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This suffers from the same problem as a lot of Stephen King adaptations, in that it's very low budget. It's an expected result of his novels being available for use in movies and television series basically for free, since the same people who can't afford special effects or a good filming crew are also going to be attracted to the low cost of basing their work on his novels.

So yes, the effects, shooting, and editing are generally of poor quality. If you go into it expecting it to look like something that enthusiastic drama club kids from high school would put together, you won't be disappointed. The casting and acting is surprisingly good. The dialogue isn't bad.

The script deviates a lot from the book. In some ways that's a good thing, because the book was written 37 years ago, and elements from it would not have made sense in a modern series. It's also an improvement that there's more than one band of survivors in a single location. Changing the lead character's young son into a teenage daughter is also an improvement - while having the little kid to protect gives the protagonist an automatic moral high ground, he would have been annoying in a movie.

Some are criticizing the social themes, but those themes are very much in keeping with Stephen King's general work. He is all about small town dysfunction, hypocrisy, and even insanity. So I don't think the various issues regarding sexuality and bullying are even slightly out of place, even if they obviously weren't a focus of the novel.

But there are a few changes that don't work as well. Why does this small town have a huge indoor mall? How can the mist both be mysteriously related to a nearby army base, but also have happened 150 years ago? And they may have made a mistake in transforming the mist from a straight-forward mist with lots of monsters, into something that has a bit of a life of its own and seems to hold personal delusions which other people can see and hear. The Arrowhead guys are also completely lacking any subtlety, and appear to be extremely stupid. Some of their actions are undoubtedly intended to make the situation seem more serious, but since their characters have no substance, they come of as daft and impulsive instead.

But ultimately I'm going to keep watching it, and I hope there's a second season. It would be interesting to see where or when (or if) the mist ends, what's up at Arrowhead, who the amnesiac really is, and if everyone gets what they deserve.

Shows like The Mist and The Walking Dead are based on a very simple premise of threat (usually super/bio/natural) and the need for survival as a group in challenging circumstances. These shows can pull in good audiences, but it is impressive how frequently this simple premise cannot be executed boldly and instead runs off into a series of sub-plots that detract from the core premise until the core premise is lost. The Mist suffers this fate.

First, the premise is sound enough. The simplicity of the idea is its great attraction. The problem with this show is, like TWD the premise becomes secondary to the sub-plots and poor character decisions that then consume the show.

So, Stephen King penned 'The Mist' - it's an alternate take on 'The Fog' just taking the concept in a different direction. In this envisioning the Mist descends on a small town in the US cutting of communication and isolating the town. Within the realms of this genre, this is a suitable plot that comes with full license for the associated suspension of disbelief.

We have a good set. The weakness then is the lack of courage to execute on the core premise, instead drifting into the sub plots of the various irrational characters. If this show had been given the benefit of stronger oversight of the storyline this might not have led to the shows demise and could with the right writing have seen additional seasons tagged on.

When a writer must fall back on the stupidity of characters to carry the story then you know the series is in trouble. Even B movies fans like intelligent characters in B movies.

The Mist is a missed opportunity - a show that should have had a stronger tighter focus on the core plot. Less silly character sub plots. A clearer definition of what it was and a willingness to stay true to that.

I believe there is still very much a market for this type of a show - if only writers of sufficient quality could be found to build the episodes that build ON the core premise, not away from it.

"The Mist" TV adaptation was good at first, but then it becames bored. Stephen King's novel was adapted and theatrically released in 2007, a great film, but in 2017 this TV version was released, a weak production with great performances and special effects, but something is missing. This production is not bad, but not that good. A watchable work, no more.

The Mist was an excellent story and great movie. The series however was extremely disappointing. The first episode was rough, did not really build up the suspense and the suspense never really gets built up. Each subsequent episode begins to degrade from there. There are some very good actors, but some of the roles are poorly cast. I did enjoy seeing Alsya Sutherland in something outside of Vikings and she does a good job with what she has to work with in the role. There are times when the story threatens to become good, but in general the pace is slow and the drama thick. It is like a soap opera moved into Stephen King land. On a plus side, while the series goes out of it's way at the expense of the plot and story to embed modern Hollywood clichés that you see in pretty much each and every movie and TV series today, at least some of these clichés are turned into bad guys. One of the few redeeming qualities, but it did have me skipping parts here and there.

The special effects are very low budget. The action is lame even for a TV series and poorly directed. It is also difficult to find anybody to like much less identify with. At times you find yourself rooting for the Mist which is not the same Mist that is portrayed in the movie. Flawed characters are one thing, but the few people you can actually like do not last long. Apparently the moral of the story is that humans do not deserve to live as each and every one of us is flawed beyond redemption. Many of the depictions are pointless and distractions and opportunities to insert action and suspense are the casualties of the poor plot development which moves like Molasses in an ice storm. Most of the "surprises" are rather predictable. One of the elements that makes King's work so interesting is you never really know. Good guys can lose or win in a King story. People do unpredictable things in King stories but their actions at least make sense in the framework of their perspective. In this series people just do things apparently without reason or cause. At points the interactions just defy all logic and you have no perspective to put them in as the characters are doing things nobody would ever do given that person's perspective. People can be cruel, can be weak, but there's always some sort of logical framework they are operating under. Even if the reasoning is flawed it at least makes sense in a way to that person and creates a trajectory. A path they will follow. In the Mist these people bounce around like a pinball machine committing actions that contradict everything they do, say and believe.

In the end you are left with a bowl of tired clichés and a plot that has no drive, no energy or even meaning. The social commentary is used like a club and offensive at best. The writer or director must truly loath themselves and by proxy all of humanity, but not even in an interesting way. The holes in the plot and the slow speed leave you with an incomprehensible soup of poorly copied movie moments changed just enough that they are not really recognizable, but also neither original or interesting. I gave this a 5 because it does have a moment here and there that is interesting, and some of the acting is quite good.

Very disappointed to watch 10 hours of The Mist to finish on a cliffhanger which I've read hasn't been putto a second series. A complete waste of time. Why can't something be announced that says this series won't continue. It should have not been left at that ending.