The Stand (2020); CBS All Access (Trailer)

Got through the first two episodes and for the most part, it's very good. The biggest hindrance for the show is this asinine approach of telling it in medias res with Lost-style flashback structure, but the performances are almost universally strong and the production values are great. More in-depth thoughts below:

Episode 1: I’m not overly thrilled by the flashback structure, but aside from that, I didn’t have a whole lot to complain about. I also really don’t like that they made Fran attempt suicide; she’s a far stronger character than that, and it really puts her on the back foot as a character we are meant to empathize with and root for because, unfortunately, this episode does not give her proper focus. I don’t mind them showing more from Harold’s POV, but we see Fran almost entirely from his perspective and that just seems . . . wrong. Also lol at some of the effects, like the wolf in the corn. Now for the good: I liked the relationship between Stu and Dr. Ellis (who I think was MVP of Episode 1). The makeup was sufficiently gross and really put the ’94 version to shame. J.K. Simmons was great in his brief scene and I do wish we’d gotten more of him. Was that Bryan Cranston who voiced the President? Sure sounded like him. (Apparently, it was.) I feel like there needs to be a recut after all of this is done, to put it in proper chronological order. It'll obviously be messy, but it should be a fun challenge.

Anyway, Marsden is a great Stu, wholly different from Sinise but so likable that you immediately root for him. Odessa's off to a good start with Frannie (minus that dumbass suicide attempt). And let's be real, Owen "Patrick Hockstetter" Teague is miles and miles better than Corky Nemec. Unfortunately, Whoopi Goldberg really seemed out of place -- not that she herself was bad, but Mother Abagail is supposed to be an ancient centenarian, and Goldberg still comes off as a hale woman in her sixties. I'm sure she'll ease into the role when we see more of her, as apparently it's a dream project of hers, but her appearance was a rough start.

Episode 2: Jovan Adepo is an excellent Larry Underwood (chalk up another casting choice over Adam Storke, who was more of what I imagined Larry in the book as a Springsteen stand-in but who didn’t go deep enough for my liking for who turned out to be my favorite character in the book), but man, his early flashback scenes were real rough. The actors he was playing against, especially Wayne Stuckey, were not good and it showed. But I do like how it emphasized how much of a shithead pre-Captain Trips Larry was. Things got better once Heather Graham entered the picture. (I do wanna give a shout-out to The Yankee Yanker, who deserves an entire series about his misadventures.) I also really liked Nat Wolff as Lloyd Henreid. Obviously he’s got a completely different vibe from Miguel Ferrer, but I think it still works. The prison stuff was much much better here than in the ’94 series, which was pretty milquetoast in comparison. I like that they went younger for Lloyd, making him feel more malleable than Ferrer, whose seasoned presence made him immediately more authoritative in his performance. As for Skarsgard, I thought he was very magnetic and I think he’s going to do very, very fine in the role of Flagg. It’s definitely different than what the book describes, but to be honest, I don’t think you could play Randall Flagg as the long-haired man of the backstreets as he is in the novel without it coming off as hokey. Them Skarsgard boys, really cornering the market on King villains. (As a side-note, I thought the wink of the smiley-face pin was inspired.)