Under the Dome

Fire up the DVR before a dome hits and you won’t be able to watch all 13 episodes.

Looks like a summer winner.

Under the Dome parlays solid special effects and an intriguing storyline, giving CBS’ a bracing breeze of fresh air during a summer season that previously has been a playground for Big Brother and “procedural” crime series reruns.

Not only is it creepy, suspenseful and full of splendid special effects, veteran actors and fresh young faces, but it's laced with big thoughts about environmentalism and the future of the planet.

Ultimately Baer and Vaughan’s efforts point toward Under the Dome offering an alternately effervescent and tense viewing experience, one that’s perfect for the long, hazy days of summer.

Under the Dome gets off to an addictive start on Monday, so much so that it’s hard to imagine any second-episode falloff in viewership.

Under the Dome is TV as page-turner.

Based on the pilot episode--with its taut script, strong performances and special effects that are impressive without being overwhelming--there’s hope that Under The Dome might measure up to its unsettling print progenitor.

Smart, funny and utterly intriguing, it sucks us in better than any procedural with an four-letter acronym.

The first episode of Under the Dome is so intriguing that you may be tempted to Wiki the Stephen King novel on which it's based to find out what will happen next. Don't do that.

This kind of limited series is a step in the right direction. And it sure helps that the first hour is intriguing as hell and filled with a lot of storytelling promise. If viewers catch the pilot, they’ll be back for the next episode. Some critics, too.

Under the Dome is the TV equivalent [of a ham sandwich], with all the fixings: a goofy, sometimes creepy, thriller from horror maestro Stephen King about a town trapped under a large invisible barrier.

This is all excellent raw material. Of course, King adaptations often feature such impressive individual parts, and only occasionally exceed the sum of them. But the Under the Dome pilot is quite promising.

Summer will be a lot more entertaining than it might have been otherwise.

The series looks promising, if puzzling.

Pacing is brisk. The mood, generally eerie. The special effects--a fruit truck smashing accordion-style into a clear wall--don’t disappoint. It’s basically the television version of an entertaining beach read.

The pilot establishes an eerie claustrophobic dread, and well-budgeted special effects add intensity. [1 Jul 2013, p.35]

The performances are solid, for the most part.... There is promise in the one episode of Dome sent to critics and the series could work well, despite the fact that the general conceit of people living in a microcosm has been a staple of literature, film and TV forever.

We've seen plenty of these high-concept TV conceits start well and then sadly unravel. For now, though, there's no place like Dome.

Dome is worth lifting the lid. The premise captures the imagination, and the characters are well cast, even if they're mere archetypes out of the gate.

You don't immediately sense how all of the characters are connected or how they might eventually become connected--most of the pilot is scene-setting and mood-building--but what's onscreen is compelling.

Based on just one episode, it’s hard to tell how the series will unfold, but the mood, threatening, uneasy, a little kinky, is there, and that just might be enough.

It’s a potentially interesting way of dramatizing and heightening the state of small-town claustrophobia: what if this little place, which seemed like the whole world, suddenly essentially became the entire world?... That’s the biggest potential strength of Under the Dome. A weakness is that few of its characters are instantly memorable or distinctive; there’s a kind of generic, TV-commercial homogeneity to the Chester’s Mill we first see.

That small towns aren't immune from the same problems that plague big cities isn't an original idea, and having the people living in them face some overwhelming menace isn't new territory for King. But the dome's a little different, and certainly a welcome break from zombie apocalypses.

It remains to be seen whether either will merit watching for a full season but the pilot does exactly what it should: It intrigues and makes the case for viewers to come back next week for more.

Some critics called the book incisive and addictive, while others dismissed it as pulpy and juvenile. Under the Dome checks all those boxes in Monday’s pilot episode.

If it’s like most King adaptations, the payoff seldom equals the build-up, but in the opening salvo, King’s latest “Twilight Zone”-like premise clearly has the potential to get under one’s skin.

Under the Dome does have an air of King’s more sinister tendencies, but not enough of them in the first hour to suggest the sort of horror that’s worth sticking around for.

Every pilot is burdened with establishing character, jump-starting the narrative and hooking the audience, but Under the Dome unnecessarily force-feeds us its first hour to its own detriment.... Which isn't to say Under the Dome won't wind up being fun to watch. All of the performances seem promising.

By those criteria [action drama, airs of vague mystery and psychological setups that upset the characters’ equilibrium], Under the Dome hits its marks. It’s not profound and it may take a while to reach terrifying, but as a campfire story, a fresh batch of characters in a time-tested tale, sure, why not?

Although it’s worth reserving judgment on the disposition and spirit of Under the Dome until we’ve seen at least a handful of episodes, it’s fair to say that the pilot embraces the material’s pulpier elements, with none of Lost’s nerdy digression or philosophical trolling.

While the initial arrival of the dome is intriguing, the characters are not.

Vaughan, writing and directing these lines, is hauling the Stephen King brand into risky territory. The risk is boredom—the half-puzzled, half-irritated sort of boredom elicited by later seasons of Lost.