laura is a writer about comics.
― one dis leads to another (ian), Saturday, 9 April 2011 18:54 (thirteen years ago) link
started reading the 'uncut' version
after 5 pages i knew everyone was gonna die
after 100 pages i knew which of the way-too-many not-terribly-interesting characters were going to survive, at least initially
after 200 pages the dying has barely even begun and i've had enough
― mookieproof, Monday, 22 April 2019 00:47 (five years ago) link
the not dying is the best part im told
― deemsthelarker (darraghmac), Monday, 22 April 2019 00:50 (five years ago) link
i read the long version but The Fans tend to prefer the shorter one, i believe
there are about 200 skippable pages in the middle (backstory for mother abigail and some trashcan man nonsense) but the rest is pretty good! no one likes the ending but parts of it are really powerful
if you don't like it after 200 pages, you should prob stop reading though.
"112263", a recent very long one, is better
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 22 April 2019 10:19 (five years ago) link
The "short" one blew my mind as a kid way more than any other King novel, and I read them all. Read the longer one when it came out, liked it just because I liked the chance to read hundreds of pages of 70s King I hadn't read, but I would recommend the original to all but completists. Loved the ending, didn't know others didn't!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 15:58 (five years ago) link
OK looking around the internet it seems like there are lots of people who didn't like the ending because they would have preferred a big ol' battle royale between the Forces of Good and the Forces of Evil which feels to me like a really stupid way for that novel to end so SK 1 Internet 0 as far as I'm concerned
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 16:02 (five years ago) link
the ending was dumb because it's an infantile depiction of good vs evil, which is weird because his character vignettes are way more illustrative of a more complex view of the same theme.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 April 2019 16:13 (five years ago) link
Man, I gotta disagree, given that Trashcan Man (who plays for the "evil" side but is obviously more complicated than that) is the vehicle of deliverance
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 16:18 (five years ago) link
Trashcan man being the one who brings the nuke is a great bit of plotting, it’s how the nuke gets set off that ppl object to
― mumsnet blvd (wins), Monday, 22 April 2019 16:27 (five years ago) link
And as someone who will usually argue that king’s endings are actually good I agree
― mumsnet blvd (wins), Monday, 22 April 2019 16:28 (five years ago) link
It (the novel) had an ending equally as bonkers as the Stand, but it worked much better
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 April 2019 16:36 (five years ago) link
ha ha see i am of exactly the opposite opinion, I read both as teens and the ending of It I was just, I don't even think I thought it was good or bad, I was just WHA-A-A-A-A, for me it was like when Aslan comes back, like "how does that even make any narrative sense"
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 16:39 (five years ago) link
The narrative doesn't matter as much in It, the cosmic spider battle was entertainingly nuts but is basically just a boss fight; the real ending of It is when Mike is seeing the ink fade from his notebooks and forgetting everything. but I guess you could make that argument for the Stand, it just felt to me like the reverse was the case there, that the narrative in the Stand WAS the bones of the thing vs It where the character arcs were the armature and the plot was just dressing hanging off of that. Why the Stand's ending didn't work. For me anyway, I'm guessing this could boil down to when it read both books and what I was going through at the time.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 April 2019 16:52 (five years ago) link
Oh I assumed you meant the orgy!
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 18:14 (five years ago) link
that scene would prob be better if it were an orgy, instead of an awkward queueing situation
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 22 April 2019 18:21 (five years ago) link
how did the nuke go off again
― deemsthelarker (darraghmac), Monday, 22 April 2019 18:34 (five years ago) link
everyone fucked it
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 22 April 2019 18:35 (five years ago) link
(god, iirc)
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 22 April 2019 18:36 (five years ago) link
it was an awkward queueing situation to say the least
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 18:43 (five years ago) link
hahaha, no, I skip the wayfinding orgy part of It
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:05 (five years ago) link
the most unbelievable part of the novel is a rock star named "Larry Underwood" having a hit called "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?"
― omar little, Monday, 22 April 2019 22:14 (five years ago) link
that always struck me as pitch-perfect 70s pop musician and hit single names!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:32 (five years ago) link
maybe! i don't know. i guess i always forget SK is a bit normcore in a lot of ways.
― omar little, Monday, 22 April 2019 22:35 (five years ago) link
That’s the weird thing about the expanded edition- king changed a bunch of cultural references so that it is now set in the 90s for no good reason, making the fact of a smash hit called “baby, can you dig your man” even more unlikely
― mumsnet blvd (wins), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:36 (five years ago) link
there's an expanded edition beyond the one published in the 80s?
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:42 (five years ago) link
There’s a really funny review of king’s last book by one of the younger generation of thriller writers where they basically spend the whole review going on about how every character’s frame of reference is all just stuff from 40 years ago
― mumsnet blvd (wins), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:43 (five years ago) link
Xp the expanded edition is from 1991 I think
― mumsnet blvd (wins), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:44 (five years ago) link
ah you're right it was published in 1991!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 April 2019 22:46 (five years ago) link
I always figured Larry Underwood had an Eddie Money thing going on or at least that is how I imagined "Baby, Can You Dig your Man" as sounding.
― earlnash, Monday, 22 April 2019 22:48 (five years ago) link
i guess part of it is SK had the opportunity to create a debauched rock star character with a massive (iirc) chart-topping hit and he gives him the name of this really good accountant you should see.
― omar little, Monday, 22 April 2019 22:53 (five years ago) link
lol i didn't realize that he'd updated the timeframe when he did the expansion -- that explains a good bit of strangeness
the first quote in the epigraph is springsteen's jungleland! of course he's normcore
― mookieproof, Monday, 22 April 2019 22:59 (five years ago) link
yeah the book is so powerfully 70s I just sorta blanked on any actual year references in it
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Monday, 22 April 2019 23:40 (five years ago) link
he's a righteous man
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 23:57 (five years ago) link
subtext is obviously "Baby, Can You Dig Your (Trashcan) Man"
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 23:58 (five years ago) link
DIGYOMAN
― ☮ (peace, man), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 11:21 (five years ago) link
you like that happy crappy?
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 14:22 (five years ago) link
that brown sound sure do get around.
― ☮ (peace, man), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 14:57 (five years ago) link
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/05/stephen-kings-the-stand-exclusive-first-look
This has been remade, to be released in December. Most of this article just lays out who the characters are. Whoopi Goldberg is playing Mother Abigail and mentions that “I’ve been fighting with not making her the Magic Negro because she’s complicated.” Also, Larry Underwood is portrayed by Jovan Adepo, a black actor. No word yet on how they will update Baby, Can You Dig Your Man.
― peace, man, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 13:23 (three years ago) link
The timing of this is kind of amazing and I’m actually surprised they didn’t try and bring the release forward a bit - even though the pandemic part fades from the story and is really scene-setting for the supernatural post-apocalyptic stuff, if this is any good at all it could be huge
― agent brodie canks (wins), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 14:49 (three years ago) link
Oh dear lord no not now.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 14:51 (three years ago) link
Whoopi Goldberg is playing Mother Abigail and mentions that “I’ve been fighting with not making her the Magic Negro because she’s complicated.”
Seems hard given this character is almost the purest example of the trope ever put to the page.
No word yet on how they will update Baby, Can You Dig Your Man.
No updates needed, he's a righteous man
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 14:52 (three years ago) link
Newer adaptations of king’s bid novels are very keen to preempt common complaints and it never seems to result in better filmsSpeaking of which, king himself has apparently written the last episode and given it a new ending to replace the hated hand of god comes down and pokes a nuke sequence
― agent brodie canks (wins), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:14 (three years ago) link
That scene is hated? I can't deny it comes out of nowhere but it's so much a part of my experience of the novel that I can't imagine a version not having it. Like, I neither hate it nor love it, it just seems like part of what The Stand IS.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:16 (three years ago) link
It’s one that comes up when people discuss the conventional wisdom that King sucks at endings - there is definitely something very lazy about it, if mother Abigail is the purest example of a magical negro then this is surely the purest example of deus ex machina
― agent brodie canks (wins), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:33 (three years ago) link
I think I simultaneously understand (and even understood reading it as a kid) that it's a cheap ending, while being unable to imagine it any other way. That said, I have a lot of faith in El Rey and if he's writing a new ending I believe he has something that will feel right.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:37 (three years ago) link
I have a degree of affection for King's 'let's say...Moe' endings. I know what to expect generally and am pleasantly surprised when he sticks the landing.
― the secret of sucess is to know all rules ...and brake them (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:40 (three years ago) link
...and then everyone in The Boulder Free Zone went down into the sewers and had sex with Frannie. The End.
― Orson Well Yeah (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:51 (three years ago) link
Interesting that one of his best Big Book Endings, 11-22-63, came from a suggestion from Joe Hill
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 August 2020 11:17 (three years ago) link
Good casting - I always like Marsden, the John Barrowman Who Can Act, Kinnear and Skarsgard both seem like good fits for their roles too. Plus bonus points for not casting Michael Sheen, who must never play an American again
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 August 2020 11:23 (three years ago) link
“We love old people. We just do,” said Goldberg. “On top of everything else they have been, and seen, and have different ideas and are probably trying to lead us in a good way.
hm this has not been my experience of the last 6 months.
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Thursday, 27 August 2020 16:36 (three years ago) link
I liked this ep, but there are flaws. a lot of the ep is dedicated to the outbreak, but the time jumps around arbitrarily with no aim or purpose, and would probably have confused me if I didn't know the story.
managed to capture the dread of a society slowly rotting, and a bit of time during the naive period where they thought it was just a bad flu they would outlast.
Presidential address was pretty chilling.
Overreliance on "coughing to make it obvious I'm fatally sick", like Eazy E in Straight OUtta Compton
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 22 December 2020 01:57 (three years ago) link
having Harold be totally crazy incel with a manifesto maniac from the start seems like a mistake - it leaves out any room for character development, proper story arc or any tension as to how things will play out? I feel like the original mini series did that storyline fairly well, because Franny did sympathise with him somewhat and the audience could too despite him being a total dork. With the new version we know he's going to try to kill them from episode 1, and we know Franny and Stu will be a couple... just feels weird. Overall despite totally not liking how they're going back and forth in the timeline, which wrecks so much of what makes the book great, I thought it wasn't too bad and i'm curious to see all the characters they left out of Ep 1
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Tuesday, 22 December 2020 12:23 (three years ago) link
also they must have spent a shit ton on sync rights for the music on this
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Tuesday, 22 December 2020 12:24 (three years ago) link
Yes, those are weird choices that I do not like the sound of.
― You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 22 December 2020 12:39 (three years ago) link
I’m all in on this Harold. I thought I recognised him from somewhere - same guy who played Patrick hockstetter in crappy It adaptation (talk about a waste!) The more I think about it the more I like this opening ep but worry about how it’s going to play out. I didn’t watch lost but I don’t get the sense they are trying to make a puzzle, felt more like what gerwig did with little women - telling a familiar story non-linearly gives a sense of simultaneity, everything happening all at once, that adds some immediacy (also maybe they’re trying to supply the missing Yeats line). And it is a familiar story, even if you haven’t read it or seen the old series - it’s no work at all to fill in the gaps from everyone is sick —> everyone is dead. Obv it’s less assured than gerwig and I think going forward it may fuck with the momentum a bit but I didn’t mind the structure at all, my main problems were with how some of the scenes themselves were realised (I expected that tho). Not convinced by marsden yet, I know redman is kind of a boring stoic hero type but he didn’t react much at all to the actual end of the world/other scary stuff happening. Supernatural side of things feels like where it could really go off the rails, it may not be possible - or even desirable - to do the dreams in a non-cheesy way (and they certainly haven’t) but the glimpses we have so far are p bad
― Cheese flavoured Momus (wins), Tuesday, 22 December 2020 12:52 (three years ago) link
Second ep much more jarring with the time jumps. Nadine and Joe show up in present day without explanation about how they met Larry. Why not....just show that first?
It was ok. Got bored.
Lloyd Heinreid and Poke appear. As does Rita.
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Thursday, 24 December 2020 15:43 (three years ago) link
lol I’m still waiting to be annoyed by this They attempted a version of the scariest scene in the book (+ one of the most disturbing) and kinda flubbed it but a lot of other big moments from the novel - larrys mum dying, Larry meeting Harold, Lloyd in prison were well done Casting is good, I really like this Lloyd It’s definitely following a modern tv formula - I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see too much of mother Abigail and then midway through a whole episode just about her I will feel cheated if we don’t actually get to hear baby can you dig your man
― Cheese flavoured Momus (wins), Thursday, 24 December 2020 18:54 (three years ago) link
I definitely liked the Lloyd/Flagg scene.
They're showing more of the outbreak times than people feared. In alarming visual detail.
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Thursday, 24 December 2020 19:02 (three years ago) link
They really went for it with the swollen neck, it’s gross
― Cheese flavoured Momus (wins), Thursday, 24 December 2020 19:11 (three years ago) link
They attempted a version of the scariest scene in the book (+ one of the most disturbing) and kinda flubbed it
The tunnel?
― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Thursday, 24 December 2020 19:14 (three years ago) link
Yea although they changed it up and also sorta seemed to combine it with another bit (the zoo) - didn’t really work for me
― Cheese flavoured Momus (wins), Thursday, 24 December 2020 19:21 (three years ago) link
Honestly don't think that scene can possibly translate to film and have the same impact.
― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Thursday, 24 December 2020 19:28 (three years ago) link
The Baby Can You Dig Your Man in this series sounds way more like what i expected in the book
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Friday, 1 January 2021 17:35 (three years ago) link
From the 12 seconds i heard
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Friday, 1 January 2021 17:36 (three years ago) link
Guess I’ll retype this here: I am still enjoying this! It is often silly (like the book) but incredibly well cast. Glen & stu broing out over a post apocalypse cold one is the most Stephen king scene ever - unlike stu glen went to college which you can tell cause he is listening to “so what” by miles lol Tom Cullen is still 😬😬😬😬 that spells 😒 tho I like this actor (coover from justified s2!) I am enjoying all the actors. This nick is dreamy. Skarsgård is looking more like his dad than I remember. Between Owen Teague and some latter J Gylenhaal performances I’m seeing a bit of a re-mainstreaming of crispin glover’s vibe
― Cheese flavoured Momus (wins), Friday, 1 January 2021 19:29 (three years ago) link
I did like this episode as well.
Lol i commented on Miles Davis too.
I like who they got for Andros
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Friday, 1 January 2021 21:03 (three years ago) link
xp should I bother watching this, or is it just “good for a Stephen King adaptation”?
― scampish inquisition (gyac), Friday, 1 January 2021 21:05 (three years ago) link
Worth it for Harold alone imo Maybe my expectations have been worn down by how bad this “prestige king” era has been but I am enjoying it way more than I expected to! I think most of the decisions being made are otm
― Cheese flavoured Momus (wins), Friday, 1 January 2021 21:17 (three years ago) link
glen: would you like to come back to mine for some caviarstu: (extremely good ol boy voice) cavi-what?But lol if this line isn’t from the book I can guarantee you Stephen’s idiot son wrote it
― Cheese flavoured Momus (wins), Friday, 1 January 2021 21:19 (three years ago) link
That doesn't read like an SK original to me, but I am fully ready to be corrected if I'm wrong about this.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 1 January 2021 21:48 (three years ago) link
Hmm i'm 5 long hours into this now (not really had the enthusiasm to keep up to date week by week) and feel like I know/like all these characters far less than I did in the 6 hour miniseries... I just don't know how they managed to make this so long given so far they've missed tons of things I would have expected them to include? Especially when the new additions have been pretty unnecessary. Almost all of the Vegas/lloyd stuff from episode 5 was tonally just terrible, particularly the acting. It's quite something when Cyclops is one of the most charismatic cast members in your show. not a fan of new Harold either, the guy is totally unable to seem even in a tiny bit normal, and again his tone just contrasts so heavily from the (yes slightly boring) naturalism of everyone else in boulder that the idea they seem not to really notice is just laughable.
meh.
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Wednesday, 27 January 2021 23:57 (three years ago) link
the fact that nobody else posted for 3 weeks maybe means others are also unimpressed?
I don't hate it, I don't love it, I appreciate it, but I get frustrated with the time jumps, which I think is part of why it feels like it's missing so much.
I decided to watch The Expanse instead, I'll come back to it eventually
― if Spaghetti-Os had whammy bars (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 27 January 2021 23:59 (three years ago) link
just finished thisoof
― jammy mcnullity (wins), Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:09 (three years ago) link
this (1994 version anyway) is on Horror Channel UK at 1 tomorrow afternoon, boxing day, for ~8 hours
― koogs, Saturday, 25 December 2021 22:44 (two years ago) link
When the 2020 series came out I signed up for a trial Paramount subscription, watched two episodes and didn’t care for them. Currently have access again so I finished the series. I really didn’t end up liking this much.
Some of the casting didn’t work as we well for me as the old TV version. Didn’t like Whoopi as Mother A, and Harold was okay but too one-note psycho as noted above. Hard to know what to do with Tom Cullen, but that wasn’t it. Others were bland and uninteresting.
Agree that the non-linear storyline in the first episodes hinders way more than it helps. Also disliked Vegas; Lloyd, Julie Lawry and Ratwoman were hammy and horrible. New epilogue was pretty meh.
Overall I give it C-.
― Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable POST (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 17 January 2024 20:54 (three months ago) link