The Stand 2020 - CBS All Access

I'm a Stephen King super fan, I'm always reading a King book at any given time (Currently recycling Needful Things, absolute chaotic awesomeness).

So it's fair to say I have been eagerly awaiting the latest incarnation of King's behemoth of a novel that is The Stand.

Early on I was worried about some casting choices. Amber heard is human trash, I can stand Whoopi Goldberg and Ezra Millar for the Trashcan Man was the worst by far. I will say I thought Alexander Skarsgard for Randal Flagg was the perfect choice. So I wasn't hoping for much.

Anyway... the first episode happened and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I so want to love it, but so far I'm not sure I do.

The structure is terrible and the focus of the first episode made no sense to me at all. People always complain about flashbacks, well in my opinion here is an exact instance where it isn't working. I'm also a little terrified to think that this is how they will structure the whole series.

Stu and Franny were both pretty lackluster, and I'm not sure I like the casting choice for Harold either. I have heard rumours that they butcher Lloyd's charater as well.

Maybe my expectations are just way too high. But we are only one episode in and anything could happen from here.

Anybody watched it? Readers, non readers, what are your thoughts?

The Stand is my second fave book of all time (after It lol) Watched the new trailer the other day and it didn’t seem to be any better than the 1994 miniseries. They also changed genders and race of some chars simply for pc crap. I’m not gonna pay to watch anything on tv anyway so a pass for me lol.

Quoted from stevie

I love the 94 series, rewatched it and reread the book for the umpteenth time when COVID first hit, just for shits and giggles. It's really dated but I think it still holds up all right, except for some of the visual effects haha.

I'm also over the PC BS but if they do the role justice it won't bug me one bit. I'm not confident they will though.

P.s. if you want to see the biggest piece of woke PC garbage every to grace the screen, try sit through a few episodes of Grand Amry on Netflix, f@#k me that show is so far up it's own arse.

Yeah the 94 series had some great acting: Gary Sinise was really good as Stu. The only crap ones were the guys that played Flagg and Harold. Incidentally I’ve always considered Flagg to be a black dude. In the updated novel with illustrations he looks African American.

Amber Heard's private life aside...
She's actually a pretty good actress in most things I've seen.

I remain skeptical about what this current rendition of The Stand will be like, but I'm hopeful.
I don't know... The book is so good I'll keep my expectations low and maybe I'll be surprised, but reading so far what you think, Warren, I now doubt it.

Quoted from LC

Well she is playing Nadine Cross so I'm sure she'll be great:p

Like I said, I could be expecting too much, maybe it's excellent.

Episode 2

Watched ep 2 last night, I won't be going out of my way to spoil anything, but I'll put a SPOILERS ALERT anyway... just in case.

So the rumours were true, Lloyd is a joke, a pathetic, weak charater that Randall Flagg would never enlist as a 2nd in command. It's almost laughable.

The flashback structure seems to be staying, at least until all the charaters are introduced.

This one focused on Larry, Nadine, Lloyd and Rita and like episode one they all still feel very shallow.

Some really bad CGI, I didn't know if I was watching The Stand or Ratatouille at one point and one crazy bad line in, something along the lines of, "Just pretend you're a ninja turtle".

I also feel like they took an iconic scene from both the book and the other series and reduced it to a lame attempt at something new.

First look at Nick as well... meh.

Oh and Ralph is now a female POC named Ray. Too soon to tell if she will do him justice.

I can't say I'm feeling it, but still quite a few episodes to go so it might pick up.

Why the hell would SK approve his classic novel to be destroyed like this?

Then again, he let them do it to It >:(

Episode 3

SPOILERS maybe...

The flashback structure is a real punish, no scenes are actually given any time to breathe.

Nick's story has been decimated, oh and he's an illegal immigrant now and that actually affects his story in some way, WTF.

Glen is way too young and a stoner now apparently, WTF.

Tom... Just WTF.

I appreciate the slight nod to The Shining, but it's going to take more than carpet to win me over.

I'm also not sure why it needs to be so heavy on exposition, it's longer than the original series, but the original still wasn't so exposition heavy.

I can't handle the stupidity, Randall can possess people (yes that's a thing that happens) and appear at will, but Nadine, the person most connected to him, needs a dumbass gimic that sucks up a lot of screen time to talk to him, WTF.

I'll keep watching, but now it's just to point out what a piece of garbage this is.

How is it even possible to screw this up so badly, I honestly don't understand.

I'll trust your judgement on this one, Warren.

Sounds like a WTF on all counts.
Such a shame. I was hoping a new version would be good.

Episode 4

I'm not sure how you take an hour's worth of content from one of the greatest literary works of all time and turn it into such a load of boring shit, but they managed to do it. This episode was particularly painful to watch, with a nice cringe cherry on top to end the episode.

It's particularly hard to swallow because the episode was co-written by Owen King.

Also, 4 episodes in and no Trashcan Man, not that I'm really looking forward to it; I think Ezra Miller is the worst casting choice of the lot.

Not sure whether to keep going or throw in the towel at this point.

Time to pull the pin on it, Waz. Keep the good memories of the novel intact. It’s an absolute disgrace that King lets crap like this and It get made.

Episode 5

Decided to keep going out of morbid curiosity, the fact that I want to see King's new ending and I do want to see how badly Ezra Miller destroys the Trashcan Man.

Speaking of Trash, more than half way through the series and still not even a mention.

So this series is crap, no two ways about it. 5 episodes in and we still have many of the same problems, the biggest one being the underdeveloped charaters. I'm also finding Franny to be completely unlikable.

Lloyd (or Lloyd's retarded imposter) featured quite heavily. It's embarrasing how much they have destroyed his charater, it was so cringe worthy to watch.

Flagg also isn't really developing into much of anything.

I just don't think the creators knew what to do with the material or the charaters.

Only 4 episodes left, I can do this.

Waz, a dude on fanedits Reddit has already fixed up the first episode. He was disgusted by his favourite book being desecrated so he made it better

Quoted from stevie

Waz, a dude on fanedits Reddit has already fixed up the first episode. He was disgusted by his favourite book being desecrated so he made it better

I'll have to check it out.

Episode 6

SPOILERS maybe

F#@k this show and the horse it rode in on.

6 Episodes in, 3 to go and we finally get to see Trash, and boy was I right. I kind of knew Ezra Miller would screw it up but even I could not prepare myself for this rendition of the Trashcan Man. He's only in the episode for all of 5 minutes, for non readers it established nothing about him, then 2 seconds later he's being introduced to Flagg and he calls him the legendary Trashcan Man, huh? WTF? Based on him blowing one thing up and masturbating as it burns... legend.

Same issues continue. Nick is a hollowed out shell of what he should be, Franny is completely unlikable, Lloyd, oh god damn, I don't have the words. Female judge Farris had 0% impact on the story at all, was pretty much a passing thought. Glen is just in scenes to say something lame every once in a while. Whoopi is horrid as Mother Abigail.

None of the relationships have been developed Stu/Fran, Nick/Tom, Lloyd/Flagg, Nadine/Larry. The whole thing feels forced like they are just trying to check off moments from the book.

How did the 94 version get you so invested with 3 hours less run time, just makes no sense at all.

This is, by a country mile, the worst Stephen King adaptation to date. I'm not even joking.

F@#k this show!

I watched the first episode of the fan edit, Waz. The dude who did it didnā€™t have much to work with lol. Someone suggested that when he finishes fixing the whole series it would be best to assemble the eps in the proper timeline as the book and 94 series. This flashback method is ridiculous! What a shame it was completely bungled! Some of the comments on the Stephen King Reddit are hilarious too. Most said that Flagg isnā€™t even scary, heā€™s just boring! Just a clustererf%*k!

Episode 7

SPOILERS... well as much as you can spoil a turd

Closing in on the end of this abomination.

This episode was so utterly boring that I did actually skip about 20 minutes of it because I could feel my life force draining.

Trash is back for about the first 2 minutes or so, it's so embarrasing to watch Ezra play this charater. I literally had to turn the sound down because of the noises coming out of him.

Whoopi puts on a cringe inducing performance in this ep.

I just don't care about anyone, Nick is dead, couldn't care less. Big emotional attempt when Stu and the gang start their walk, couldn't care less.

So we have Stu, politically correct Larry, politically correct Ralph... sorry Ray and young stoner Glen starting the walk to Vegas. Ray is an absolute plank of wood who has no tangible relationship to any of the other charaters. They even throw in some humorous racism because Ray is a native American now... argh.

Finally figured out who Lloyd is trying to channel, think Jamiroquai if he was a really lame gangster pimp.

This is a mess with zero redeeming qualities. 2 episodes left, I just want to see King's new ending and then I will never think of this disaster ever again.

King needs to get back on the coke after letting his son co-write this shit.

Waz, kudos to you for seeing it out! Your reviews are more entertaining than the actual shit fest

They need to get Peter Jackson perhaps to do The Stand and It properly and with reverence. He did a good job with TLOTR. And his fix of the Beatles Let It Be footage looks unreal too

Stephen King has the DC comics curse. So few works ever filmed being worth a crap. Maybe Christopher Nolan should try a King story?

What King novel plays with a funky time-line or time travel?

Quoted from JEStaats

What King novel plays with a funky time-line or time travel?

That'd be:

11/22/63.
Going back in time to try and prevent the assassination of JFK.
James Franco series 2016. Wasn't too bad.

Quoted from stevie

That definitely seems to be the overwhelming problem with King adaptations is that people just don't know what to do with the material. I'd love to see Peter Jackson tackle The Dark Tower, I think he'd smash it out the park.

Quoted from JEStaats

Stephen King has the DC comics curse. So few works ever filmed being worth a crap. Maybe Christopher Nolan should try a King story?

What King novel plays with a funky time-line or time travel?

Very true.

Quoted from LC

That'd be:

11/22/63.
Going back in time to try and prevent the assassination of JFK.
James Franco series 2016. Wasn't too bad.

Or maybe a new remake of The Dead Zone.

Quoted from LC

That'd be:

11/22/63.
Going back in time to try and prevent the assassination of JFK.
James Franco series 2016. Wasn't too bad.

On a different Stephen King note. I just finished my first pass of The Running Man, I've been putting it off because I just didn't think I'd like it for some reason. Boy was I wrong. I think it easily fits into my top 5 and may even sneak into my top 3. Short, but a damn good tale.

Quoted from Warren

I know I read it when it came out as a Bachman book but I can't think of the story that clearly. Time to revisit it!

Quoted from JEStaats

I know I read it when it came out as a Bachman book but I can't think of the story that clearly. Time to revisit it!

Showing your age there :P

It's a cracking read IMO.

Quoted from Warren

Showing your age there :P

There's just no hiding it anymore. :'(

Episode 8

SPOILERS

They gender swopped the Rat Man... hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha... couldn't even have that, F@#k me.

God damn this episode was dumb. Some of the worst dialogue all series, just awful.

Flagg has a little rave... So that happens.

After all the gender and race politics in this I couldn't help but be a bit suspicious of the final scenes where white male Lloyd and white male Flagg are in the process of killing politically correct Larry and politically correct Ralph... sorry Ray. Call me crazy but I think they are trying to say something.

Nadine looks like she done some last minute Halloween make up, it's so pathetic.

Just when you think it can't get any worse they say "hold my beer".

I hate to say it but it would take nothing short of a real life miracle for King to save this shit in one episode, it's beyond redemption.

So like Warren, I've watched it all as well, given that I read the Stand and it was definitely one of my favorite books. I thought, surely with a mini-series they can do this justice. Well...

It just feels like this thing is all over the place in terms of pacing and characterization and getting you invested in the rooting for Stu and the gang, but honestly, I've been only remotely interested in it so far. Skaargard was a good choice for Flagg, but I'm kind of indifferent to the rest. Did not care for Whoopi at all. The guy playing Lauder was just too over the top, and the Trash Can Man is just like a guy straight out of a Mad Max casting call.

They had such an opportunity with this book and I think had the wrong people involved in making it, which is to say, I'm guessing they had producers and writers who weren't emotionally invested in the book the way we probably were, and the series has suffered for it.

Episode 9 - Finale

SPOILERS maybe

Yeah I'll just keep the original ending, thank you very much.

A garbage ending to a garbage series. Not even the man himself could do anything with this disaster.

The episode felt so far removed from the story.

The best thing to come out of this episode, or maybe the whole shit show was this song I'd never heard and instantly loved...

https://youtu.be/Tk91s01Z9ZU

This series is something I'll never revisit and probabaly never think about again.

If you haven't watched it, I can't even recommend watching it out of morbid curiosity like I did. It's an embarrassment to the source material.

The end. I'll say it one last time F@#k this show.

The guy on fan edits on Reddit finished his fix of this show He made it chronological as it should’ve always been. I’ve watched a bit and it is prolly better now! Cant paste the link but if anyone is keen, go into r/fanedits on Reddit and you’ll see it

Quoted from stevie

The problem is that the idiotic flashback structure in the first few episodes is only one of many huge issues with this.

Non existent charater development, no one to root for, not caring about any of the charaters, extremely bad portrayals of key charaters, a completely unlikable main charater, the social politics, the terrible new ending.

The list goes on. A few edits will unfortunately only do so much.

This should never have happened.

Yeah I hear ya. I watched a bit of the last episode. Flagg was boring as hell! No menace at all as you pointed out. And I had to think who was Larry and who was Ralph ::) ??)

The dude did try and cut out some of the annoying character but it was tough without sacrificing more. He fully understood the terrible choices made by the directors in both casting and feel of it. Itā€™s worth checking out now Waz, as he writes a good long piece about what he tried to do

Quoted from stevie

who was Ralph ::) ??)

That's Ray to you! :P

Quoted from stevie

The dude did try and cut out some of the annoying character but it was tough without sacrificing more. He fully understood the terrible choices made by the directors in both casting and feel of it. Itā€™s worth checking out now Waz, as he writes a good long piece about what he tried to do

I'll take a look over the weekend.

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