Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King

A luminous chunk of sparkling dark crystal, a devilishly haunting gem polished to near-perfection by director Brian Henson and adapting writer Richard Christian Matheson.

The production values are exceedingly high, and you could find worse excuses to stay up past your bedtime. [12 July 2006, p.038]

This four-part series adapted from Stephen King short stories starts off with a must-see performance by Oscar-winner William Hurt—the same kind of funny, ferocious, uninhibited turn that gave such a live-wire jolt to A History of Violence.

The series is an excellent reminder that what makes Mr. King’s visions so fascinating is not their uniqueness or their artistry, but exactly how much they’re like ordinary nightmares. Which are plenty scary. And good for him for writing them down.

Rarely does a TV series premiere as pitch-perfect as "Nightmares & Dreamscapes." But often does a second installment deflate as disappointingly as the subsequent second hour of this summer anthology of mystical imagination adapted from the stories of Stephen King...While the bubble doesn't burst completely, the bravura filmmaking of tonight's first hour sets a standard that's difficult to match on a regular basis, much less in the hour that airs immediately after. It's a "wow!" that's likely to stand as one of TV's most mesmerizing hours of the year. [12 July 2006, p.B21]

The best of King, roadblocks and all, is packaged in "Nightmares & Dreamscapes". [12 July 2006, p.25]

Brian Henson directed this self-contained, one-hour telefilm whose story is cleverly told, though it contains not one word of dialogue.

There's a "Twilight Zone" vibe to the stories and their TV treatment, although it goes without saying that Rod Serling did better in half the time. William Hurt is sure to rack up acclaim for his tour de force performance in the first hour, "Battleground," airing without commercials, in which a hit man is attacked by an army of toy soldiers. Once you get the point, however, the actual battle -- wordless if not soundless -- seems to go on and on. [12 July 2006, p.E6]

If Stephen King had written "The Twilight Zone," it would have looked like this. This eight-part anthology — two hourlong episodes each Wednesday for four weeks — adapts eight King stories for TV with pretty good results.

The fewer people who sleep well on Wednesday nights, the happier TNT will be. It's a goal partially realized. [11 July 2006, p.82]

The show can suffer wild mood swings not just week to week but hour to hour. [12 July 2006, p.E3]

Despite some highlights, this foray into “The Twilight Zone” territory mostly lacks the requisite punch Showtime’s “Masters of Horror” delivered, primarily owing to episodes with inadequate payoffs. Limited series should spur curiosity among King acolytes, but too few of the installments really pop creatively.

Like so many efforts to refashion ``The Twilight Zone," including two ``Zone" remakes, HBO's ``Tales From the Dark Side," and Steven Spielberg's ``Amazing Stories," it's a mixed bag that never quite moves beyond non sequitur creeps and special effects. The production values are sleek, and, with casts that include Jeremy Sisto, Steven Weber, Ron Livingston, and Marsha Mason, the acting is solid enough. But many of the stories fail to transcend their own narrative details toward something universal.