The Institute

Another series with Stephen King influence. An interesting concept about a school environment for kids with special abilities. The main character is extremely intelligent and uses his wit to investigate the institutes intentions. The dialogue is a bit corny. The acting sometimes feels off but the suspense kept me engaged.

I like the plot. I'm looking forward to seeing more episodes but I'm afraid corny dialogue could dilute the quality of this series. This could easily turn into a bad goosebumps episode. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a show for teens or adults. Reminds me of stranger things but less impactful.

I love this book. One of my favorites from King's work in the last 10 years. When they announced this adaptation, years ago at this point, I was thrilled! Who could have known at the time that it would be sold to another network, and then severally delayed for years. Still, I was eager for this series and had high hopes. Finally, the series is released, and even though it's early on, I am having a hard time seeing this getting better from here. The pacing of the first two episodes was awful. There was essentially zero character development, even for the main characters like Tim and Luke. Everything so far seems rushed, and the deviations from the books thus far seem unnecessary. Why make Nicky's character more involved than he was? Why change Tim's journey and make it all center in Dennison? Simple things like that don't seem to have an overall impact that necessitated a deviation from the story.

I do hope it gets better.

SK adaptations have always been a bit mediocre, but I think its because its impossible to get the way SK writes to transfer to the screen. This one is quite good, better than a lot I have seen and I have seen pretty much everything. I read this book, it was pretty good but a long term King theme / hobby horse so nothing new. He does a lot of ESP based books, Carrie, Firestarter to name two well known ones. I can't be bothered with the naval gazing novels about Authors he had a thing about for a while but this is a return to classic King and it is a perfectly reasonable show.

At the time of this review there are four episodes available to watch.-

This show is pretty good. For me it mercifully buries a number of cliches under a layer of creative approach. I'm also a fan of the TV show "From" so use that to inform you what my tastes are like.

Some of the dialogue is cringe. Most of the acting is pretty good. One actor in particular is just reciting lines, Arlen So. Not really in the role at all.

Currently I'm looking forward to the next episode.

I'm 2 episodes in and there is so much dialog I feel like I'm watching a soap opera. This has become a problem in many of the shows coming out now. Lots of drama and dialogue and very little actual action. I read the book so I'm going to make it through. Hopefully the action picks up. It is a Stephen King after all.