It was okay, but not something I'd willingly see again. I was curious about it since there's word about Stephen King's THE STAND being turned into a movie and some of King's
amusing comments on it (or lack of knowing about it). The acting, for the most part, was very decent. Except I could not stand Molly Ringwald playing Fran, I cringed every time she was in the scenes. Ringwald still has that teen girly girl persona from her roles in 80's movies such as
The Breakfast Club, and it's clear that she hasn't grown out of that and into a more mature acting style. There was just none of Fran's sass and stubbornness to her. There were a few other roles I found iffy, like Trashcan man; he sometimes came off as more mentally challenged than Tom Cullen. And whoever played Nadine Cross made her come off as a psychotic bitch, whereas I saw her as more of a spinster type in the book, which would make more sense since she was saving herself. I know librarians aren't sexy, but I think part of the appeal to her was that she was some kind of forbidden fruit.
Probably the biggest plus I can give the miniseries is that a lot - and I mean A LOT - of the fat from book. Stephen King has this habit of overwriting, which if you ever read the extended version of
The Stand, can be seen very clearly. They cut out unnecessary characters and scenes, combined characters or moved their appearance up.
But there was one thing I realized, which wasn't so apparent when reading the book: The whole plague is just backstory. That's right, a third of the book is dedicated to setting up the big conflict. Here, I'll sum of plot in one-sentence:
God chose Mother Abigail to gather the survivors of an epidemic in order to stand against the growing army of the Walkin' Dude. That sounds about right, right? Nothing about surviving a plague, because the plague wasn't of any
real concern. The only real threat in the story was the Walkin' Dude, and thus the meat of the story revolves around him and the trouble he causes. Funny how I didn't notice that before, might be because you get so involved in the characters that you don't realize how little their current situation has to do with the plot. But it's good to point such things out so you know not to repeat them in your own writing, as one of the complaints against King is that his stories do take some time to get rolling. I respect his characterization though, and there's a lot to be learned from that.
Curious how Hollywood is going to make this into a movie, probably won't work out but hey! might be fun to see.
