Macabre...ish Cults, Classics & Horrors - The Stand Episode 1
Kimberly 0:00
I did see the stand last night, it was just the first hour of the miniseries. It was okay. I think if I had never seen the other MiniSeries or read the book, it would have been better. Because the changes they made, were glaring. And I kept waiting for things to happen. That didn't happen. But I did like the layout. Like when it first started, they started in Boulder, Colorado, cleaning their bodies up. So that was cool. I like that. I like the beginning. And then the rest of the story was told in flashbacks, and flashbacks inside of flashbacks. So if you're not paying attention, you’re gonna be lost. Yes, we are. I
Carlos 0:47
saw your write up. And I don't like that. Like, I don't know. I kind of like when you're 10 dropped in the middle of it. And like, we show the transition from regular world to what happens and like, I just feel it has more tread in that rather than being dropped in the middle of the shit and then see Oh, okay, well, the world's f*cked. It's another post apocalyptic thing. And let's just flashback and show what happened. Right? But that's just me. I can agree with that. Because you want to kind of get to that point where you're like, Okay, so are they gonna, like make this work? What are they gonna do? Exactly, especially at a time, like when it comes out during like, COVID. And we're kind of in like a pandemic sort of situation right now, like, and there's so much dread and fear out there. It's like, wouldn't it be better to play off of that? And like, because it's sort of the same situation, right? It's a plague that takes over. So it's like, show how bad things get and then start cleaning things up.
Kimberly 1:49
I would have thought so but maybe they're thinking, maybe you don't want people people are struggling as it is. You don't want to feel like oh, that's what there's no hope. Maybe that's what they were. Well, my guess is they just wanted to make something different than the original. Right? Just to have it, you know, be a separate thing. Right. And speaking of differences, the obvious differences, they made a few people black, they're originally white, which confused me because I was like, wait, who's that? Oh, that's Larry Underwear. Like No, it's not. Well, yeah, it is. And Campion is a black dude. So I'm not saying anything racial. But that's the thing when you've seen it already. And you read the story, and you like it the way it is, and then they change. Integral characters. You're like, Oh, I like the character the way that he was. And the book. One thing is that they kept the same in the movies, Harold Lauder, in the book. He's a fluffy teenager. overweight, really awkward. kinda scary. makes people uncomfortable. And this miniseries just like the other miniseries, skinny, awkward kid, but I guess I think he's probably better than Parker Lewis because Parker Lewis messed me up. I was I was like, oh, what's he doing here? Watching him be awkward was weird.
Chris 3:19
I forgot Corin Nemec was in the first one.
Kimberly 3:24
No, that's not good. Ah,
Chris 3:27
that's right. I forgot it was him. It's been a long time since I've watched the The only thing I remember from the original miniseries is Gary Sinise leading a bunch of people all over the desert on motorbikes. Yeah. makes it kind of sound like mad max. Yeah, there’s more to it. Maybe? Yeah, that's what I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to watch the new one. Yeah, watch the new one. Go back to the original one,
Kimberly 3:52
right. And then they did modernize it. Because Harold gets beaten up. And then of course, they record it for social media. Mm hmm. But it felt a little forced. I know, it needed to be there. But it felt a little bit like someone's like, you know, what, if this happened now, what do the kids do? They record, put on Tick tock, right. That's what it felt like. So I was like, Yeah, let's do that. So they're like, Okay, let's do it. That's, that's kind of what it felt like. Yeah. Well, when
Chris 4:24
was the when was the standard written? Originally?
Kimberly 4:28
I don't I don't know when it was written. But it was originally published. 1978.
Chris 4:33
Yeah. So I mean, we're looking at something that's 40 years old. Right? So it's difficult to to really move something that was written 40 years ago into current times, without making a lot of drastic changes to it, unfortunately. And that's really, I don't know that's what I don't like about when movies or shows are made based on content that was written well before the production time.
Carlos 5:07
I see that they tried to update it and be like, Okay, well, now we're going to beat him up and put him on tik tok. But it's like, if you're putting it in today's context, that sh*t ain't gonna fly. Because that if that goes on, on Tick tock, the bullies are gonna be the ones that are lynched not. Not everybody looking at the tick tock video laughing at the nerdy kid getting beat up, right.
Kimberly 5:30
And it's Instagram. But it's true, right? It wouldn't fly now, like at all, but that's what they put in there. Um, one thing I did like, was in the book, Larry Underwood, when it's all falls apart, he gets together with a lady. In the book, her name is Rita. In the original miniseries, Rita and Nadine, are made into one person. So in this incarnation, they've separated Rita and Nadine again. I kind of like this because in the book, it's like a whole thing. But in the movie, like I just put them together, it's fine. Yeah, but in the new incarnation, they put Nadine and Lucy together now like they're, they overlap. And because I read the original book, and the miniseries, that the overlap is pretty obvious. But they did bring back kind of how they met from the book. But they, they cut a lot of stuff out. They hopped around a lot. They cut a lot of stuff out. But it doesn't quite make sense. And maybe it doesn't need to make sense. Because the telling of the story.
Carlos 6:55
But how long is this series? Is it like a Miniseries or is it like a
Kimberly 6:59
series? It's a nine part miniseries?
Carlos 7:03
Nine part Holy sh*t, like
Kimberly 7:08
maybe it's seven part it either way, it's long, and each segment is an hour?
Carlos 7:14
Well, it's certainly longer than the original, which is, what, four hours?
Kimberly 7:18
Right? So I don't know if they're gonna fill all that in later on, which I don't know how they're going to do that. Because by the end of this segment, frannie and Stu are together and that baby is coming. Or it will be shortly. So I don't know. Maybe they're going to fill fill it in later. I don't know. But also, in the book, Frannie is pregnant by her boyfriend that she's about to break up with before the pandemic happens. So the baby she has is the baby she had with the boyfriend in the miniseries. She's pregnant with Stu. So I guess. So in this new incarnation? I think she's pregnant by Stu. And not the boyfriend. Actually. I'm not sure. The reason why I'm not sure it's because she tried to commit suicide. She survived, but a baby would not survive that. So maybe they tried to do both. She was pregnant by the boyfriend, lost that baby. And they got pregnant, basically. I don't know. Yeah. But she didn't try to commit suicide. In the book. Or the prior miniseries, they just put that in. And then Harold rescued her. I don't know, they put some stuff in that didn't need to be there and took things out I thought should be in there. You know, the dude is the doctor in the end who goes in to kill soon? Because he's pissed that everybody's dead except him. He doesn't really exist anymore. They broken him up into two separate parts. Now it's Sergeant Cobb and Dr. Ellis, is essentially his part. So the smug elitist, is gone and Sergeant Cobb is taking orders from somebody. Nobody knows who, not even the military. So I guess they're gonna play that angle. Maybe?
Carlos 9:27
Huh? Well, that whole thing wrapped would have wrapped up in the first episode though. But it didn't
Kimberly 9:33
work cuz he thought around. No, he had the flu. And then he came in to kill Stu. And Stu’s doctor, Dr. Ellis, who also was dying from the flu. He accidentally killed the doctor. And then Steve killed him. And then prior miniseries The general he's watching over the monitors, all the dead people in the CDC, then he kills himself. Well in the new show. He actually let's Stu out and helps him find his way out of the CDC. But first, has this whole moment with him. And he's not sick, by the way. And he has this whole moment he lost his daughter and see anybody out there. Tell them, I stayed with my post til the very end. And then you hear him pull the trigger as Stu is finding his way out of the CDC.
Carlos 10:18
That was another roll in the original series, though, wasn't it? I thought there was a general like that.
Kimberly 10:23
There was but he did not interact with Stu. He was always separate and he never interacted.
Carlos 10:27
Yeah. Ed Harris. Right, Harris?
Kimberly 10:29
Yep. And this one is JK Simmons. You know, the guy who does the farmers commercials? Yeah,
Carlos 10:37
it's Jota Jamison. Yep.
Kimberly 10:40
So that was cool. I like him as an actor just he interacted with Stu. Whereas in any other telling, there is no such interaction at all. It was fine.
Carlos 10:52
But unnecessary changes,
Chris 10:55
right? So what, what would you say would be... is their target audience for the series? Is it that like, are they targeting people who know the book? Or are they targeting people who are familiar with the fact that it is a book and have never read it?
Kimberly 11:11
I think they're trying to do both. I think on the one hand, they're trying to shake it up. For the fans, they know who's going to watch it. So they're trying to give us something that is not a complete copy of what we've already seen before. And people who've never seen it, they're not going to notice the holes. Maybe they'll fill them later. I don't know. But they're trying to target both. And that's a tough sell. Because now the fans are already gonna be like, wait, wait a minute. Another thing is in the original miniseries, they got rid of most of the wolf activity. They brought the wolves back in this one. So I'm hoping they'll bring a character that was in the book, but not in the miniseries back... The Kid. He's a disgusting little... He's like five foot three, three inches of hair, three inches of high heels. He's a psychotic little creep. He comes from Louisiana. He's disgusting. He's always threatening somebody's life. And he and trashcan man are actually traveling to Vegas together. Even though in the miniseries trashcan, man just walk through the desert alone. He doesn't want to leave his car. At a certain point. The road is just like miles and miles of dead bodies and traffic. And then wolves come out and then corner him...the idea is the wolves are just going to sit there and wait him out. And then trashcan man, he's walking to Vegas. So that little disgusting creep, they could bring him back. That'll make it better for people who've never read the book, but want something different. He really was a disgusting, reprehensible human being, he sexually assaulted trash can, man, they can leave that out. Yeah, The Kid is a lot. But yeah, you can see where they cut things out and sped them up, you know, Kathy Bates part where she was the radio DJ. And she was like, resisting the government. They killed her on air on this one. It's a man over the radio, and he’s sick. You hear him coughing while he's trying to keep doing his job and everything else is shut down. And then he commits suicide on air. So I think they're trying to do both to entertain fans, and make it fast and modern enough for people who've never seen it before.
Carlos 13:28
Not make the government look bad.
Kimberly 13:31
But yeah, you're probably exactly right.
Carlos 13:35
That sounds a lot to me like to do it the way the book in the original series was, it would be more of a slow burn, especially for 9...7 episodes, whatever it is. And with modern audiences, are they really going to stick around till Episode Four before the action really starts kicking in like, like, if people aren't familiar with the book or the old series, they're gonna get bored by the a lot of the talking and stuff in the first few episodes. Right setting. Yeah, yeah.
Kimberly 14:07
Yeah, we'll see. They're, they're trying to do a little of everything. It looks like I think they're moving too fast. Because part of what makes the story so intense is that there's time. They're moving up north, going to the CDC, and then they go to New Hampshire, and then everybody packs up and then go to Colorado part of the horror is, it’s slow? Yeah.
Carlos 14:33
One thing I'm kind of disappointed by is the recasting of Flagg, because the original idea was going to be to have Matthew McConaughey do it to reprise the role from Dark Tower right. And I mean, I get it obviously Dark Tower was a huge bomb. But the fact that they wanted to originally make all these things actually interconnect all these Stephen King things in modern ones, that would have been awesome.
Kimberly 15:02
They should have done it, it would have made all the sense of the world. Mm hmm.
Carlos 15:05
Yeah. When you consider the fact that I mean, The Dark Tower series does mix into everything Stephen King has written it would have made perfect sense. I mean, if we're talking about series Why the hell didn't they add that that one into a Miniseries or a natural full blown series?
Kimberly 15:21
That's what I'm saying. I think it was probably just too much of a money grab. I mean, McConaughey and then, Idris Elba. I mean, they’re just like, get the fans in there and get the money. And they told a little kind of weak piece of a story and it wasn't even correct. They just made a vehicle. If you're gonna make a vehicle for somebody make a generic one.