The Stand (2020)

[Stercutus]

In a timely and perhaps prescient move CBS all access is releasing an updated mini-series of the Stephen King classic The Stand this year.

Whoppi Goldberg will portray Mother Abigail and Alexander Skarsgård will portray Randall Flagg. I think these are solid casting choices. Even though the series revolves around the two, characters others of the cast should get much more screen time.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1831804/

James Marsden will portray Stu Redman and Benjamin Cavell will play Larry. Amber Heard will play Nadine Cross. Marsden won't even have to act, he can just be himself.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/jame ... 203523822/

[MPMalloy]

In a timely and perhaps prescient move CBS all access is releasing an updated mini-series of the Stephen King classic The Stand this year.

Whoppi Goldberg will portray Mother Abigail and Alexander Skarsgård will portray Randall Flagg. I think these are solid casting choices. Even though the series revolves around the two, characters others of the cast should get much more screen time.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1831804/

James Marsden will portray Stu Redman and Benjamin Cavell will play Larry. Amber Heard will play Nadine Cross. Marsden won't even have to act, he can just be himself.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/jame ... 203523822/

Run time? I liked the book, the mini-series was good. So much got left out, though.

[Stercutus]

Looks like ten one hour episodes for the initial offering.

[wee drop o' bush]

Stephen King tweeted this today, just after I was thinking about whether or not I wanted to re-read The Stand

No, coronavirus is NOT like THE STAND. It’s not anywhere near as serious. It’s eminently survivable. Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions.

[MPMalloy]

Looks like ten one hour episodes for the initial offering.

I hope they stay true to the original book. The unabridged edition. That book rocked!

[Stercutus]

Stephen King tweeted this today, just after I was thinking about whether or not I wanted to re-read The Stand

No, coronavirus is NOT like THE STAND. It’s not anywhere near as serious. It’s eminently survivable. Keep calm and take all reasonable precautions.

Yeah, Captain Tripps killed 99.9% of the population and once you got it you were dead. COVOID-19 is pretty weak, killing at absolute highest 6% of those known infected, and a real number likely closer to .5% of the total population.

But .5% is a lot of people.

[MacWa77ace]

Looks like ten one hour episodes for the initial offering.

I hope they stay true to the original book. The unabridged edition. That book rocked!

Wasn't that like 800 pages?

S1:E1-24
S2:E1-24
S3:E1-24
S4:E1-24
S5:E1-24
S6:E1-24
S7:E1-24
S8:E1-24

[MPMalloy]

Looks like ten one hour episodes for the initial offering.

I hope they stay true to the original book. The unabridged edition. That book rocked!

Wasn't that like 800 pages?

Yes, it was a tome.

[JackBauer]

Absolute best book ever.
Probably read it 15 times

HBO definitely has the chops to do the adaptation justice..

[Evan the Diplomat]

I was such a nerd in high school that I actually cut class to sit in my car and read The Stand.

[Zombie309]

Ugh, this needs to be on HBO or Showtime to do it justice. It'll suck on CBS.

[majorhavoc]

Ugh, this needs to be on HBO or Showtime to do it justice. It'll suck on CBS.

Agreed. Or AMC. Or Netflix. Or an Amazon original. I've outgrown network television.

Ironically, I'm rereading The Stand right now. I last read it as a 16 year old. I won't say exactly when that was, but suffice it to say the novel was probably still on the NY Times best seller list. I must say it's a completely different book to the middle aged me than it was to the teenage version.

King has just enough of the nitty gritty of post apocalyptic survival to appeal to the prepper side of me. The other 95% of the story is simply a ripping good yarn. Which probably explains why hardcore survivalist fiction, though no doubt appealing to the ZS crowd, will rarely if ever find a mainstream audience.

[cbare]

The stand was the first novel I read as a kid. Have I reread it several times, I was disappointed with the The miniseries and have been waiting for it to be redone for years but now in 2020 with Covid I just don’t have the will to watch this anymore.

[Lambykins]

Has anyone seen the first couple of episodes?
I haven't, but I have read what the critics are saying (and most of them have seen the first SIX episodes).
Most of the critics are not impressed.

[Javelineer]

Yeah, this is probably gonna suck at least as hard as Under the Dome did. Not that I'm ever going to watch it, since I don't own and no longer have access to a television.

I don't know why any director who isn't Kubrick thinks he can do justice to a King novel. His novels, the half of them that I actually like at least, always strike me as largely unfilmable.

[raptor2]

The part of the episode I watched was dismal.
Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail (i.e. the character blessed by God to lead the good group) is such a miscast role that it is pathetic.

[echo83]

At first, I was cautiously optimistic to hear this was being made. I think The Stand is King's best work, and I've read the full edition a few times.

I hate being that "the book is better than the movie," guy, but in this case, I mean, c'mon...how is any major network channel going to successfully adapt this? There's way too much ground to cover.

One of the viewership's biggest gripes is that the series starts in the middle of the book, and then works in the past and future. This ruins the narrative structure; infection, coverup, breakdown, more coverup, crisis, then the hero/villain journey.

It probably also ruins the most realistic aspect of the book; not everyone is a hero, or the best and brightest on their own...we're just trying to get where we're going, and hopefully find some like-minded folks along the way.

[majorhavoc]

I hate being that "the book is better than the movie," guy, but in this case, I mean, c'mon...how is any major network channel going to successfully adapt this? There's way too much ground to cover.

That's what I said for years about Tolkien's work. Then Lord of the Rings came out. The Stand deserves the Peter Jackson treatment. And by that I mean LOTR Jackson. Not <*retch*> The Hobbit Jackson.

ETA: Agree with your point about any major network channel doing it justice.

[Vicarious_Lee]

The part of the episode I watched was dismal.
Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail (i.e. the character blessed by God to lead the good group) is such a miscast role that it is pathetic.

My bestie and I are not digging it either. Other than adding cell phones and mentioning Instagram once, this series isn't updated. I mean Randall Flagg still head to toe in denim? It's not 1978. Lucifer the series has set the bar pretty freaking high for how Satan is supposed to dress.

The dialogue is crusty, that's not how people talk or relate to each other anymore.

And Whoopie Goldberg as Mother Abagail...man that one does NOT fit like, AT ALL.

I had high hopes because CBS also did Picard which, I'm not exaggerating, is probably the best single season of a television show I have ever watched. And Picard is an awesome contrast to The Stand on how to nostalgia bomb people and get absolutely everything pitch perfect.

[Lambykins]

I watched the first episode as they had it up on youtube for free.
And........
No.
Just....No.
Disjointed. Confusing. Tepid (if that) acting.
The worst thing of all (as a SK fan)...it has no heart.
All his books have *heart* for lack of a better term.
This has no heart. All the heart/soul is gone.
When I read The Stand, I could not stop! I had to keep reading...Now what? Now what? Oh no!
I was enthralled.
The original mini-series was well done (even with the cheesy special effects of the time). You believed those characters (well, except maybe Molly Ringwald as Frannie). The original mini-series had some of the heart intact.
I watched the first episode and my reaction was "Meh "

[NT2C]

I watched the first episode as they had it up on youtube for free.
And........
No.
Just....No.
Disjointed. Confusing. Tepid (if that) acting.
The worst thing of all (as a SK fan)...it has no heart.
All his books have *heart* for lack of a better term.
This has no heart. All the heart/soul is gone.
When I read The Stand, I could not stop! I had to keep reading...Now what? Now what? Oh no!
I was enthralled.
The original mini-series was well done (even with the cheesy special effects of the time). You believed those characters (well, except maybe Molly Ringwald as Frannie). The original mini-series had some of the heart intact.
I watched the first episode and my reaction was "Meh "

“People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk.” ― Stephen King

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

I watched the first episode as they had it up on youtube for free.
And........
No.
Just....No.
Disjointed. Confusing. Tepid (if that) acting.
The worst thing of all (as a SK fan)...it has no heart.
All his books have *heart* for lack of a better term.
This has no heart. All the heart/soul is gone.
When I read The Stand, I could not stop! I had to keep reading...Now what? Now what? Oh no!
I was enthralled.
The original mini-series was well done (even with the cheesy special effects of the time). You believed those characters (well, except maybe Molly Ringwald as Frannie). The original mini-series had some of the heart intact.
I watched the first episode and my reaction was "Meh "

“People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk.” ― Stephen King

You know, as weird as Steven King comes off in his mannerisms, I'm not entirely sure he's joking. Dude may very well actually have the heart of a small boy on his desk.

And that's probably not the weirdest thing in his office.

[Lambykins]

Well, apparently The Stand jumped the shark.
For those of you that have read the novel and/or watched the original mini-series...
Trashcan Man is now an autistic/mentally challenged young man in his early 20s (possibly late teens). According to most critics, the character is woefully OVER acted as having those disabilities and clumsily and enthusiastically masturbates every time he sets off a fire/explosion.
Several tv/film critics I follow on youtube have called the show "offensive" at this point and a few have completely bailed on watching it and posting videos about it.
The most positive review called it "a dumpster fire that needs to be put out".

[Vicarious_Lee]

Well, apparently The Stand jumped the shark.
For those of you that have read the novel and/or watched the original mini-series...
Trashcan Man is now an autistic/mentally challenged young man in his early 20s (possibly late teens). According to most critics, the character is woefully OVER acted as having those disabilities and clumsily and enthusiastically masturbates every time he sets off a fire/explosion.
Several tv/film critics I follow on youtube have called the show "offensive" at this point and a few have completely bailed on watching it and posting videos about it.
The most positive review called it "a dumpster fire that needs to be put out".

The year is 2020. The virus has killed off over 99% of the population. Solar power just kinda doesn't exist though, neither do hybrid cars, electric cars, or portable battery banks. There are approximately SEVEN mag-fed semiautomatic rifles for every man, woman, and child left alive in the United States. Not to mention the massive proliferation of things like suppressors and night vision. So naturally they send one of their spies to New Vegas with nothing more than a revolver.

This new Trashcan Man has trouble putting on pants or navigating a doorway. Naturally he'll be the guy that can reverse engineer a nuclear warhead, bypass all the safeties, and successfully arm it.

I don't often use the phrase Star Wars Episode I-level bad, but this is just insulting. For anyone that likes or fondly remembers the stand, just don't watch this.