All right, I know that until now most TV series that were made following King's books turned out to be crap, but still... I expected a lot better from the writers - mostly because there is just so many things going on in the book that it could've made one hell of a good show (possibly rivaling GoT).
But before I go into the stuff that I find stupid in the show, let me say a few things about the book.
It starts off with the dome snapping into place, killing a whole bunch of people. I know it sounds disturbing, but I love it when a book starts out what some people might consider the middle of the story, without any proper introduction of the location or characters.
Just plain old "this guy is cut in half" and "that person explodes in an airplane". It keeps things interesting, and what's more, it keeps readers interested in what will come.
I also have to tell you guys that there are a LOT more characters in the book than in the show - at least for now, and most of them are so well written that you don't even want to know what their true back-stories are (indeed, I realized that King left most of the back-stories of the characters shady at the best, and he still managed to keep me interested.)
Oh and just to mention how awesome King is, I loved how he managed to pull some strings between now only his own works so far (Shawshank comes to mind), but also to modern media and culture (Twilight, Harry Potter, House, etc.).
All right, but let me get to the point of this post, namely running the show against the book (probably unfair, but still a fun fight).
And let me start with my favorite character in the book, Rusty.
The book has Rusty still under the dome, right along with his family, Linda, and their two kids, the J's. They also have a pretty damn amazing puppy, who manages to warn the parents every time the kids have a seizure. Now, in the movie for some reason they made Rusty a fireman (in the book he is actually a nurse, and he basically ends up running the hospital.) And he is a big part of the story, too. Thus, I don't understand why they left him and the kids out of it, and especially why they made Linda such a stupid little bitch (like, seriously, I just want to shake her until she realizes that not everything is as it seems).
Linda, in the book has some moments where she doesn't know whose side she should stand on, but eventually she realizes that her husband is right about Barbie.
All right, on to another character. Junior, namely, who in the book is quite an amazingly written person, even trough all his crazyness.
In the show, Junior is just some half-insane kid (he reminds me eerily of young Voldemort, actually). He is really annoying, and it's frustrating to see that they failed to mention the fact that he is suffering from an advanced brain tumor, and no one actually knows it until it's too late.
As I said, King wrote him amazingly - you can actually see how he goes more and more insane as the tumor grows, and you can pretty much understand why he does the awful things he does (kills a pair of girls - probably even committing necrophilia, tho that's only alluded to in the book, thank god-, he helps his father commit murder, he frames for said murders Barbie, and then he proceeds to kill a bunch of cops in an attempt to kill Barbie, with whom he develops a bad obsession).
Jumping to the next... Phil Bushey.
Phil, who in the book is a junkie, who left his wife and their baby to make drugs for Jim, and who is not at all supposed to be a DJ on a cool radio station (a radio station which is actually supposed to be all about the Jesus stuff, too. A topic I will get back to in a bit).
Phil in the book ends up to be the guy who kills almost every single person in the city, and he goes out with quite a big explosion too. I kind of liked his character too - the guy is portrayed as a serious drug addict, with increasing paranoia and he ends up believing that he is something akin to Jesus or one of the apocalyptic angels.
The show has him as a boring DJ, and nothing else much (possibly the part where he is married to Dodee, which is wrongwrongwrong. Mostly, because in the book Dodee is the other girl who is killed by Junior, right along with Angie, and none of these girls should have stuck around for so long. Also, Angie is really fucking annoying in the show, and I want her dead immediately.)
Oh and this reminds me - the book also doesn't have lesbian couples with children in it, tho it DOES allude to homosexuality quite a few times - in relations to Phil's wife, actually, and when Phil dies he also goes out with his mouth attached to another man's, tho that might only be simple comfort in my opinion and nothing sexual.
And the lesbian couple reminds me that their rebel daughter, Norrie, is supposed to be in the town for a looooong time. She has a good mom and an amazing grandfather, and she is Joe's and Bennie's best friend. And the trio of them are quite important once again, because they are the ones who practically figure out a way to escape from everything. Yeah, Joe is a genius.
The show in this part at least is good- I like the guy who plays Joe, and his character is almost unchanged - well, besides the fact that in the book he also has his mother around, with his father trapped outside of the dome.
Dale Barbara, or barbie on the other hand makes me frustrated once again.
The book pinned him as the possible hero of the story, even though he doesn't really do much, ends up in a jail and has to be rescued by other people. It's actually quite funny in the end that the person who is supposed to be "fighting for the light" is actually pretty useless. Well... Not that useless, actually, when it comes to inspiring some people to believe in him and realize what's going on, but otherwise he doesn't do much.
What had me reeling in the show, tho, was that it started out with him burying a guy who he killed- when the book doesn't mention anything like that at all.
Sure, there is a highly important part to his back-story where his misery at being a part of beating up some Iraqi people (he was a high standing guy in the military, and possibly a torturer) ends up being one of the reasons why the Dome is lifted.
The show instead treats him like a bounty haunter until now, which in my eyes seems to be wrong.
Which brings me to Julia.
Julia is supposed to be older than Barbie (I believe there are 13 years between them). Julia in the book is not married- she has instead an amazing dog (and King once again demonstrates how awesome a writer he is by actually making a dog's point of view interesting - which shouldn't really be a surprise considering Cujo).
Julia is the person who stands behind Barbie 100%, even when he is framed for murders, and for burning down her home and office (she is a reporter, who inherited her grandfather's stuff and everything she has is burned down to bits by Junior, who then tries to make it look like Barbie is at fault for that too).
And as I said, there is no Peter Shumway in the book (who will apparently be the reason why Julia will end up betraying Barbie's trust, or something - I don't see anything else good coming out of this, really).
Then, there is Big Jim, who is also pretty fucking amazing.
Until now, both in series and the book.
He is the leader of the town, although he is not the first selectman (he prefers leading from the background). He is a politician trough and trough, he is rotten to the core and he is ready to do anything to ensure his standing.
Jim commits murder on quite a few different occasions (and he is helped by Junior). He manages to be one step ahead of most of his people (people he always calls idiots and sheep), he is practically a drug lord, and he knows how to keep up appearances.
Fun fact here - I loved how King dealt with him in the end. Jim didn't go out with a bang but with a whimper (he is so rotten, he doesn't even deserve a good old fight-it-all-out with any of the heroes). It. was. amazing.
And besides these highly important characters in the book, there are quite a few key people too - tho I won't mention them now because this post is getting too long as it is (and why should I spoil everything for those who want to read the book in the future?).
What I wanted to discuss here before I close up this post is the Dome.
First off, I was shocked that in the show they made the whole thing in such a way that it won't let sounds trough - even tho, apparently water can, to some degree.
Yes, King managed to write a pretty good story from the environmentalist point of view too - which is damned important (pollution sticking to the dome, making the outside world dark and change its color. Temperature being a lot more high under it than on the outside, rain not getting in, etc.).
Thus, I don't understand how sounds would not be able to travel trough, when water can.
And this part of it should be pretty important, considering that people DO communicate trough the dome with each other (like how one soldier comforts Ollie, a little kid whose brother dies when he tries to shoot trough the doom and the bullet pangs back in his own face, and who later on discovers both his mother and his father committed suicide).
Also, what about the whole air thing? It can clearly get trough to some degree, and this turns out to be the thing that saves the people in the end, when there are huge fans set up on the outside to provide a little oxygen for those who are in. Soooo, if air and water can get trough, why did they decide to keep the sounds out? It's thoroughly frustrating, and doesn't make any god damn sense (it's not like they couldn't communicate with written language, so it doesn't make any sense, really).
But I digress.
I'm also not going to tell you guys how the dome was put there (I'm actually quite interested in finding out how they will solve that part of the problem, but let me tell you, it was pretty unexpected and funnily enough, damned simple. Which makes it quite brilliant, actually. Occam's razor, people. Occam's razor.)
Ooooh, and I almost forgot a few more things.
First off, I wanted to remind you guys to keep an eye open on all the religious parts of this. I love how King manages to somehow include religion in most of his books - and most of the time religious people turn out to be fanatics (like Jim, and Phil, and the druggie priest, of course...).
By the way, did you guys notice that King has a LOT of book that deal with people somehow being shut into a little space, or being the only survivors in an apocalyptic world, and how they would deal with it?
He manages to get under the skin of so many different characters, and makes me love even the evil ones.
Oh, how I love King :)
