This new adaptation of The Stand was something I was really looking forward to but I haven't been let down this badly since the last season of Game of Thrones.
Something went seriously wrong with this production and whoever greenlight the badly misjudged decision to mess about with the running order of the story, should seriously be fired from their job. It just doesn't work and just because it's a cool trend right now, doesn't mean you should try be like bloody West World. I mean who decided this? Have you even read the book? Do you understand how storytelling works? Stop embracing a trend which kills all tension and eliminates any chance of character development or emotional connections with your viewing audience.
Now look, off the bat, I enjoyed the ABC 1994 version, it was a decent adaptation for the time, a bit cheesy sure, but it was fun and had good casting with characters who had solid arcs and it was enjoyable and at least watchable, but it was, as others have rightly said, very much of its time in terms of tone, style and content. A more up to date remake was most welcome, even timely considering the subject matter.
The plot follows various American characters as an unknown virus wipes out 95% of the human race while the remaining others are immune. The survivors gravitate towards two opposing forces - one side led by Mother Abigail (the force of good and cool hair) or Randall Flag (The force of bad, but with more drugs and swingers parties taken to eleven) and eventually things are set for a showdown between them. Good vs Evil, lots of religious symbolism, none of which I have an issue with. Mixed in with this are the lives of various characters on both sides of the equation some of whom cross from one side to the other.
This new non linear approach to the story is a classic example of: if it isn't broke don't try and fix it. None of the changes that deviate from the narrative of the book work here and the casting all feels off for some reason. Listen there's some good actors in this thing, but the tone, pace and story all fail because of the disjointed narrative and the constant jumping around of timelines destroys any chance of you becoming really invested in any of them. Some of the most important progression dramatic beats and character arcs are completely lost here and it just doesn't work, at all, on any level. So many roles feel so miscast and the actors performances don't really gel nor have any emotive impact because we don't feel nor see a sense of progression. One moment we're in the past, then present, then the future, then back somewhere else, by which time I was wishing for Gary Sinse and Rob Lowe to turn up from the original.
The production design feels off too. Yeah dream sequences, can feel weird and out of place, but some of the actual scenes do too. Either one person was given too much power on this show and no one thought to rein them in or it was the extremely opposite and it was too many cooks or pulling the narrative and design all over the place. the entire production lacks a cohesive vision. I mean you can literally hear the Producer meetings 'Oh we should do this with the timeline, it worked so well in that other show... people will love it." Well I've got news for you. Stephen King has been around a long long time, and his fanbase were brought up on productions like Salems Lot and Christine, which followed traditional storytelling modus operandi and you know what - it worked.
This doesn't. What a colossal waste of talent. There's some good performances here but I honestly will not be tuning in for the future episodes, you lost me on episode three. Massively disappointing.
