13 feb 2021 anni - Amber Heard THE STAND Starts out strong and then whiffs the landing

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Review: The Stand starts out strong and then whiffs the landing

A stellar cast can't save the narrative from slowly unraveling into a pointless finale.

By JENNIFER OUELLETT

A deadly virus wipes out most of the human population, and the survivors find themselves caught in an apocalyptic battle between good and evil in The Stand, the latest miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's sprawling 1978 novel. But despite a strong start, terrific performances from the all-star ensemble cast, and impressive production values, as a story, The Stand starts unraveling midway through, culminating in a meandering, seemingly pointless finale.

(Spoilers for the book below; a few major spoilers for the new miniseries below the gallery. We'll give you a heads-up when we get there.)

As we reported previously, The Stand is widely considered to be among King's best work, with a sprawling cast of characters and multiple storylines. It's also his longest, with the 1990 Complete and Uncut Edition surpassing even It in page count. King has said he wanted to write an epic dark fantasy akin to The Lord of the Rings, only with a contemporary American setting. "Instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg," King wrote in his 1981 nonfiction book, Danse Macabre. "The land of Mordor ('where the shadows lie,' according to Tolkien) was played by Las Vegas."

The novel opens with the accidental release of an especially contagious and deadly influenza virus (dubbed the "superflu" or "Captain Trips"), developed as a biological weapon in a secret US government laboratory. The accident kills everyone in the laboratory except for a security guard named Charles Campion, who escapes and tries to flee with his family. But he is already infected and spreads the virus before he dies. Even imposing martial law can't contain the virus, which eventually spreads worldwide, killing over 99 percent of humanity within a month.

But some people prove to be immune—including the main protagonist, Stu Redman—and these survivors must figure out how to rebuild some semblance of a functioning society. They are aided by mysterious shared dreams. In one, "Mother Abigail" Freemantle calls for them to come to her Nebraska farm; another involves terrifying visions of a "dark man" named Randall Flagg. Each survivor must choose one or the other. Stu ends up leading a group of survivors in Boulder, Colorado, who follow Mother Abigail; Flagg sets up a brutal totalitarian government in Las Vegas, where he is worshipped as a messiah and crucifies all those who displease him.

In 1994, ABC aired a miniseries adaptation of The Stand, starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Ed Harris, Miguel Ferrer, Laura San Giacomo, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee, among others. The miniseries received critical praise and was nominated for six Emmy awards; it won two, for makeup and sound mixing. So why produce a second miniseries at all when the first one was such a hit? Perhaps the intent was to introduce a new generation to King's dark apocalyptic vision. Or perhaps CBS just wanted a piece of the current market demand for King adaptations (cf. It, It: Chapter Two, Doctor Sleep, the Castle Rock series, and so forth).

This new limited miniseries on CBS All Access is co-written by Josh Boone and Ben Cavell. In this version, James Marsden stars as Stu Redman, who leads the group of survivors that heed their visions of Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) and form a community in Boulder. He falls in love with, and eventually marries, pregnant college student Frannie Goldsmith (Odessa Young), much to the disappointment of teen nerd Harold Lauder (Owen Teague), who is also in love with Frannie. En route to Boulder, disillusioned pop singer Larry Underwood (Jovan Adepo) befriends a 30-something virgin teacher named Nadine Cross (Amber Heard), who has in turn befriended an orphaned boy named Joe (Gordon Cormier).

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