The first photos from CBS All Access miniseries The Stand, a fresh adaptation of Stephen King's pandemic-apocalypse novel, have arrived with looks at Big Little Lies' Alexander Skarsgard as demonic hell-raiser Randall Flagg and Whoopi Goldberg as benevolent Mother Abagail, courtesy of Vanity Fair. The Man in Black makes his return to the screen, only the world looks a lot different than we remember. The story of The Stand sees what happens when a virus, a man-made biological weapon that goes out of control, wipes out about 99 percent of the human population. Those that remain are left with the choice to follow their more baser, primordial instincts, or work together to build something good. That's where Randall and Mother Abagail find themselves in opposite camps. “[Flagg is] so charming and he’s so handsome, and so powerful — I mean genuinely powerful, able to perform these sort of miracles where he could levitate himself and he has these actual powers,” Taylor Elmore, who showruns the series with Benjamin Cavell, told Vanity Fair. “And yet he needs this adulation and this kind of worship from these people whom he’s summoned to him. He needs to have them make a show all the time of how grateful they are to him.” Cavell makes the obvious connection to our current reality: "And there’s something fundamentally weak about that. Does it remind you of someone you know?” Mother Abagail, a 108-year-old prophet faced with doubts, is "very, very righteous and very good. But really flawed I feel,” Goldberg said. “I’ve been fighting with not making her the Magic Negro, because she’s complicated.” The photos also reveal Odessa Young as Frannie Goldsmith, an expectant mother immune to the disease; Owen Teague as Frannie's neighbor Harold Lauder; Jovan Adepo as musician Larry Underwood; Heather Graham as former New York socialite Rita Blakemoor; and Nat Wolff as inmate Lloyd Henreid, who's visited by Flagg in his hour of need. But then there's also Henry Zaga as Nick Andros, Amber Heard as Nadine Cross, Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman, and James Marsden as Stu Redman to look forward to. “It’s about the fundamental questions of what society owes the individual and what we owe to each other,” Cavell said. “Over the last however-many years, we have sort of taken for granted the structure of democracy. Now, so much of that is being ripped down to the studs. It’s interesting to see a story about people who are rebuilding it from the ground up.” A premiere date for The Stand has not been announced, though it's expected to debut on CBS All Access later this year. https://ew.com/tv/the-stand-alexander-skarsgard-photos/
I've read the book a couple of times, and I guess my biggest issue is that it feels like it just kinda ends suddenly. A bunch of really good build up, and then all of a sudden, it's all over.
The concept is solid, intriguing, but it failed once. Likely to fail again. It wasn't bad, it just fell flat. Anytime you insert religion as a driving force, I find the result is usually underwhelming in the end. Building up a battle between good and evil, god and the devil, that could be epic. You need to deliver an epic ending. But even Mark Twain, who tried this too, could not finish his story because it was too challenging to deliver an ending, so he just quit mid-stream.
Obviously being on CBS, they'll have to clean a lot of stuff up. You've literally got scenes of a woman talking about how she'll sleep with a guy but can only take it up the butt because her womb is promised to the devil. I doubt that makes it in this mini-series.
Just finished the book last week (third time reading it over a 30 year period). Most of King's work doesn't translate well onto television/film and not sure this will be much different.
If I'm understanding it correctly, the mini series is being done for CBS All Access which isn't beholden to TV standards. I know that even the Star Trek shows on there have more profanity and sex than anything on broadcast, I think they can do whatever they like......
Trashcan man? -is named Donald -mentally deteriorates further with each appearance -goes full burn the house down with every perceived slight -ends up being a puppet for the true evil but doesn’t know it Story checks out
I'm not sure I should make the joke. But the trashcan might be headed to vegas too. 1. Deadly virus 2. Astros Trash can 3. Everyone headed to Vegas, including the Raiders. 4. Evil Leader in the US Ok. This is getting real. Are people having dreams out there?
1 episode in and it sucks. So jumbled. No direction. And the sad thing is the actors are decent and the concept has lots of potential, but the show has no drama and no direction. Waste of time.
