Under the Dome “Pilot”

I’m always excited to see the words of Stephen King come to life in the visual format.  Ever since I was a kid I was glued to his writing.  His stories pulse with humanity and creativity.  I can never guess what’s going to happen in the next chapter because a sense of the unexpected flows through all of his writing and I think that has to do with his fly-by-night writing style.  All of his stories are exciting and original and I jump at the opportunity to see someone take his vision and put it on screen.  The big one I’m looking forward to at the moment is The Dark Tower Series, which is still in pre-production hell unfortunately, so for now I’ll have to sink my teeth into Under the Dome.

I got the book for Christmas when it came out, thanks Aunt Kita, and tore into it at some point that year (it takes me a while to get to new books, but Under the Dome cut ahead of some in my list).  The story that transpired within those pages was fascinating in its wonder and mystery and terrifying in its vision of how truly evil humanity can be when put into an impossible situation.  Tonight I got to see the first part of the story told on screen and I have to say, I’m pretty excited to see the rest of the series.

Mike Vogel takes the reins of the show as Dale “Barbie” Barbara, which is arguable I guess considering the large cast of towns people that populate this show, but in the book he was the main character.  He did a decent job in the pilot, but I’m waiting to see how he does during the rest of the series.  The cast consists of new faces, to me at least, except for two people.  Dean Norris, who is Walt’s brother-in-law in Breaking Bad, and Jeff Fahey, who I remember from Lost, and Jeff’s character, Duke, dies in the first episode.  So I’m interested to see how this cast holds up in the story.  If I’m going to be honest, I think I’m only having reservations on the issue because they don’t match up with how I imagined the characters while reading the book, but I will remain open-minded.

I really enjoyed the pilot for Under the Dome,” the effects of the dome were really cool and the characters were well set up.  I like how enough time has passed between when I read the book to now because there are parts of the story I don’t quite remember.  For instance, who Barbie was burying in the beginning?  I don’t want to give away spoilers, but that comes back at the end of the episode.  I don’t remember what he was doing with the body in the book so I’m actually going to get some surprises with this show, which I always enjoy.