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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Tuesday Tirade. Under the Dome.

Okay maybe it's too early to start making judgement calls but I'm annoyed. Last night, I watched the first of 13 installments of Stephen King's "Under the Dome", the TV miniseries based on the novel by Stephen King.

Let me give you a little history. When I was in 4th grade I read The Shining. Did I mention I went to Catholic school? Sister Catherine never had a clue, she was too busy eating or yelling at the boys to care what I was doing. I LOVED that book, I LOVED the feeling I got when I read it, being scared of the things I was envisioning in my head. I'm not a big fan of scary movies, slasher flicks, I never saw Saw. I actually made my friend leave the theater within the first 20 minutes of A Nightmare on Elm Street because it was too creepy. But you give me a good horror novel, one that I can sink my fangs into and my imagination goes NUTS. But in a good way. I can read when I'm home alone at night during a storm. I can read on the beach under the hot summer sun. I. Love. Horror. And I'm a Stephen King fanatic.

So imagine my disappointment with so many of his movies! With only a handful of exceptions (Creepshow, Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption and most notably The Green Mile), most of the movies based on King's novels smell awful. Believe it or not, I did enjoy the original movie version of The Shining, however when ABC remade it staring Steven Weber (the other guy from Wings), I was tickled that they changed the scene where Danny is walking through the topiary and, from his peripheral vision, he can see them moving, but when he looks straight at the bushes, they are still, but in a different position than they were before. That part of the book absolutely excited me, and when I finally saw it on screen, I was just beside myself. It was exactly as I had envisioned it in my head when I was reading the book.

Fast forward to the opening scene of Under the Dome, and nothing is as I remember it. Keep in mind, I am only 2/3 of the way into the book, so I'm not truly into the blood and guts of the whole shebang yet, but there are so many things that aren't consistent with the book, I'm beginning to get discouraged. If you haven't read it, you'll probably want to just stop reading because you'll get bored and nod off. You may even drool on your keyboard a little. Don't blame me if it shorts out, I warned you.

For those of you still with me, here's my problem (ok I've got many). The book opens on a beautiful October day with the plane crashing into the dome. Nowhere in the opening of the book do we see Dale Barbara (Barbie) burying a body. Junior Redding kills Angie and her good buddy Dodie, he doesn't lock Angie in a bomb shelter. Angie is a waitress, NOT a candy striper! Julia Shumway is SINGLE, not married to a doctor. And what the hell is up with Barbie burying the doctor that Julia is supposed to be married to??? Linda the cop is married to Rusty, the doctor from the hospital, NOT the fire fighter on the other side of the dome. I thought Linda was a fire fighter or EMT. AND furthermore, Linda and Rusty are NOT newlyweds, they have been married for long enough to have 2 daughters. They have a dog who senses one of their daughter's seizures! So why are they mixing things up so much??? Oy vey, watching it, I found myself going 'what? wait, what?' so many times my family was probably getting irritated. They'll probably start their OWN Tuesday Tirade blog post.

I'll keep watching and I'll keep reading and I'll see if I get further annoyed or if it'll all start to tie together as it goes on. If you're watching and/or have read the book, give me your thoughts/feedback. I'd love to hear what you think so far.

And on a POSITIVE note, I'm down 3 lbs. as of yesterday morning. So far, my Soft to Sculpted program from LeanMoms.com seems to be working well!

18 comments:

  1. UGH! So annoying! I did see on the commercial where a blonde girl was locked in the bomb shelter, and I'm almost done with the book and was wondering WTF b/c that hasn't happened. It's so annoying when they change characters being married to OTHER charaacters, yikes. His characters are the BEST PART. Don't mess with what Stephen King does best. He IS so successful for a REASON. I have the 1st episode on DVR, I appreciate the heads up. I would have been yelling my head off, too. Now I'll just have a beer first and be ready :)

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    1. If I'm not mistaken he was pretty heavily involved in this production, Joy, which is why I can't understand all the changes! My friend Sharon said that Stephen King is helping to write this and using ideas that he didn't have in the book to make it last longer. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

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  2. I'm not going to ruin the book ending for you, but I think I have an explanation as to why some characters from the book have disappeared in the show version. I would be happy to tell you it when you've finished the book :)

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    1. Buffy I'd like to discuss it once I'm finished. I'm thinking it'll take me the length of the miniseries to finish the book but will you stay tuned to the blog and my FB page and comment as the weeks go by?

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    2. I'm looking forward to it :)

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  3. I was yelling at the TV and my husband all through the program going that's not right or that wasn't in the movie. I'm sure he wanted to tell me to shut up but wouldn't so I completely agree with. I loved the book and Stephen King so I will watch the series and just complain glad I'm not alone...

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    1. I'll continue to watch. And probably complain.

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  4. I'm with Barbie on the possible explanation. I enjoyed the book (didn't think it was his best, but enjoyed it) and DVR'd the show last night to watch tonight (because there is never anything on on Tuesday nights) but almost all of my Facebook friends have expressed their utter disappointment. Hmmm...makes me wonder if I should just clear out the space on the DVR for something else.

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    1. No Amy! Watch and compare! I need company in my kvetching!

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  5. We can't stay up that late, so we're hoping it's in the On Demand section (Comcast). And, I won't be yelling at the television as I have not yet read/finished the book. I started reading it out loud to entertain my honey on a road trip & didn't get too far along. He's been begging me off and on for a year to pick it back up but I have NO idea where I put the damn book!! Like how do you lose a book IN THE HOUSE?!?!? ;)

    (I was pregnant at the time so perhaps it's a case of "baby brain"?)

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    1. As long as you don't actually lose the BABY you'll be fine. But you're right, it's not a small book, so it should be relatively easy to find.

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  6. I also am a Stephen King fan, although I have not read the Dome. I think the Shining was one of my favorites, too. I absolutely loved Lisa's Story.

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    1. The Stand and The Talisman will forever by my favorites. Great taste in books, Eva!

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  7. Finally had a chance to watch, so of course I'm adding my opinion (you did ask for it, no?). I would agree about the translation of SK books to movies not having a great track record except for the shorter stories (and the TV version of The Shining). This book, however, is sooooo long and has sooooo many characters with what turn out to be less than integral parts to play in the story, that I'm hoping SK has decided to mesh some together and cut some out to make the show move along more quickly than the book. It would take 13 SEASONS, not shows, to include all of the characters with their individual backstories and be rather boring to watch IMHO. I would also guess that necrophilia doesn't play too well on network TV and since most of those scenes in the book don't have much dialog, that storyline wouldn't be quite as effective on the small screen. I am bummed that they don't seem to be playing up the Halloween spooky part with the kids' seizures (the tension leading up to Halloween in the book was a killer for me!). Maybe that'll come later. And I was blown away that Phil Bushey was African-American! Did I miss that in the book or did they just need a person of color for TV? We're talking god-forsaken-middle-of-nowhere-Maine people! I liked the crazy religious radio station in the book but knew that would never translate to TV either. OK, before my comment becomes longer than your original post, I'll just say that I'm hoping that the additional dead body/Julia's doctor husband plot line adds something good to the story. I'm pretty open-minded. I'll keep watching and commenting along with you as we go!

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    1. And this is where I'm thinking I may have to do some more reading this weekend, because I'm not quite to the Halloween/seizure part yet, so I'm making judgements on things I know nothing about (yet). Thanks for the input, Ter and please do keep commenting along. I'm probably going to be posting weekly as we progress with the show (and I progress with the book).

      Always a pleasure hearing from you, my friend!!! <3

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  8. I hated the way the show left things... Did the dome come down? Did Barbie die? WTH happened...

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