Under the Dome Review: "Force Majeure" - The Stupid [and the Rain]! It Burns!

Do you remember when this happened? Because "Under the Dome" doesn't.

Dear Readers,

I’m sorry.  In part, I’m sorry that this review is coming to you two days late.  The truth is I didn’t want to write this piece because I think I’m at my wits’ end with Under the Dome.  You see, dear readers, Under the Dome thinks that we are stupid; not just a little bit stupid, but colossally, astoundingly stupid.  That’s the only explanation I can come up with to explain the first three episodes of this season. 

The Dome writers think we’re too dumb to realize that the water cycle does not work in such a way that you can spray the local lake with a magical maguffin and instantly turn acid rain clean.  They think we’re so oblivious that we wouldn’t notice the magical “wormhole” granting internet access provides only one barely relevant plot detail and really just serves as a five minute commercial for Windows tablets.*  They think we’ll blindly accept the idea that a school, any school, would keep an entire roster of every student who has ever used a locker going back more than thirty years – and to accept that that roster would be in a hardbound book, not in an Excel spreadsheet. 

* If that wormhole and internet access do not periodically return throughout this season, the third episode of this season will go down as the single worst instance of product placement in the history of television.

The writers believe our memories so short that we won’t remember anything from last season, like how Junior imprisoned Angie and is kind of a nutball, or the number of people Big Jim killed, or the fact that people were running out of propane in the season finale.  None of that has been present in the first three episodes of this season.  Junior is just one of the guys, and a deputy to boot!*  Big Jim is still apparently a citizen leader, despite trying to frame and execute an innocent man all of two days ago.  And while the dreaded conversation over “resources” is happening, nobody outside the core group is complaining anymore.  That’s not even getting into the fact that Sheriff Linda died in the season premiere and nobody but Melanie, the undead mystery lake girl, has bothered to notice.

* “Hey Junior, how do you become a Sheriff’s deputy in Chester’s Mill?”  “Oh, you just need to be the kidnapper son of the murderous city councilman.”

Look, I get that this is a television show, and a science fiction television show at that, so a certain amount of narrative forgiveness is necessary, but this show insults my intelligence.  I’ve watched bad TV before.  I watched every episode of Smash, twice, for Christ’s sake.  But Under the Dome is a show that expects me to forget everything I’ve seen before so that they can do what they need to do, whether that’s turning a bad guy good or just airing a Microsoft commercial (complete with “the tablet’s working perfectly but the internet’s gone” lines). 

The frustrating part is that for as terrible as Dome is, it still presents some interesting ideas.  Monday night, we got the beginning of a potential religious war between Julia, who believes the dome is there to save everybody; Lyle, who believes the dome will only save “true believers;” and Rebecca, who uses the logic and rationality of science to cover her blatant self-preservation.  She’s obviously fine with culling the herd because she believes she’ll be safe from the culling. 

But these interesting ideas are hidden by an ever-increasing bundle of mysteries that never get answered.  The egg? Forgotten.  The butterflies and the Monarch? Dead and forgotten.  The speech given by whatever entity inhabited Norrie’s mom’s body?  Forgotten.  The fact that Julia was shot just a few days ago?  Forgotten.  In their place we get creepy Lyle, enigmatic Sam, and Junior’s mom’s entreaty to trust nobody.  The show keeps piling mystery on top of mystery as though that can take the place of actual storytelling.

I really don’t know what to do with this show.  It’s capable of introducing intriguing ideas but is as likely to dump them as explore them.  It’s also a series that must think its audience to be complete morons.  I don’t want to keep watching, but the truth is that I’m a bit of an OCD completionist when it comes to television.  I’ve only given up completely on two shows in my memory: Entourage and Nip/Tuck.  I’ll probably keep watching, but can’t recommend that anybody else do the same.  At this point Under the Dome is all hope and no substance.

Tyler Williams is a professional librarian and an amateur television critic.  You can reach him at TyTalksTV AT gmail DOT com or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.

Under the Dome Season Premiere Review: "Heads Will Roll" - Plot Versus Character

That noose has way too much slack in "Under the Dome"

On Sunday, HBO debuted a new series based on Tom Perrotta’s novel The Leftovers.  The series is set three years after the unexplained disappearance of two percent of the world’s population but the show is utterly unconcerned with the whys and hows of what happened.  It just happened, and nobody – not science, not religion, not anybody – knows why.  Rather, the show is about the characters and how they are moving on (or failing to move on) in the wake of this disaster.  It is essentially a show about grieving and loss, in which “the crazy thing that happens,” is merely the impetus for exploring characters, rather than the story itself.

Under the Dome, through much of season one but especially in “Heads Will Roll,” takes the exact opposite tactic.  This show cares about nothing but the dome and the effects it has on the citizens of Chester’s Mill.  There is so much emphasis on plot and making the dome not just the focus of the story, but the driving force behind the plot, that the characters are just pieces moving on a game board.  They have no agency.  They don’t progress.  They just take on the traits and make the decisions that the dome and the show want them to whenever it’s convenient.

I thought last season’s finale (and the cliffhanger in particular) was pretty much a disaster, and the season premiere – penned by Stephen King, himself – did little to boost my confidence except that everything was largely reset by the end, giving the show a relatively clear path forward.  For all that happened in this episode, very little of it had any consequence and was largely gibberish meant to counter the gibberish from the finale.  And so much of it was so dumb.  The dome starts “groaning” and knocking people unconscious.  On a better show, this is an idea that would be used to create an immense sense of dread as townspeople start collapsing progressively throughout the episode.  But here, the first wave of fainting serves mostly to rid the episode of extras as the only people who survive are the named cast members and the three new characters we need to be introduced to.*  And by the second time people collapse, the problem has basically been fixed and the only remaining drama is whether or not Julia can keep Big Jim from killing himself (which, why?).

* Yes, it’s only the second season and Under the Dome is already pulling a Nikki and Paulo.

Or take the scene at Norrie’s house with the kids (who were shockingly my favorite part of the first season).  It’s an incredibly tense piece of action, with pots, pans, and knives flying all over the place as Joe, Angie, and Norrie try to rescue an unconscious Carolyn.  And yet, its tension is significantly undercut because Joe manages to have a nail injected into his hand have it GO THROUGH HIS ENTIRE HAND WITHOUT SCREAMING IN PAIN!  Seriously?  He has a nail shoot into his hand and then tear its way through and he doesn’t give more than an initial yelp. 

Speaking of pain, it’s awfully remarkable that Julia can manage to swim out into the middle of the lake to rescue a girl and help Barbie move a giant kitchen cupboard less than 24 hours after being shot.  Selective amnesia is a recurring problem in this episode as everybody has apparently decided to collectively forget that Junior imprisoned Angie for an extended period of time not too long ago.  Forgotten, too, is basically all talk of the Monarch as apparently nobody really cares to ask why the dome went from clear to black to white.  That’s not to say that talk of the Monarch or its importance won’t return in the future but in “Heads Will Roll” all continuity and serialization is swept aside for plot.

This is a problem that Under the Dome has had for a while now.  Its “Mishap of the Week” stories tend to overwhelm everything else.  I understand that television shows need weekly structure, but they also need characters that progress, and change, and make decisions based on their past decisions and current desires.  These characters don’t do any of that.  They make decisions and change based on the demands of the current story and nothing else.  The show needs Junior to be a more sympathetic character, so he finally decides to turn against his father, despite there being no new information presented that would make him change his mind, and everybody decides to forget about the whole “imprisoning Angie” thing.  Likewise, the show needs Julia to be the hero, so she saves the day multiple times despite being injured and even talks Big Jim out of killing himself despite knowing full well that he’s killed before and will likely kill again.  It’s all well and noble to say that the dome “wants us to end the killing,” but it doesn’t seem like that sentiment would apply to the town’s worst murderer.  Under the Dome does not have character development.  It has plot points that dictate the characters.

Despite all of these major, major problems, I still can’t help but feel like there’s potential here.  While they were introduced in incredibly clumsy fashion, I really liked the two new characters who were introduced last night.  I don’t buy for a second that Big Jim wouldn’t have sought out his brother-in-law (or Junior his uncle) at some point before now, but Eddie Cahill did a fine job as the enigmatic Sam.  I likewise found ridiculous the idea that there’s a science teacher who has been studying the dome all this time but not telling anybody about it, especially since Joe and his buddy made such a big deal last year about mapping the dome.  But Karla Crome came in, aptly uploaded some exposition, and seems like she’ll be a good addition to the cast. 

I also liked that we finally got to see outside the dome.  Granted it was with one of those classic Lost-esque answers that only raise more questions, but it’s nice to get a glimpse of what the world is saying about Chester’s Mill.  I don’t know that I would have said that at the beginning of last season, but given how little sense the goings on under the dome make these days, I welcome any opportunity to bring in characters who are actually characters and not just plot devices. 

To bring it back to my comparison with The Leftovers, I can’t help but feel like Under the Dome would be incredibly well-served by a time jump.  The Leftovers realized that this part, the Mishap of the Week period of the show, is the boring part.  It’s just one maguffin after another, sucking up all the running time in plot without allowing for any story or character development.  Despite all of Dome’s problems, I do still really like some of these characters and would like to see how they develop when they don’t have to deal with some random problem each week.  Under the Dome will not do this.  But “Heads Will Roll” provides enough of a reset point that I hope they start leaning more towards character and less on plot.

A couple of spare thoughts –

So Sheriff Linda dies in the most “our actor wants off the show and we have to write her out immediately” way possible.  The effects work with all of the metal objects in town being drawn magnetically to the wall was great, but this is yet another example of the show killing characters just to kill them which, at some point, loses its power.

Speaking of death, I guess Angie is dead.  The blood spatter would certainly seem to indicate such but I really hope not.  I like Angie when she’s not stuck in a bomb shelter and Britt Robertson is giving one of the better performances on the show.

In the opening monologue Barbie says “We will never stop fighting to find a way out,” which makes me wonder when they ever started.

Despite Stephen King penning this episode, the dialogue felt awfully on point at times.  “Do it now!” “I’m afraid.” “I think the dome is trying to tell us something.”  “The dome didn’t want us to kill you.  It wants to end the killing.”

Next week’s review will likely be late(r) owing to my vacation this coming weekend, but I'm hoping to get it posted on Wednesday or Thursday. 

Tyler Williams is a professional librarian and an amateur television critic.  You can reach him at tytalkstv AT gmail DOT com or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.

Under the Dome Review: "Speak of the Devil" - The Beginning of the End

Junior takes off again in "Under the Dome"

Goodbye, Max.  We barely knew you.  You didn’t really do anything other than finally set Big Jim and Barbie against each other—which they kind of already were before you got here—but, whatever.  I’m sorry you had to learn of your mother’s death but you’re dead now, and I hope you find a better show to be on.  Oh, crap. 

Ultimately, “Speak of the Devil” disappoints because its sole purpose is to finally set up the big conflict that we’ve seen coming for several weeks now, ever since Barbie blew up Otto’s well to keep dozens of people from dying in a firefight.  Here, again, it’s Barbie who wants to keep Max alive and Big Jim who wants to put her down, which admittedly seems like the right call given that all Max has done in the last two weeks is threaten to expose the two of them, organize a violent black market, and shoot Julia.  She’s a dangerous animal better put down than kept locked in a cage.  But for whatever reason Barbie can’t see that and his unwillingness to go along with Jim finally sets the big man off and he puts in motion the play that he hopes will bring down Barbie.  All of this is fine and good but we’ve been waiting for the showdown between Jim and Barbie for several weeks now and, once again, this all just seems to be coming in too late.  Also, the key piece of evidence that Jim is able to use against Barbie is Max’s shooting of Julia, which makes no sense.  First off, why did Max do it?  The only possible outcome of that decision is to piss off Barbie which, congratulations, she did.  But why does she want him to upset him?  We don’t really get any answer before she kicks the bucket, nut Jim somehow convinces Sheriff Linda that Barbie shot Julia.  Seriously, Linda?  That’s just some shoddy detective work there.  Why would Barbie call the sheriff to report the shooting he just committed?  Either way, Barbie’s on the run, Jim’s got a bounty on his head (figuratively speaking) and the final two episodes are set to pit the two against each other.

Over in mystery land (which really does seem like an entirely different show at this point) the kids reveal themselves to be the other major players in the final standoff as they all touch the big dome together and are treated to a vision of Big Jim with multiple stab wounds and them all holding bloody knives.  It’s nice to see the two storylines at least sort of starting to converge, and I imagine that we’re going to get a father-son showdown before this is all over but, man, are they really stringing this whole thing along.  I also don’t understand Junior at this point.  At first he takes off because he doesn’t want to bring the dome down if it means Angie will leave.  Then he comes back because Angie convinces him that the storm that appeared out of nowhere and disappears just as quickly means he’s special?  Ugh. 

So here we are with two episodes left in this season.  Barbie’s on the run with, presumably, the entire town on his tail.  Joe, Angie, and Norrie think that taking out Big Jim is the key to lifting the dome.  And Junior is torn between the two.  It’s not a terrible setup for the season closers, so let’s hope Under the Dome can pull out of its recent skid.

A couple of spare thoughts –

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the US government did just drop the Mother of All Bombs on the dome like three days ago, right?  And it obliterated everything around the dome, right?  Then why are the street and house right outside Julia’s house still completely unscathed?  Anybody?

So thoughts?  Comments?  Just want to tell me my blog sucks?  Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @TyTalksTV

Under the Dome Review: "Let the Games Begin" - Under the Thunderdome

The fourth hand waits for one man on "Under the Dome"

So “Let the Games Begin” was not a terrible episode of television, it was just so unfulfilling.  It took me about ten minutes to come up with that adjective as I cycled through boring, uneventful, and others.  The thing is, it wasn’t boring or uneventful.  There was a lot of action and a few interesting plots.  But this show is so free of consequences right now and abandons its storylines so quickly that it’s hard to really get invested in anything.

I think the reason I’ve taken to the teenagers in Under the Dome is because theirs is the one story that is consistently interesting and that the show feels is worth returning to week in and week out.  This week, the group discovers that Junior is the fourth hand and they open the mini-dome, causing the egg to release pink stars into the barn.  There’s some other stuff involving Dodee getting zapped after touching the mini-dome, but it really has no purpose other than to make us fear for Junior as he prepares to touch the dome later.  I’m a little worried moving forward as this plot has shades of all of the Lost rip-offs in the past (in terms of answering every question with a new question), but as long as the characters are invested and the show follows through, it’ll keep me interested.

As for the unfulfilling parts of the episode, I have a hard time caring about the fight club or about Max’s crazy mother because neither is likely to ever turn up again, much like the supply shortage, the water shortage, the meningitis, the insulin shortage, and the half dozen other plots that have come up as “Crises of the Week” in the past.  The fact that Max got one over on Barbie is mildly interesting, but if she’s so smart then why is she breaking the first rule of bookies: “take the bets, don’t make the bets.”  A smart bookie isn’t betting against her customers and taking their stuff when they lose.  Win too often and people start to think the whole thing is rigged.  A smart bookie lets people bet against each other and charges a cover to gain admittance or takes a piece of the winnings.  It’s not a big deal certainly, but details matter and setting up an incomprehensible gambling ring that’s never been seen before and will likely never be seen again without getting the details right just screams laziness.

The story of Max’s mother isn’t much better.  She apparently lives in an enormous mansion nobody’s ever mentioned on an island nobody’s ever mentioned in the middle of the (poisoned) lake.  So where, exactly, is she getting clean water?  Never mind all that, though, because all she does is crazily point a gun at crazy Big Jim before falling out of a boat and being left to drown.  What purpose does this character serve?  Really?  She shows up for one episode, acts crazy, gives us only the barest of information on Max and then is gone.  Is her apparent death setting up a revenge plot for Max?  If so, who cares?  Max has been here for all of twenty minutes.  Why am I supposed to care about her revenge?  Ugh, this entire show right now is just so…unfulfilling.

A couple of spare thoughts –

Sherriff Linda finally does some good police work, finding Duke’s confession about the drug operation.  Apparently he was working with Max, the Reverend, and Big Jim to manufacture drugs on the condition that they be kept out of Chester’s Mill.  It’s an interesting twist, but wouldn’t that have been nice to know five episodes go?  With Duke and Reverend Coggins dead and the drug operation shut down (or at least nobody talking at all about it and only one person shown actually on the drug) who cares at this point?

So what happened to the chrysalis inside the mini-dome after it opened? 

So thoughts?  Comments?  Just want to tell me my blog sucks?  Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.