Under the Dome might go Under the Radar

I love Stephen King. In fact, I love him so much that when I went back to Maine to visit family this past week, he didn’t even kill me. That being said, in the past when his work has been translated to the little screen, the results have not been spectacular. My expectations when I tuned into the first episode of Under the Dome were not high, to say the least, (I went in expecting to title this article Under the Dumb) but so far I’ve been happily surprised.

If you’re not familiar with Under the Dome, it’s King’s story about what happens to a small town when it’s isolated from the outside world beneath an invisible dome. The normal bevvy of Stephen King weirdness eventually applies to the story (at least in the novel, the show hasn’t gotten that far yet), but for the most part the pace is driven by the interpersonal relations of the people in the town of Chester’s Mill. Maybe it’s because when I saw it I was in my hometown of 600 people where people literally call you up to ask you about a phone call you just ended 30 seconds ago with someone else, but putting a tiny town under a literal magnifying glass and examining it really works for me.

Only two episodes have aired so far, so I can’t speak to the quality of the arc of the show, but both episodes have been decent. A few characters have acted dumb, but not in an especially irritating fashion (like Heroes, for example). We’ve only had one instance of “I need to tell you . . . aaaaarrrrhhhhggggggggg . . . *die*”. The villains seem to be shaping up decently, though a little over the top in the case of Junior. The outsider hero is likeable enough to not drive you away, even though his obvious love interest is probably a bad enough journalist to get a job at CNN or Fox, and the twist on their possible flame is good.

domestll2 However, nothing in the show is really NEW, or even particularly different than what I’ve seen before. It’s extremely formulaic television, to the point of almost being a MadLib of any dramatic TV show I saw in the 80s. It would actually be an excellent primer for how to set up the framework of a drama that will sell ad space. The External Loner, the Sassy Journalist, the Secretly Evil Leader . . . it’s got it all, with no real spin on the formula. It may get some spin in the second half of the season, when all of the Stephen King comes pouring out, but right now while it’s watchable, you could skip an episode and not really feel like you missed a lot.

What I’m really excited about from Under the Dome, however, is that it represents a change in the format that studio execs are willing to use to bring a novel to the screen. Under the Dome is a standalone novel like most of King’s work, but the decision was made to turn it into a full season of a TV show. I’ve found that this is extremely rare – novels don’t get a season of a TV show, they get a movie, or possibly a miniseries if they’re lucky. This means that most of the important or cool stuff you love from your favorite novel gets butchered due to lack of time, and it ends up with you wishing that it hadn’t been turned into a movie at all because now they’ve fucked it all up and aaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhh . . . Anyway. Game of Thrones seems to have kicked open the door for studios to produce long-form translations of novels to the screen, which will nearly always result in a much more full experience. I’m really hoping that Under the Dome does well, and opens up the door even wider, so I can get a good Lies of Locke Lamora or Best Served Cold show. So, everyone go and watch Under the Dome. It will help us in the long run.