SJW horseshit just happens to be the new style of horseshit.
> If this was really about making changes for equality's sake, you might see Harold Lauder as Asian, or Nadine Cross become the Hispanic Nadia Cruz.
Yep. And if it was really about promoting racial color-blindness, a viewpoint where race doesn't matter -- which their agenda has never been about, despite their claims -- then why not make Mother Abagail an Asian, or even (gasp!) White? [*]
Regarding M.A. -- King gets accused of writing "magic Negro"[**] characters, more than deserved. There are good reasons why The Green Mile's John Coffey had to be Black, The Shawshank Redemption's Ellis Redding's race (White in the original story, Black in the movie) didn't matter, etc. But Mother Abagail is the epitome of the Magic Negro -- the Black supporting character who steps in to solve a problem the White heroes can't solve themselves, does so against her own interests, then departs so the Whites can still be the heroes of the story. Diversifying the good characters mitigates that flaw in The Stand, but at far too high a cost -- the self-righteous stench.
[*] The ASS-ociated Press adopted the policy of capitalizing "black" but not "white" when used as racial labels. I'm an equal opportunity capitalizer. Wanna have a good laugh? See their reasons -- https://apnews.com/article/7e36c00c5af0436abc09e051261fff1f
[**] "Magic" here means too convenient, too good to be true; not necessarily supernatural.
I capitalize the names of ethnic groups, (including White) out of respect.
shareJust read the AP link. What a bunch of absolutely patronizing CRAP!!!
Hey Gary -- good to hear from you again.
> What a bunch of absolutely patronizing CRAP!!!
Yep. The chattering classes lecturing us about how we're supposed to feel and think. Lecturing *all* of us. I doubt if such types even *consider* that the National Association of Black Journalists takes the position that White should be capitalized too ... but of course they know better what's good for Blacks than Blacks themselves do.
2 Indeed; those who consider themselves 'woke' are so much wiser than the rest of us, aren't they?
And thanks for the kind words.