The Stand: From Interesting to Disjointed

 It didn’t take long for CBS’ The Stand to stumble hard.  While episode 1 was a great retelling of a familiar story, episode 2 continued the very same format to its own detriment.  Not to mention, familiar scenes we all love were recrafted.

Here’s the heart of it: Episode 1 creatively started in the middle, in the Free Zone, and then told the back stories.  That was fun once.  But hey, if it worked once, why not do another episode exactly the same?  Well here’s why: Because it’s not fun anymore.  By showing people arriving, their backstory isn’t that interesting because (drum roll. . . .) we already know they made it.

This is a format similar to the one employed so successfully in IT; but it's become tiresome already with The Stand.  What's lost is a sense of progression.  The story is jumbled.  Along with progression, all tension is gone.  It's like listening to an old man ramble about stories from the past.  Whatever the story, you know already how it came out.

And hey, why would we want to see Larry climb through the Lincoln tunnel over dead bodies, when he could go through the New York sewer system?  A scene that was a terrifying read was dumbed down to something ridiculous.  He climbs out of the sewer only to discover Rita right there.  Seriously, she’s there in the very spot he comes out.  Of course, it never dawns on him (or the writers) that this means the entire sewer journey was pointless.  They could have walked!


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