Episode 1: "The Rabbit Hole"

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raggedyman79

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
126
602
44
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
Yes..I DID have to purchase Hulu. Because that's the only place where it's available. Epic fail Stephen King and whomever contracted the rights to them. This is looking like "Under The Dome" already. By then end, President Kennedy will be changed to Margaret Thatcher and we'll be in London instead of Dallas. The book was PERFECT! Why mess with it? I have read it four times. And if the root beer is in episode two, then it's wrong. It should be in episode one and 5 minutes in. Bastardized.

You didn't HAVE to purchase Hulu. No one held you down and said "purchase Hulu or we'll cut off your fingers."

Five minutes in? They'd have to cut a lot of stuff to get him to the past five minutes into the first episode. You act like you've never seen a SK adaptation before. God help you if you watch THE SHINING.
 

kingfan58

New Member
Sep 25, 2012
3
3
What do you mean no significant changes? Read on...
OK...first...his name is Jake and not George in 1960. (Oh, wait..it's 1960 and not 1958..hello?!? Where's the Poulin shooting incident and Cribbage stuff. Why is it in Kentucky and not Derry? Why is the Yellow Card Man allowed to go beyond the area of the 'rabbit hole'? He met Sadie early. Where's the Kennebunk Fruit Stand and the great root beer? What the heck is this boarding house? The whole evilness of Derry is lost and its mirror Dallas loses some of its charm. This is so bastardized and it's only the first episode. But I agreed with one thing you said....Netflix would have released the entire series at once so we could 'binge'.

Glad to see Im not the only one thinking something is wrong here with the adaptation - what about the using the phrases " Life turns on a dime" and "The past is obdurate"? Did we really need to see the scene with the cockroaches - what was that all about? I do think Franco is well cast though as Jake(George).. And I agree not having anything about Derry is SOO unKing-esque - really, dont fans deserve something more? Granted there are a LOT of subplots going on in the book so we shall see what gives in the next 7 episodes but so far a C+ movie adaptation start to an A+ novel..
 
I am loving it. Yes there are changes (kinda big changes) but I'll repeat/paraphrase what Steve has said: a film adaptation does not negate the book. The book is still there. This is a differrent medium, if you want the book version, pick up the book. I am enjoying seeing what JJ Abrams and the cast do with it.

Also Hulu does have CC (I accidently got it turned on and had to call my tech son downstairs to turn it back off). If you're too cheap for Hulu go to the library and stop bawling about it.

Can we stop complaining and talk about it now?
 

raggedyman79

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
126
602
44
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
Glad to see Im not the only one thinking something is wrong here with the adaptation - what about the using the phrases " Life turns on a dime" and "The past is obdurate"? Did we really need to see the scene with the cockroaches - what was that all about? I do think Franco is well cast though as Jake(George).. And I agree not having anything about Derry is SOO unKing-esque - really, dont fans deserve something more? Granted there are a LOT of subplots going on in the book so we shall see what gives in the next 7 episodes but so far a C+ movie adaptation start to an A+ novel..

You don't think you're being slightly nitpicky, expecting specific lines of dialogue to be carried over? And speaking of what fans "deserve", this miniseries isn't just for us. It's got to translate to mass audiences who don't know Derry from Des Moines. Instead of grading the show by what's not there, lets judge it for what is.

I'm excited to see what's to come. I was incredibly moved by Harry Dunning in his brief appearance, moreso than I expected to be. I think it's an interesting choice on the part of the creative team to make it more of a thriller than the book, with the Yellow Card Man more of a figure of dread, and more immediate threats to Jake, but I suppose it's TV, so you have to have more action.

I did like the trip to see JFK speak; one thing about the book was that aside from Al (and Sadie, briefly, maybe) no one had much of an opinion on JFK. It was like SK never even felt the need to justify JFK's perceived heroism. But the show took a beat to show the effect that JFK had on that group of people, their smiling faces reacting to his speech, and Jake smiling too. It was a good moment and a nice reminder of the stakes at the center of the story.
 

Anduan Pirate Princess

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2015
768
5,977
41
Rhode Island
It's ok, but I keep being "that person" who keeps saying, "That's not what happened in the book!" every few minutes. I'm driving my husband crazy, lol. It started out very fast-paced, but I get that they had to draw the viewer in and couldn't put a lot of "Jake thinks it over, researches, and does a few test runs first" without risking the audience getting restless.

BUT, the previews for upcoming episodes look great, and I like where the episode left off, as I was hoping they weren't going to just abandon the Durham family plotline. Can't wait for more!
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
I HATE the changes already. King's book was perfect and they screwed with it from the beginning. Second, I HATE that I had to purchase Hulu. They don't have CLOSED CAPTION and they didn't release the series all at once like Netflix does. I HATE that I have to spend $5 more so I don't get the annoying commercials. Netflix does not have commercials. They have one streaming price. Oh, yeah...they have a better selection. "Hulu and Chill" is NOT in the national vernacular.

Dear Stephen King: Why the hell would you let them bastardize another one of your great novels and then hide it in obscurity on Hulu?
Simple solution: Change the channel.
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
I can't find fault with the first episode at all...I'm highly impressed. As with any book to screen adaptation there's always going to be changes, but at the moment I don't feel there's any significant changes that detract from the original story. The writers/producers are actually right on track for where I expected/hoped the first episode would end. It's a nice little "cliffhanger" -- even for those of us who have read the book -- and builds suspense for the next episode. The only problem is...
I want to watch all of the episodes now!! :biggrin2:
There were huge changes, but meh. It's a movie (ish), not the book, and the changes work in this medium. To reboot a post on another thread, the tone is the same, if not the specifics. I was pleased that Franco seemed to be into the role--he's either really good or completely awful. I have to look at adaptations like this: if I hadn't read the book, would I have liked the show? In this case, the answer is yes. It holds its own aside from the novel. Changes to a tv show or movie don't change the original story; I can go pull it off my shelf whenever I want, and the story will always be the same as the first time I read it :)
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
So what do you who have seen it think about the order of events in this first episode?
I found it interesting, on the whole. Once I let go of the book storyline and started watching what was happening on the screen, the screen storyline fell into place. I'll keep going (though if it does go the 'the CIA planned the whole thing' route my eyes will roll so far back in my head that I won't be able to see a thing--lol).
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
I absolutely LOVED IT!!! And shocked that it was so good (not a Franco fan at all).
The book is in my top 5 reads of all time and yes, there are changes but nothing that takes away from the premise (so far).
The only thing better would be if it was binge-able.
I think that for the price this show had to have cost, they're banking on it building up viewership over time. I'm curious how that will work out: Netflix tried it for a few shows, and they didn't do well. They weren't very good shows, though, so it might not have been the weekly thing that killed them.
 

Anduan Pirate Princess

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2015
768
5,977
41
Rhode Island
It's ok, but I keep being "that person" who keeps saying, "That's not what happened in the book!" every few minutes. I'm driving my husband crazy, lol. It started out very fast-paced, but I get that they had to draw the viewer in and couldn't put a lot of "Jake thinks it over, researches, and does a few test runs first" without risking the audience getting restless.

BUT, the previews for upcoming episodes look great, and I like where the episode left off, as I was hoping they weren't going to just abandon the Durham family plotline. Can't wait for more!
Oooh, sorry, I meant "Dunning!" Not Durham. :a11:
 

Rrty

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2007
1,394
4,588
I haven't seen the show, but let me say I do understand when people are disappointed over changes. My best advice, for any who would like to take it, is to always say to yourself it's not important, it really doesn't matter. I'm not being simplistic or sarcastic or critical -- it literally occurred to me one day as I got older that nothing on this pop-cultural level matters. If AMC announces tomorrow that Rick from The Walking Dead will be killed off in the next episode, it simply doesn't matter. Yes, that would be disappointing...but it probably would be a great business decision. In fact, if I were a shareholder of that company, I would ask the board of directors if the budget on the program could somehow be more contained. To do that, maybe some star actors on the program would need to be cut from the roster (remember, no one is supposed to be safe on that show; and some agent will overprice his star client at some point). If that were to happen, in all seriousness, would the world stop spinning, would life be ruined? There would be an outcry, but hey...the storyline would continue. To be honest, too, I sometimes enjoy radical changes in stories.

As for having to subscribe to Hulu, well...I understand anyone who would complain about that, but the other side of the coin is content is not free and the content makers and distributors have to be paid. Franco and Abrams are probably overpaid, I agree, but shareholders of Hulu -- and I as a Disney shareholder am, in a sense (a very, very mathematically small one, to be certain), an interested party in Hulu -- deserve to see people subscribe to the service. Releasing all the episodes at once unfortunately might mean that people wouldn't keep the service after they watch the show. But perhaps there should be a way for Hulu to experiment with that sort of thing, to release the episodes all at once and still add value to the model. (Maybe when a new show like this is released all new subscriptions should be obligatory six-month sign-ups for a certain window of time...no one really knows the answer to this kind of digital distribution.)

Like I say, when I was younger, I didn't like changes in a movie adaptation. Now I find it more compelling. I didn't like King connecting The Dark Tower to books in which I wanted the rules to remain their own and not be a part of a different supernatural ecosystem...I might still feel that way to some degree, but I mostly find it fun now. He could turn one of my very favorite villains, It, into another version of Flagg and I simply wouldn't care.

Let today's new and praised protocols of episodic storytelling, the ones that brought you the aforementioned Dead as well as things like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, get you into a new version of this particular piece of King's overall mythos.
 

Anduan Pirate Princess

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2015
768
5,977
41
Rhode Island
I haven't seen the show, but let me say I do understand when people are disappointed over changes. My best advice, for any who would like to take it, is to always say to yourself it's not important, it really doesn't matter. I'm not being simplistic or sarcastic or critical -- it literally occurred to me one day as I got older that nothing on this pop-cultural level matters. If AMC announces tomorrow that Rick from The Walking Dead will be killed off in the next episode, it simply doesn't matter. Yes, that would be disappointing...but it probably would be a great business decision. In fact, if I were a shareholder of that company, I would ask the board of directors if the budget on the program could somehow be more contained. To do that, maybe some star actors on the program would need to be cut from the roster (remember, no one is supposed to be safe on that show; and some agent will overprice his star client at some point). If that were to happen, in all seriousness, would the world stop spinning, would life be ruined? There would be an outcry, but hey...the storyline would continue. To be honest, too, I sometimes enjoy radical changes in stories.

As for having to subscribe to Hulu, well...I understand anyone who would complain about that, but the other side of the coin is content is not free and the content makers and distributors have to be paid. Franco and Abrams are probably overpaid, I agree, but shareholders of Hulu -- and I as a Disney shareholder am, in a sense (a very, very mathematically small one, to be certain), an interested party in Hulu -- deserve to see people subscribe to the service. Releasing all the episodes at once unfortunately might mean that people wouldn't keep the service after they watch the show. But perhaps there should be a way for Hulu to experiment with that sort of thing, to release the episodes all at once and still add value to the model. (Maybe when a new show like this is released all new subscriptions should be obligatory six-month sign-ups for a certain window of time...no one really knows the answer to this kind of digital distribution.)

Like I say, when I was younger, I didn't like changes in a movie adaptation. Now I find it more compelling. I didn't like King connecting The Dark Tower to books in which I wanted the rules to remain their own and not be a part of a different supernatural ecosystem...I might still feel that way to some degree, but I mostly find it fun now. He could turn one of my very favorite villains, It, into another version of Flagg and I simply wouldn't care.

Let today's new and praised protocols of episodic storytelling, the ones that brought you the aforementioned Dead as well as things like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, get you into a new version of this particular piece of King's overall mythos.
Excellent perspective, thank you for sharing!