I have a recollection that you get a lot more backstory on Trashcan Man’s journey, e.g. fighting his way over a pass in Colorado, spouting Howlin’ Wolf lyrics. That definitely stuck in my head as filler. But I can’t really remember any other differences.
I think I’ll reread the original for now maybe and then go for the expanded one in a year or two…
I prefer the original version except for the vingnettes about survivors who died shortly after the plague wiped almost every one else.
I didn’t completely hate it but it was underwhelming.
Maybe someone can answer this for me. Fiona Dourif played Rat Woman. I swear someone else played the character during the courtroom scene. I didn’t see it mentioned anywhere but I swear it wasn’t her. Maybe there was a reshoot that she couldn’t make?
In the end, so much effort, so little to care about. I liked most of the original mini series characters better, though they did subdivide the Nadine into two, it barely made a lot of difference. Trashcan man was fun, the one in this series was just sad. The epilogue had some value, but not much else.
Some might say Frannie was better, I had no real liking for either version. Judge Farris was notable in his absence, and they pretty much destroyed Nick as a character as well.
All in all, if there wasn’t the original mini-series, I’d have no real liking for The Stand. This one wasn’t half as good, and I remember renting the tapes, then staying up till 4:30am to finish them when I really hadn’t planned to. I’m not sure I’d have even bothered to watch all the episodes of this.
My least favourite part of the expanded version was the half-hearted and pointless update of the setting from 1980 to 1990.
The original mini series had much better character development and the story arch was well defined. I’ve watched the original at least 6 times, doubt I would go back and watch this one again. This one was jumbled up and hard to follow, the characters were 2 dimensional or not even developed at all. Where the fuck was the Trashcan Mans character? What did they do with Nick except make him a complete imbicle? Why does Mother Abigale have dreadlocks and why did they pick a known start to play her? She was supposed to be a simple woman, Whoopie brought too much star power to her (this was not The Color Purple Whoopie).
I watched this one mostly to see the story in a more modern setting with better special effects, so from that viewpoint I was not disappointed. I also did like the last episode, probably more than any of the others since it was based on the final part of the novel where Flagg ends up in South America and was conceived by Stephan King. That and it didn’t have to compete with the original miniseries (whose ending was lackluster).
All in all, neither came close to matching the novel. But I am now at piece with Molly Ringwald playing Franny and Nick Lowe playing Nick having seen the butcher job performed by the present series on the characters and storyline.
Missed the edit window. Rob Lowe played Nick in the original mini, although Nick Lowe the musician would have been a better choice back then. And I am at peace (not piece) with molly Ringwald.
I wish they had set up the rest of the series storytelling style as well as they did the last hour. I didn’t think any actor was a stand out (either good or bad) but at least that last hour had me interested in more than I “lets see what else they can leave out” way.
Not enough time given to Nick, Trashcan Man or the story of Tom finding Stu and their journey back together. Lloyd was an incompetent monkey and not the pragmatic and useful character he was in both book and original series. I think the only character that got a fair amount of character development was Larry. Overall, the original was so much better, even if it did have misses, it gave enough time to the characters considering the limited scale of a tv series. And Gary Sinise as Stu alone puts it over this one…
I am rewatching the original miniseries right now. I haven’t gotten to the bad parts (Nadine) yet but it’s been fun revisiting Gary Sinese as Stu. He really is as good as I remembered.
Bumped.
Just finished it, and overall was disappointed. Just never quite clicked for me. I kinda sorta remember the 1994 version, but wasn’t really comparing them as I watched.
What I liked: Flagg’s boot in the door to allow Private Campion to escape and start the pandemic; the harried CDC doctor who befriends Stu; J.K. Simmons as the Army general in the bunker; the actor who played Harold (just the right mix of incel nerdiness, pathos and menace); the guy who played Larry Underwood (warm and humane; his scenes with his mom were heartbreaking); the key that Flagg offers to Lloyd engraved with the initials “RF”; Amber Heard as Nadine (beautiful, troubled, believably torn between good and evil); Tom Cullen and his nice-to-meet-you litany; Stephen King himself appearing in the bus-stop ad for Hemingford Home; Nicholas Lea as one of the Boulder safety patrol officers (haven’t seen him in anything since he played a sneaky bad guy on The X-Files years ago); BOC’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” in a later episode; Flagg’s New Vegas HQ being called “The Inferno Hotel and Casino” (you can see the Overlook Hotel carpet pattern from Kubrick’s The Stand in several scenes, too); having the Boulder kids watching Time Bandits, with Evil blathering to his mooks; Flagg calling the murdered former federal judge a “bag of bones,” another SK shoutout; “Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?” playing when Larry, Glenn and the Native American woman arrive at The Inferno; the awesome sfx of the nuclear bomb’s detonation; having REM’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” as the last song.
What I didn’t like: Whoopi G. as Mother Abigail (too young and too stout to play the character IMHO); the actress who played Frannie (just not up to the challenges of the part, I think; her affect when she asked Larry to break into Harold’s house and search it was just… weird); not nearly enough shown of the collapse of society; Alexander S. as Flagg (I don’t know that any actor can capture the mix of affable and terrifying of which King wrote); the actor who played Nick (just not much there); Dayna unrealistically died 'way too easily and quickly with the broken bottle; far too late an introduction of Trashcan Man (although if you look quick, he’s obviously masturbating when he blows up the big fuel tank in his hometown, which was a nice touch); Fran stupidly falling down the well and nearly dying. And lots of other stuff I won’t bore you with.
In several of the closing-credits vignettes, we see a package addressed to Harold at 2837 Ocean St., Ogunquit, Maine 03907. There is an Ocean Street in the town, Google Maps reveals, but not that particular address. They got the ZIP Code right, though!
Was the traumatized mute kid who bonded with Larry in the book? Don’t remember him.
Yes, Joe was introduced in the book with Lucy Swann who became Larry’s “common law” wife later on. I think Lucy was excised from the recent TV version.
Thanks. Was he pretty much the same in the book?
IIRC, Joe was rather feral until the end of the book – he didn’t talk much.
I do remember “Firsty, Larry, pwetty firsty now” driving Larry bugshit as he describes their following the trail of Payday wrappers.
I posted in this thread a few times but never watched it! Now I have.
First, I think 5.7 on IMDb is too low, but when 18% of people who log in give it a zero, that’s what you’re going to get. That said, I’d be in the 6.7 - 6.8 range myself.
Second, since King’s son Owen wrote three of the episodes, and King himself added the ending, I’m going to assume most of the changes were approved.
Casting:
Bad - Skarsgård and Goldberg are terribly miscast. Neither has any sense of gravitas, and Randall Flagg kind of came across like a glowering Bill Pullman with a beard. The woman who played Frannie grew on me but was tepid overall. And Ezra Miller as Trashcan Man, screeeechMYLIFEFORYOUscreeeech was that in the shooting script? I burst out laughing. He clearly torched Old Lady Semple’s pension check, that guy. Cibola my ass.
Good - Stu, Nadine, Larry, all good. Owen Teague, I started off disliking his Harold (he’s not fat and acned!) but ended up appreciating it. Jesus he was creepy, but also sometimes very conflicted. They showed his course correction from Nadine quite well. Also nice to see a young Fiona Dourif (the New Vegas rat lady), who would eventually be in The Pitt. It was nice to see Nicolas Lea (Krycek from The X-FIles) as a nice neighbor rather than a rogue, murderous FBI agent.
Great - Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman, go figure. Really outstanding in that role. Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen. Katherine McNamara as a really hateable Julie.
Mixed - Nat Wolff had a kind of thankless role as Lloyd Henreid, but Wolff is dating Billie Eilish now, so things worked out.
Changes from the uncut book:
Bad - changing New Vegas to a beacon for libertinism and druggery completely misses the point of people finding a home (in the book) much more like Mussolini’s Italy and much less like 1930’s Berlin. Hated that a lot. Changing the tunnel to a sewer, was a tunnel too expensive? Dumb. The swimming pool scene, what the hell, just blow them up like the original. King’s added ending: ugh. Why.
Good - vastly downsizing Nick Andros’s role. He’s one of my two favorite characters from the book but translating someone whose experiences are largely internal dialogue is hard, without dedicating a lot of time to him. Nadine puncturing a window and jumping is much less satisfying than Flagg launching her from a penthouse in a ragefit, but I think that feels different these days and I think the change is good. The non-linear timeline: I’d hate it if I didn’t know the plot, but I do know the plot, and I liked it.
Overall I’m glad we watched it. It wasn’t a shitshow, and I don’t feel like an adaption has to have high fidelity to an original, in fact I’d find that kinda boring.
I still think Heather Graham - who played Rita Blakemore - would have made a better Julie Lawry, but I suppose she might have aged out of the role (not that you can really tell by looking at her. She still looks to be in her late 30s/early 40s, despite being in her mid 50s).
I’m a Heather Graham fan, though, so I’ll always clamor for her to have more screen time
I haven’t seen this series yet, but the book is one of my favorites. Julie’s probably not even in her 20s yet in the book version, so an actress who looks twice that probably isn’t the best fit.
Hence my saying that she’d probably aged out of the role.