Under the Dome “Outbreak”

I’m confused.  I was under the impression that “Under the Dome” is a mini-series (or limited series or whatever euphemism networks are using to describe a television show with a finite amount of episodes), but the story is unfolding at such a slow pace I don’t know how they can wrap everything up in the next nine episodes.  So far, if I understand the timeline correctly, every episode has represented a day under the Dome.  So this episode was the fourth day under the Dome, and this theory is reinforced with Barbie’s voice-mail from Peter Shumway before he died.  Barbie played the tape for Julia and stated that it was left “five days ago.”  Peter left the message one day before the Dome encapsulated the city.

If every episode is a day then logic runs into another obstacle.  Stephen King wrote a letter on June 27^th reassuring the fans of his book that changes to the story are justifiable and a necessity considering Brian K. Vaughan’s “plan to keep the Dome in place over Chester’s Mill for months instead of little more than a week, as in the case in the book.”  So, given the show’s current structure, where are these extra months coming from?  The story could shift forward in time, but what is the point of changing the story if you aren’t going to chronicle the changes that you’ve made?  I would surmise that they were advertising the show as a mini-series with hopes that the story could continue past their initial thirteen episode sell.  This theory is backed by some of the character work I’m noticing in the show compared to how the same characters are presented in the book.

Stephen King gave Chester’s Mill a little over a week under the Dome as he mentioned in his letter.  In that week everything went crazy in Chester’s Mill, Big Jim Rennie took over the town and became a tyrant, Junior killed two girls and went crazy due to a brain tumor THEN was enlisted to the police force because his father, Big Jim, was desperate to keep the peace in Chester’s Mill, Barbie is framed and imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, broken free, and assisted in finding the device creating the Dome, a gun fight occurs at a meth lab and the radio station causing a huge fire that threatened to suffocate everyone under the Dome.  If you didn’t read that laundry list of plot points I don’t blame you, but the point is the book is fast paced and covers a lot of ground for the short time that Chester’s Mill is trapped under the Dome.  And that is the perfect amount of plot for a thirteen episode mini-series.  The main strategy King used to fit all of that danger and suspense into his book was creating characters that were clear and concise.  Not to say they had no depth, but they didn’t flounder around their goal.  Every character was introduced with their main objectives intact.  Jim Rennie didn’t wait around and talk about taking over the town in the book, he did it.  He got everyone together and convinced them that they needed him and proceeded with this evil plots.  While I applaud the writers of the show for striving to create more complex characters I think the story would be more involving if they would have used more influence from the books.  Right now we have a Big Jim who is talking about taking charge of the town, but he is being quiet about it.  The book’s Junior killed two girls and went crazy on top of being a spoiled brat and a bully so when he was asked to join the police force with his punk friends I was terrified at the prospect of this kid being in a position of power.  This Junior isn’t that bad, sure he kidnapped his girlfriend and locked her in a bunker because he believes she’s cheating, but outside of that he hasn’t put anyone in danger.  In fact, in this episode he talks gently to a riot of people trying to leave the hospital where they were quarantined and convinces them to stand down.  The book’s Junior would have shot someone with no repercussions because his father ran everything.

I’m still waiting on “Under the Dome” to wow me, but it hasn’t yet.  Maybe I’m too close to the source material though, in spite of being two or so years out from reading it.  This episode had some interesting moments, with Big Jim finding Junior’s girlfriend and Julia learning about her late husband’s problems.  On the flip side, I scratched my head a bit at how quickly everyone recovered from meningitis.  Linda was deathly ill halfway through the episode and at the end she was back at home.  Granted, I don’t know much about meningitis, or how long it takes to recover from it, but I think recovery takes more than a day, and judging by the aforementioned rule on one episode equaling one day I would like to call bullshit.  If I’m wrong, let me know in the comments.

3/5