Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10
Cast: Mike Vogal, Rachelle Lefevre, Dean Norris, Alexander Koch, Colin Ford, Mackenzie Lintz, Eddie Cahill, Grace Victoria Cox, Max Erich, Dale Raoul, Sherry Stringfield, Dwight Yoakam, Brett Cullen, Aisha Hinds, Nicholas Strong, Britt Robertson, Natalie Martinez, Jolene Purdy, John Elvis.
What makes Stephen King’s Under The Dome so special that it has deserved more airtime than any of his other passages of American horror literature? It is a complex question that deserves answers, however there are but a few that present themselves adequately enough.
Novels such as Insomnia and Duma Key have not been touched, The Stand, arguably the master of 20th Century horror’s greatest work has only had a fairly average mini-series made. The same goes for novels such as Thinner, Hearts in Atlantis, Christine and Salem’s Lot having only the barest morsel attached to the bones and the only true masterpieces so far to have yet been captured properly are Misery and The Shining. By comparison Under The Dome is no Misery, it’s not even an It or even a Delores Claiborne, yet it somehow warrants two full seasons and a third yet to come in 2015.
Sometimes a viewer can have too much of a good thing and Under The Dome is that good thing. A tremendous idea, worthy of the prolific writer but to push it to three series is somehow taking liberties that the television audiences, that fans of Stephen King do not deserve. If The Stand with its multifaceted and epic themed tale of good and evil cannot capture the essence of the book, then where does Under The Dome fit in?
Yes there are exceptional characters, Rachelle Lefevre, Mike Vogel and Dean Norris play Julia Shumway, Dale ‘Barbie’ Barbara and James Rennie in the most terrific way, they are fully formed and fleshed out. They happen to be played by three really excellent actors also, which in terms of a series that has gone on too long, a good thing.
One excellent addition to the cast in season two is that of Eddie Cahill, formally of CSI:N.Y who plays the outcast brother-in-law of James Rennie. Mr. Cahill excels in the scenes between James Rennie, Julia Shumway and Dale Barbara and the explosive conflict between the three male members of the cast is as good as you could expect.
Like certain comic books, Time has no meaning when it comes Under The Dome. Two weeks have passed since the unnatural prison descended around the townsfolk of Chester’s Mill and yet so much has happened, so many people have died in mysterious way, the strange happenings, the reappearance of two women long since thought dead, secrets and lies, the huge changing of sides, the overall sense of watching a bigger version of Lord of the Flies has gone by in just a fortnight. Unlike the abnormal feel of the written word biting down into the flesh like some bibliophilic vampire in the vast majority of Stephen King’s novels and short stories, Under The Dome feels as unnatural as watching a giraffe roller skating to the sounds of Marillion’s Garden Party.
Some great ideas don’t deserve to peered at too closely, Under The Dome is one such idea that has become a torment.
Ian D. Hall