Stephen King's The Shining

:

Season 1
  • Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Apr 27, 1997
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14

Critic Reviews

  1. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Steve Parks
    May 8, 2021
    50
    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]
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  2. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Michael Blowen
    May 8, 2021
    50
    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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  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Lon Grahnke
    May 8, 2021
    50
    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]
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  5. Detroit Free Press
    Reviewed by: Mike Duffy
    May 8, 2021
    50
    Stephen King's The Shining is a crackerjack creep show with a fatal flaw. It's too darn long. [25 Apr 1997, p.1C]
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  6. Dallas Morning News
    Reviewed by: Manuel Mendoza
    May 8, 2021
    42
    It is neither visually nor narratively compelling. Since the story didn't make sense in the first place, filming a literal (not literate) version of The Shining only makes its shortcomings stand out. [27 Apr 1997, p.1C]
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  7. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Hal Boedeker
    May 8, 2021
    40
    But the running time unwisely inflates this intimate story of a three-member family coming apart at the isolated hotel in the Colorado Rockies. The Stand was an epic. The Shining is not... The extreme length, however, leads to tiresome repetition. Horror and suspense are better served in small helpings. Even Alfred Hitchcock would have been daunted by these conditions. [27 Apr 1997]
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