New Stand Mini Series Episode 1 Review

 

For years, and I think as far back as ten years, I have been waiting for the remake of The Stand. Not that I didn’t love the one from 1994, but I just loved The Stand. It was a book I read over and over, albeit I skipped a lot of Trash Can man scenes, and the mini series was at least a yearly viewing pleasure. I loved it so much the complete box set was a Valentine's Day gift from my second Husband.

So when it was announced it would be on CBS access, I knew I would finally see that remake. I wanted to not give spoilers, but that’s impossible so SPOILER ALERT.

Spoilers, you say, how can there be spoilers, it’s The Stand. Well …. There is. Things are different.

For starters it doesn’t start at the beginning, like the book or the OG miniseries. It starts about halfway through the book in Boulder. The first episode delivers the plague in flashbacks, at first I was iffy about this, but then I liked it. I finished watching the maiden episode hopeful that we would see more from the book as i goes on than we did in the original mini series.

This episode gives us a hint of Mother Abigail, but not enough to judge Whoopie’s performance and a splash of the Dark Man, hot Alexander Skargard. But it centers on Harold, Stu and Franny and their background stories. Those are rich with information. Although I did think some of the Stu dialogue was contrived. Like forced narrative down our throats. “Yes, I was at the gas station with Hap when that sick military guy Campion drove through after escaping his base and talked about a code red."

Something like that.

It goes into more depth of Harold and Franny more than anything, even more than Stu. But not as deep as the Franny in the book nor is she the same.. The actress is wonderful but … what the hell have they done to Franny? She is so unlikeable, so bitchy, that I didn’t care how depressed she was. I didn’t care about her at all and when they showed her in present day Boulder, they spent so much showing how trivial she was, her present day character is not believable. 

And … SPOILER …. When Harold utters his last line, I nodded and said, “Yeah, please.”

Unless you have seen the episode you won’t know what that means.

And, well, unless you have read the book or seen the original mini series, I’m not convinced the new viewer won’t be confused.

All and all I am still excited for the weekly dive into the apocalypse Stephen King style. And of course, eventually, Greg Kinnear will be on. I am anxious for Larry and Nick

While I think others will be on the fence, I give it a thumbs up and think this Mini Series is gonna be fantastic and meet my expectations.

What did you think?