Maybe they should downplay Hamish Linklater in the "Previously"s. He seems more impressive than most of the regulars. And maybe that's the problem with the casting. Henry Zaga as Nick Andros? Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen? Goldberg seems more like stunt casting, and as others have noted Heard, really doesn't have the acting chops to portray Nadine.
Marsden, Young, and Adepo are just kinda... there. Only Teague, Wolff, and Skarsgard of the regulars is what I would call "good", and that's three regulars out of nine. Kinnear, I don't know.
As others have noted, the focus is less on the plague and more on the post-apocalyptic period. Although we get hefty flashbacks to Nick, Nadine, and Stu meeting Harold and Frannie. And that's of the show's lack of impact, too: the non-linear approach means you're regularly taken out of the story. And you've already got that with Flagg's "dreams", as well as they're filmed. Add on top of that the flashbacking, and the directors not making it clear that they're flashbacking, and you spend more time unravelling the timelines then you do focusing on the story the production staff is trying to tell, based on King's novel.
In fact, the whole thing raises the question of what the production staff is trying to _do_. Once the novelty of the Stand-pandemic compared to the current day pandemic wears off, you're left with... not much. It's pretty much a non-linear retelling of the novel, and thus the 80s miniseries. And if I want to see a visualization of the novel, I'll watch the 80s version. Walston is dead and Fagerbakke would have probably been confused for Patrick from 'Spongebob". But they're still better visualizations of the characters than what we get.
And part of it is just odd visual quirks. Nadine can't get Joe to come out from the under the bed... then in the next scene she's at the school and Joe was with her. Not only is that an odd bit if discontinuity, but what was the _point_ of having Joe hide under the bed? Except to trigger a 30-second flashback of how Nadine and Joe met Larry?
There's nothing bad with the episode: it changes a couple of things, with Heck Drogan coming to Boulder and Flagg speaking through him. But there's nothing good about it, either. It just... plods along.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Marsden, Young, and Adepo are just kinda... there. Only Teague, Wolff, and Skarsgard of the regulars is what I would call "good", and that's three regulars out of nine. Kinnear, I don't know.
As others have noted, the focus is less on the plague and more on the post-apocalyptic period. Although we get hefty flashbacks to Nick, Nadine, and Stu meeting Harold and Frannie. And that's of the show's lack of impact, too: the non-linear approach means you're regularly taken out of the story. And you've already got that with Flagg's "dreams", as well as they're filmed. Add on top of that the flashbacking, and the directors not making it clear that they're flashbacking, and you spend more time unravelling the timelines then you do focusing on the story the production staff is trying to tell, based on King's novel.
In fact, the whole thing raises the question of what the production staff is trying to _do_. Once the novelty of the Stand-pandemic compared to the current day pandemic wears off, you're left with... not much. It's pretty much a non-linear retelling of the novel, and thus the 80s miniseries. And if I want to see a visualization of the novel, I'll watch the 80s version. Walston is dead and Fagerbakke would have probably been confused for Patrick from 'Spongebob". But they're still better visualizations of the characters than what we get.
And part of it is just odd visual quirks. Nadine can't get Joe to come out from the under the bed... then in the next scene she's at the school and Joe was with her. Not only is that an odd bit if discontinuity, but what was the _point_ of having Joe hide under the bed? Except to trigger a 30-second flashback of how Nadine and Joe met Larry?
There's nothing bad with the episode: it changes a couple of things, with Heck Drogan coming to Boulder and Flagg speaking through him. But there's nothing good about it, either. It just... plods along.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
