It's not the greatest ending in the world, so there's not much the production staff can do. There's no literal "Hand of God", but that didn't play well in either the novel or the 80s mini-series. It doesn't play well here, either, as a "hand" literal or otherwise. The destruction of New Vegas is... okay. I don't really get the fact that the place needed a Sodom & Gomorrah-type ending. Mostly we just saw a lot of people having sex. So God... doesn't like sex?
Yeah, I know that there's more to New Vegas than just sex. But the production staff never really got around to showing us any more than that until now and the last episode. Too little, too late.
And of course, Flagg deserves to get it. Unfortunately, what little subtlety he had is pretty much lost in this adaptation. And so did the 80s mini-series, to be fair. Flagg is a character who begs for a literary development, because he was never going to come across as fully-fleshed on TV. No faulty of Skarsgard, or Sheridan before him. You work with what you've got. I think Skarsgard could have done the more subtle stuff: there just no call for it in this mini-series/
Oddly, Flagg probably gets the most sympathetic portrayal just because Skarsgard does do him as charismatic. Even his last bit of singing his song and smiling in the face of the "Hand" gives him a better ending than pretty much anyone else.
The whole idea of "a stand" does make a little more sense, with Glen, Larry, and Ray being put on trial. It works better than Glen being shot in the head by Lloyd. And kudos to both Kinnear and Wolff, who get to do a little more than was on the page. It's still kind of vague: so Abigail sent them to New Vegas on God's behalf so they could... get wiped out in a nuclear bomb? Even if they're witnesses, it's not like they live to tell anyone. The ending is just an excuse for a flurry of destruction, as we see Rat Woman get blown apart. There's no repentance: Lloyd turns against Flagg, and gets decapitated.
As I've noted, maybe that's the point with an Old Testament sort of God like we get. You turn against him, and you're dead. Game over, man, game over. Still, it makes for a weird watching experience. Like in the novel, Glen gets ignominiously killed. But... Ray doesn't. I would have rather seen Glen at the end, then Ray and Larry holding hands.
The mini-series basically conveys the whole good vs. evil vibe that King did in his novel. But without any subtlety. God looks like a big ole dick. Which is the point: King was going for an Old Testament vibe, and the God in the OT is _not_ a nice guy. But in the mini-series, Flagg and Abigail don't seem that different. At the beginning Glen mentions that the NV residents are sad, lost people, and Flagg makes them feel a little less lost. Isn't that what Abigail did? Why did people like Teddy end up in Boulder? And Frannie tried to kill herself: you don't get much more lost than that. I guess how likeable you are means God sets you up to where you end up.
And maybe that's the point. It's just a flip of the coin, and everyone are pawns between Good and Evil. But at least the novel gave us some insight into some of the characters. Remember Barry Dorgan in the novels? He was an ex-detective who turned to Flagg because Flagg promised law and order. Here, we don't even get him. Since mostly we get Lloyd and Julia, it makes the NV residents look like sex-hungry sociopaths. And Rat Woman. I like Fiona Dourif, but boy she gets a lot of screen-time for basically no purpose except to provide a sounding board to Lloyd.
In the novel , Abigail says that Flagg draws those who have "left God out of their hearts". But we never get the impression that the people we know in Boulder have let God into their heart. Basically, the mini-series is very atheist, and substitutes "nice" and "sociopathic" for "Good" and "Evil". Which is strange, since the source novel is heavily religious. But oh well.
Yes, there is some talking about God, mostly by Abigail. But that's about it.
As I noted, the whole non-religious aspect does make Glen look better, since he's an atheist of sorts. And Kinnear is good: he just doesn't have the gravitas of Walston in the 80s mini-series. Granted, it's hard to look bad in 2020 American TV when you're the "rational man" character.
Again, maybe this is all the whole point, as it was with the original novel. Nobody has a happy ending (except Stu, Frannie, and Tom), God is terrible and ineffable, and we're all just pawns. But it doesn't make for very interesting TV. It barely did in the 80s with the performances, and no offense to Marsden, Young, Heard, Adepo, Skarsdgard, etc. But they're not a touch the actors in the 80s mini-series.
Overall, I'm not seeing the point in yet another remake of King's magnum opus. The "novelty" of it being about a pandemic, when there was a real-life pandemic, was lost in the first couple of episodes. I suppose you could read modern-day politics and society into the mini-series, but you could do that with the original novel and 80s mini-series, too. The commentary I've seen seems to suggests that the mini-series was a Rorschach test of what the review thinks of modern-day politics and society.
But the mini-series, stripped of all of that, just seems like a muddle. There was the jumping timelines, which weren't confusing but... just pointless. And then the production staff didn't stick to them. Which is understandable, but what'a the point of using them and not sticking to them? It was a bad idea in episodes 1-4, one way or another.
All the timeline jumping did was make the first few episodes a narrative mess. The audience was focusing more on keeping the storylines straight, then focusing on the characters. So character end up as two-dimensional at the end.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Yeah, I know that there's more to New Vegas than just sex. But the production staff never really got around to showing us any more than that until now and the last episode. Too little, too late.
And of course, Flagg deserves to get it. Unfortunately, what little subtlety he had is pretty much lost in this adaptation. And so did the 80s mini-series, to be fair. Flagg is a character who begs for a literary development, because he was never going to come across as fully-fleshed on TV. No faulty of Skarsgard, or Sheridan before him. You work with what you've got. I think Skarsgard could have done the more subtle stuff: there just no call for it in this mini-series/
Oddly, Flagg probably gets the most sympathetic portrayal just because Skarsgard does do him as charismatic. Even his last bit of singing his song and smiling in the face of the "Hand" gives him a better ending than pretty much anyone else.
The whole idea of "a stand" does make a little more sense, with Glen, Larry, and Ray being put on trial. It works better than Glen being shot in the head by Lloyd. And kudos to both Kinnear and Wolff, who get to do a little more than was on the page. It's still kind of vague: so Abigail sent them to New Vegas on God's behalf so they could... get wiped out in a nuclear bomb? Even if they're witnesses, it's not like they live to tell anyone. The ending is just an excuse for a flurry of destruction, as we see Rat Woman get blown apart. There's no repentance: Lloyd turns against Flagg, and gets decapitated.
As I've noted, maybe that's the point with an Old Testament sort of God like we get. You turn against him, and you're dead. Game over, man, game over. Still, it makes for a weird watching experience. Like in the novel, Glen gets ignominiously killed. But... Ray doesn't. I would have rather seen Glen at the end, then Ray and Larry holding hands.
The mini-series basically conveys the whole good vs. evil vibe that King did in his novel. But without any subtlety. God looks like a big ole dick. Which is the point: King was going for an Old Testament vibe, and the God in the OT is _not_ a nice guy. But in the mini-series, Flagg and Abigail don't seem that different. At the beginning Glen mentions that the NV residents are sad, lost people, and Flagg makes them feel a little less lost. Isn't that what Abigail did? Why did people like Teddy end up in Boulder? And Frannie tried to kill herself: you don't get much more lost than that. I guess how likeable you are means God sets you up to where you end up.
And maybe that's the point. It's just a flip of the coin, and everyone are pawns between Good and Evil. But at least the novel gave us some insight into some of the characters. Remember Barry Dorgan in the novels? He was an ex-detective who turned to Flagg because Flagg promised law and order. Here, we don't even get him. Since mostly we get Lloyd and Julia, it makes the NV residents look like sex-hungry sociopaths. And Rat Woman. I like Fiona Dourif, but boy she gets a lot of screen-time for basically no purpose except to provide a sounding board to Lloyd.
In the novel , Abigail says that Flagg draws those who have "left God out of their hearts". But we never get the impression that the people we know in Boulder have let God into their heart. Basically, the mini-series is very atheist, and substitutes "nice" and "sociopathic" for "Good" and "Evil". Which is strange, since the source novel is heavily religious. But oh well.
Yes, there is some talking about God, mostly by Abigail. But that's about it.
As I noted, the whole non-religious aspect does make Glen look better, since he's an atheist of sorts. And Kinnear is good: he just doesn't have the gravitas of Walston in the 80s mini-series. Granted, it's hard to look bad in 2020 American TV when you're the "rational man" character.
Again, maybe this is all the whole point, as it was with the original novel. Nobody has a happy ending (except Stu, Frannie, and Tom), God is terrible and ineffable, and we're all just pawns. But it doesn't make for very interesting TV. It barely did in the 80s with the performances, and no offense to Marsden, Young, Heard, Adepo, Skarsdgard, etc. But they're not a touch the actors in the 80s mini-series.
Overall, I'm not seeing the point in yet another remake of King's magnum opus. The "novelty" of it being about a pandemic, when there was a real-life pandemic, was lost in the first couple of episodes. I suppose you could read modern-day politics and society into the mini-series, but you could do that with the original novel and 80s mini-series, too. The commentary I've seen seems to suggests that the mini-series was a Rorschach test of what the review thinks of modern-day politics and society.
But the mini-series, stripped of all of that, just seems like a muddle. There was the jumping timelines, which weren't confusing but... just pointless. And then the production staff didn't stick to them. Which is understandable, but what'a the point of using them and not sticking to them? It was a bad idea in episodes 1-4, one way or another.
All the timeline jumping did was make the first few episodes a narrative mess. The audience was focusing more on keeping the storylines straight, then focusing on the characters. So character end up as two-dimensional at the end.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
