My late wife and I were avid fans of horror master Stephen King back in the
late seventies when a paperback edition of one of his books were too thick to
fit comfortably in the back pocket of your jeans. Tomes including "It’ or ‘The
Stand’ were meaty out of sheer necessity due to the incredible attention given
by the author to character development and creating a suitably moody setting fir
the story to unfolded our interest waned in part due to other authors eclipsing
our interest in Mr. King’s change in focus and a desire to explore other
authors. Then my interest was sparked once again with a novel of his being
retooled for episodic television. The title to receive this honor was ‘Under the
Dome’, a tale focusing on a town mysteriously cut off from the world by a
barrier. In preparation for the CBS network premier I downloaded the novel to my
iPad and went about reading. While not up to his classic high water marks this
story was easily in line with the King books from his heyday. Usually this is
not a positive sign for migrating a story from one media to another but since
the series, for all its many differences, did receive the blessings of Mr. King
as evident by his assuming the mantle of series producer.
One constant that permeates the spooky supernatural stories of Stephen King
is his perchance for locating his stories in the bucolic small towns of Maine.
With places like Haven, Derry and Salem’s Lot I have to wonder how Maine’s board
of tourism feels about his dark and sinister view. Odd thing is it probably
boosted it with horror fans purchasing tee shirts reading "I went to Salem’s Lot
and all I got was this lousy shirt and a hickey". One of these picturesque towns
in Maine is Chester’s Mill. There was little to set this town apart from the
countless others; family owned farms, a main street, local newspaper and small
police force. That is until one day something happened that would bring the
attention of the world to focus on the town and alter the lives of all its
inhabitants.
Dale "Barbie" Barbara (Mike Vogel) is a collector of debts with a perchance
for compounding factures nit interest rates. He was with a client when the man
declined the agreed upon remuneration initiating a physical confrontation. The
result was unexpected; Barbie is pushed into taking the man’s life. As Barbie
finishes the make shift burial an invisible barrier descends surrounding the
town. It is impenetrable and indestructible. A plan crashes into it and
crumbles. A semi-truck careens into the invisible wall and looks like an
accordion. A cow with the misfortune of standing exactly on the line of
demarcation is neatly bisected; cleaved perfectly in two. The first episode
efficiently sets the stage and begins to introduce the principles and
familiarizes the audience with the foundation for the story to continue.
As everyone in Chester’s Mill scrambles to make sense of the mysterious
barrier they soon learn is a dome thanks to some intercepted military
transmissions. When the police Chief Duke Perkins (Jeff Fahey) comes too close
to the dome his pace maker explodes in his chest revealing a proactively
dangerous; it overreacts with nearby electronic devices. In this case exploding
Perkin’s pace maker. The entire fire department is out of town for big
demonstration. Families are literally ripped apart as parents are unable to
return to their children trapped in town. One representative case is Angie
McAlister (Britt Robertson) and her younger brother Joe (Colin Ford). As if an
invisible dome surrounding your town isn’t enough angst for s teenage waitress,
she is suddenly kidnapped by Junior Rennie (Alexander Koch) the psychopathic son
of the town’s most powerful man used car salesman, Big Jim Rennie (Dean Norris)
the town’s Selectman. The other citizen of similar rank yet far lower inherent
power was the town’s mortician and clergyman, Reverend `Lester Coggins (Ned
Bellamy). It turns out the Rev and Big Jim is the biggest methamphetamine cooks
in the North East. A process that required amble amounts of liquid propane. Big
Jim was cooking more than the meth, he also cooking the town’s ledgers
concealing the massive purchases of the propane under the guise of town
reserves. When the dome falls that propane becomes the only way to drive
generators and keep the power on for the isolated community. Of course the irony
of casting is Norris played a DEA agent whose brother-in-law is a biggest Meth
cook in the southwest on ‘Breaking Bad’.
Initially Junior Rennie has Angie chained in an underground shelter in the
family backyard. Just passing town just as the dome appeared was Dr. Alice
Calvert (Samantha Mathis), her spouse Carolyn Hill (Aisha Hinds) and their
teenage daughter, Norrie (Mackenzie Lintz). Both Joe and Norrie exhibit strange
seizures rambling incoherently about pink stars falling and obviously connected
to the dome. With the chef of police dead the authority of o
ffice
falls to his senior deputy, Linda Esquivel (Natalie Martinez), now Sheriff
Esquivel. Law and order inevitably dissipates as the dome remains day after day.
The proprietor of the town’s café Rose Twitchell Beth Broderick) is raped and
murdered instigating the need to argument the sparse force with people who would
fail even the most cursory psychological vetting. This includes the obsessively
manic Junior. Barbie becomes a staunch supporter of Sheriff Esquivel in keeping
order as it begins to be disclosed he was special operations in the military. He
also winds up staying in the house of the newspaper editor, Julia Shumway
(Rachelle Lefevre) the widow of the man he recently killed, albeit in
self-defense, sort of. Finally about midway through the initial season a villain
more odious than Big Jim shows up after hiding on the out skirts of town just
within the dome, Maxine Seagrave (Natalie Zea), the crime boss Big Jim and
Barbie answered to.
The fundamental structure of the series is well utilized in many television
shows. The mystery of the dome, where it came from, how and why it formed
represents was the overall story arc while management of specific critical
situations drives the individual episodes; this naturally includes the stand by
post-apocalyptic standards as obtaining sufficient water, food, energy and
security. A fire bolsters some esprit de corp with a good old fashion bucket
brigade. I had thought this would be an extended thirteen episode miniseries.
The meatier novels of King do best when presented as miniseries. A perfect
example is the ABC four part treatment of ‘The Stand’. I was somewhat surprised
to discover this series was picked up for another second season of thirteen
episodes. The novel was nicely self-contained so I don’t know how they are going
to retain the momentum and interest for another full season. The deluxe
collector’s edition features a reasonably hefty paper weight replica of
Chester’s Mill.
Under The Dome: Filming The Pilot
The World Of Under The Dome
Stephen King And Under The Dome
Under The Dome: From Novel To Series
Under The Dome: The First Season
Joe's Blog
Gag Reel
Deleted Scenes