Under the Dome “The Fire”

The more I watch “Under the Dome” and talk about the show with friends, discrepancies between the book and the show have become increasingly apparent.  Normally people who complain about this are dismissed pretty quickly.  Stories are a personal experience, both creating and enjoying them, so when an artist wants to take creative leaps with the story I normally will go along with them unless I feel they hinder the story.  "Game of Thrones" isn’t exactly like "The Song of Ice and Fire," but I accept the merging of characters or the enhancement of scenes because the story’s tone and themes remain intact.

In “Under the Dome” I feel like some of the changes might affect the story in a way that could annoy me.  The first thing that comes to mind is Barbie as a killer.  The very first image of the show is Barbie burying a dead body.  Now, in the books, Barbie is a short order cook.  He’s an ex-army veteran who hops from town to town, working low paying jobs and only staying for a few months, trying to find direction in his life.  Now the show has him burying a body, I thought maybe in this incarnation he got mixed up in something (he wasn’t well liked around town in the book), and he was trying to hide someone else’s mistake so he wouldn’t get framed or something along those lines.  This episode opens with a scene where Barbie is arguing with the dead guy (this is a flashback) about a deal gone wrong and he ends up killing the guy in a scuffle.  So, what?  Is Barbie a drug dealer now?  What illegal activity is he involved in with the town’s only doctor?  I liked the fact that in the book he was just a ghost that floated through towns and he gets stuck in Chester’s Mill when the dome cuts the small town off from everybody.  And in the novel he just happened to get in a fight with someone important, I believe it was Jr. if I remember correctly, and he is trying to leave town before those consequences surface.  So he was a normal guy stuck in a crazy situation.  That, to me, is interesting.  Now he’s a possible criminal who gets stuck in Chester’s Mill after a bad deal.  I don’t know if I like it and I will be skeptical of this choice until I find a reason not to be.  It is possible that he could have a hand in part of the corruption of Chester’s Mill which might, I repeat MIGHT, be worth making the change.  We will see.

Another change, and I feel like this might be the fault of the TV station for fear of backlash, but there was a big presence of religion in the books.  I remember Rennie always talking about religion as well as the DJ on Chester Mill’s only station.  This is interesting commentary to me and I find it shameful that someone would change a good story element just because the company fears a backlash.  I understand on some level that the company would have to fear that, but I guess it’s my view as a writer that I value the integrity of the original story.

I’m on the fence about Under the Dome.  It’s not bad, and sometimes it is quite good, but I find small problems here and there that I hope don’t add up.  In the best case scenario, all of these changes are for a better purpose than to be mindlessly changing things and by the end of the series I will agree with them.  In all honesty, I hope that is the case.

This episode: 3.5/5