The Stand

The Stand, produced by CBS All Access, never rises above a slightly dreary competence. It certainly lacks the Hollywood gleam of the very best American television. In fact, the series only truly comes alive when Heard is allowed cut loose.

I will say that on its own terms it works well, and where it seems silliest it is following the map only as King drew it. (This is a book that includes a literal deus ex machina.) But even when it is silly, it is also fine. And it is never as silly — at least as seen from here — as the the oddly modest, nevertheless expensive 1994 ABC miniseries.

Whether or not the adaptation will remain compelling to the end remains to be seen, but it has all the elements to pull it off, including a respect for the material that isn't afraid to streamline when necessary.

At nine hours (minus commercials, the eight-part original ran about six on ABC), the format does allow for more nuance and detail, but not in a way that proves especially additive. As is so often true, just increasing the volume by 50% doesn't necessarily benefit the storytelling, either in its clarity or economy.

As every episode started I felt like I had missed three more in between, or maybe three seasons. There are some decent moments buried in The Stand, but it’s so generally mishandled on the whole that it’s not worth slogging through the rest to get to them. If you are looking for your King fix, try Castle Rock on Hulu instead.

Handsomely and dutifully produced. ... Ponderous and bloated parable of good vs. evil. [4 - 17 Jan 2021, p.7]

The character development in this adaptation, the first episode of which arrives this week via CBS’ streaming service, is a hell of a mixed bag, and that’s true of the miniseries as a whole. It’s a sometimes dazzling, often frustrating, and undeniably assured effort that swings hard and occasionally connects. When it does, it’s riveting television; when it doesn’t, well, it’s not boring.

Despite a talented, A-list cast, plenty of time to develop the complex story, a seemingly hefty budget and one of King's most celebrated works as inspiration, the new "Stand" adaptation falls mostly flat.

Serviceable, workmanlike, maybe just good enough to keep you on the couch for nine hours.

This adaptation, which starts off succinctly, starts to strain as soon as it has to shoulder the biblical proportions. “The Stand” works better as a study in survivalist pluck than as a theological thunderdome.

This new version has its inspired moments, like the way Billy Joel’s “The Stranger” somehow turns out to be the perfect theme song for Flagg, but the structure keeps sucking the life out of things, from major characters to more minor ones.

Tentative quality and uneven storytelling is in spite of the cast, the most compelling reason to watch “The Stand.” The series’ messaging about good and evil might be skimpy, but most every actor is doing good work.

This plays out as a bunch of survivors played by a raft of talented people taking a long time to get to the point of it all and making unnecessarily dunderheaded mistakes as they flail about.

As rendered in this iteration of King’s epic, that mix of realism and fantasy results in a disjointed, tonally inconsistent work that manages to both over-condense aspects of the original saga and overstay its welcome.

Very rarely is the Benjamin Cavell-steered adaptation, with Josh Boone directing the pilot, actively bad, but it's very frustrating.