| ABC | Season Premiere Date: April 27, 1997 |
Summary:
King's riveting adaptation is more faithful to his bestseller than Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film, and the author delivered on his promise of 'a scary ride' without scrimping on characterisation.
Genre(s):
Drama, Horror, Suspense
Season 1 Episodes
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S1:E3. Episode 3
Air Date: May 5, 1997
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S1:E2. Episode 2
Air Date: April 28, 1997
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S1:E1. Episode 1
Air Date: April 27, 1997
May 8, 2021
An engagingly brooding and meditative revisitation via a three-night miniseries that stars Rebecca De Mornay, Steven Weber and Courtland Mead. While Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie was barely able to contain the manic machinations of Jack Nicholson as the bedeviled writer and Shelley Duvall as his victimized wife, ABC's renewed "Shining" delivers its own sustaining vision of an anti-holiday in hell. In fact, those who might question the wisdom of recasting and remaking "The Shining" into a miniseries will find this video version a force to be reckoned with. For this time out, The Shining radiates profound power as a deeply evocative and nuanced piece, rendered as a grandly textured triptych working on multiple levels. [23 Apr 1997]
May 8, 2021
This television production leaves the movie in the dust...Mr. King's script and the direction of Mick Garris (''Stephen King's 'The Stand' '') slowly and skillfully bring The Shining to a pitch of screeching horror. Mr. Weber, shucking the light comedy of sitcom, is chillingly effective as a man battling his own personal demons.
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May 8, 2021
King and Garris’ Shining improves on Kubrick’s in its emotional depth and quality of performances. De Mornay pulls off the tricky role of Wendy, a loyal doormat who proves to be no pushover, and it’s a testament to Weber’s skill that Jack comes across as a sympathetic, even tragic, figure. As for young Mead, his Danny perfectly captures the mute terror of a child, for whom an angry parent can be as traumatizing as a house full of ghosts.
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May 8, 2021
ABC will force King fans to wait until Thursday to witness the loud, bloody resolution of The Shining and see the author in a cameo role as a dapper bandleader. King sets a slow tempo. Too much stalling dulls the impact. [25 Apr 1997, p.51]
May 8, 2021
Though tension builds to a taut shudder in Monday's Part 2, it all, unfortunately, falls apart in the finale on Thursday. Weber takes so much care in restraining his character from going over the edge too soon, that when he finally reaches that precipice on the rim of madness, he never dives in. It takes courage to go as far over the top as Nicholson did in Kubrick's "The Shining." But that's what's needed to make the crazed ending more than a cartoon. Too bad. Until then, "Stephen King's The Shining" almost got it right. [27 Apr 1997]
May 8, 2021
A faithful, literal, author-authorized version of the novel. The picture is big. The ideas are small...In spite of the length and hype of the miniseries, which stars Steven Weber of "Wings" and Rebecca De Mornay as Jack and Wendy Torrance, with Courtland Mead as their son, Danny, it's a small picture. Not small in its commercial prospects, but small in its artistic ambitions. [27 Apr 1997, p.D1]
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Seasons & Episodes
- Series Overview
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Season 1
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Season 1 Overview
Air Date: April 27, 1997
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S1:E3. Episode 3
Air Date: May 5, 1997
-
S1:E2. Episode 2
Air Date: April 28, 1997
-
S1:E1. Episode 1
Air Date: April 27, 1997
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Season 1 Overview