I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and I really enjoyed the movie "The Mist," so I assume I'm part of the target market for this show... and so far, it's been pretty disappointing.
Spoilers may lie ahead!
Here's what I was looking for in a TV-series adaptation: Danger, suspense, backstory on where The Mist comes from, how it came to be released, lots and lots of big creatures (spiders! flies! crab-like things, tentacles!), people learning how to fight with the creatures, maybe a few gung-ho idiots that die quickly and a few gung-ho idiots that succeed in some missions through the mist, smart people who make survivalist plans, crazy people who think it's the end times, a bit of mob-mentality from people scared out of their minds, and hopefully some new twists to keep the show going -- like... maybe missions to Arrowhead to plug the leak, maybe some Pacific Rim style fighting the alien invasion, maybe the US military retaliating against the mist, maybe even some MIB agents or some mythical tale about how the mist had come before and what we need to do to stop it.
Here's what we've got so far up through episode 4: Teenagers dealing with gender issues, rape, underage drinking, marital issues, people casually playing games and chatting while waiting out the mist in a mall (even though they've seen the mist murder people just outside the doors), a few people dying from random things we either can't see or do see for a blip and then are gone with no explanation or exploration, and apparently THIS version of the mist has some sort of magic and consciousness as it "knows people," can conjure up dead people to taunt you, and gets thicker and thinner at times... oh, and the creatures are like... moths, roaches, and smoke-monsters.
I kid you not, 4 episodes in and people are tossing a football in the mall as if people hadn't died outside and squabbling over petty issues. A mother just saw her daughter die, yet she's calm enough to go sit on a pillow and chat about other things. She barely tried to open a door to go after her kid before a monster got her. For some reason, the mist itself IS the monster in a sense b/c people are scared to open a door to let it in... instead of it being just a fog to hide and/or sustain the monsters within it. The show is like "Under the Dome" meets "The Walking Dead" only with less suspense and less horror.
On the plus side, we do have a pastor who thinks it's the end times, a hippie who worships nature that thinks the creatures are manifestations of God, some soldiers who may know more about the Arrowhead project, and we have a girl who for some reason survived a smoke-monster attack. There are still plenty of people to use as fodder, and there's at least one working vehicle to use to explore. All the right notes are there to build something great on, so it's possible they could turn this around.
Maybe it takes 4 episodes to build some exposition... but, I doubt it. It's as if the writer/director thinks the show should be about feelings, deep societal issues, and growing pains instead of -- MONSTERS & people reacting to the END OF THE WORLD as they know it.
I was really hoping for more of a 12 Monkeys style adaptation. Take a movie concept, add in a lot of back-story, create several long story arcs that go beyond the original movie's premise into exciting new territory with new, fun, dangerous things to figure out & new bad-guys, plot twists, and adventures to explore.
Nah, this went all lifetime movie with some deadly fog. So sad.
Spoilers may lie ahead!
Here's what I was looking for in a TV-series adaptation: Danger, suspense, backstory on where The Mist comes from, how it came to be released, lots and lots of big creatures (spiders! flies! crab-like things, tentacles!), people learning how to fight with the creatures, maybe a few gung-ho idiots that die quickly and a few gung-ho idiots that succeed in some missions through the mist, smart people who make survivalist plans, crazy people who think it's the end times, a bit of mob-mentality from people scared out of their minds, and hopefully some new twists to keep the show going -- like... maybe missions to Arrowhead to plug the leak, maybe some Pacific Rim style fighting the alien invasion, maybe the US military retaliating against the mist, maybe even some MIB agents or some mythical tale about how the mist had come before and what we need to do to stop it.
Here's what we've got so far up through episode 4: Teenagers dealing with gender issues, rape, underage drinking, marital issues, people casually playing games and chatting while waiting out the mist in a mall (even though they've seen the mist murder people just outside the doors), a few people dying from random things we either can't see or do see for a blip and then are gone with no explanation or exploration, and apparently THIS version of the mist has some sort of magic and consciousness as it "knows people," can conjure up dead people to taunt you, and gets thicker and thinner at times... oh, and the creatures are like... moths, roaches, and smoke-monsters.
I kid you not, 4 episodes in and people are tossing a football in the mall as if people hadn't died outside and squabbling over petty issues. A mother just saw her daughter die, yet she's calm enough to go sit on a pillow and chat about other things. She barely tried to open a door to go after her kid before a monster got her. For some reason, the mist itself IS the monster in a sense b/c people are scared to open a door to let it in... instead of it being just a fog to hide and/or sustain the monsters within it. The show is like "Under the Dome" meets "The Walking Dead" only with less suspense and less horror.
On the plus side, we do have a pastor who thinks it's the end times, a hippie who worships nature that thinks the creatures are manifestations of God, some soldiers who may know more about the Arrowhead project, and we have a girl who for some reason survived a smoke-monster attack. There are still plenty of people to use as fodder, and there's at least one working vehicle to use to explore. All the right notes are there to build something great on, so it's possible they could turn this around.
Maybe it takes 4 episodes to build some exposition... but, I doubt it. It's as if the writer/director thinks the show should be about feelings, deep societal issues, and growing pains instead of -- MONSTERS & people reacting to the END OF THE WORLD as they know it.
I was really hoping for more of a 12 Monkeys style adaptation. Take a movie concept, add in a lot of back-story, create several long story arcs that go beyond the original movie's premise into exciting new territory with new, fun, dangerous things to figure out & new bad-guys, plot twists, and adventures to explore.
Nah, this went all lifetime movie with some deadly fog. So sad.