The Stand

Just finished the book last week and heard that the 2020 adaptation was crap, so decided to check this out. The book is phenomenal. Probably my second favorite King book so far, though I’ve only read 5 or 6. I loved the characters and the prose and the world and the balance of this huge epic tale of good vs evil that also feels very grounded and almost slice-of-life, just that that life happens to be in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. I didn’t care for some of the character’s endings but the character arcs as a whole were almost universally excellent and memorable, which is a tough act to pull off when you have like 20+ significant characters. This mini-series is… fine. It actually is very faithful to the book and it hits most of the major plot points, but it just feels kind of lifeless. I don’t mind the 90’s cheese, some wonky effects, or even some of the bad acting, but not having the character’s inner monologues made moments that felt huge in the book feel empty, because you’re missing so much of the context. Meh, still had a good time with it.