As with the last episode, the scenes with Flagg and New Vegas are for the most part more interesting than those in Boulder with the "heroes". And the interesting scenes in Boulder are with "bad guys" Harold and Nadine. Credit to Owen Teague, who manages to convey some depth to Harold. Because the production staff doesn't bother to.
Maybe evil is more appealing than good. Maybe that it's Flagg does something. It's evil and destructive, but somebody doing _something_ is more interesting than a bunch of people in Boulder doing much of nothing. Yes, God is silent and mysterious and all that good stuff. Literally. But at least with Flagg, there's a sense that he's doing something. And that makes for more interesting viewing.
Even the part in Boulder that are more suspenseful, like Nadine planting the bomb and Frannie breaking into Harold's workshop, are centered on the bad guys.
We get Trashcan Man, played by Ezra Miller and set up by the costume department to look like someone out of 'Mad Max: The Road Warrior. Which is... a way to go with the character. Not a good way, IMO, but it is a way. We don't get anything with the Kid, or see any of Trashcan Man's trip to New Vegas. Not that we did in the '94 series, either. But if a remake can't fix the mistakes of the past, what's the point?
I could live without the Kid, and clearly the production staff. But we don't get to see Trashcan Man's trek from Indiana to New Vegas. Which strips him, and Flagg, of a fair amount of backstory. And that's the problem with a lot of the mini-series. A lot gets skipped over, and the result is a lot of shallow characterization. We get more of Flagg and Abigail. The former because he's the "big bad", and the latter because she's played by Whoopi Goldberg. And to borrow a phrase, "attention must be paid!"
I don't think that we've gotten a lot of pretty much anyone else. Lloyd seems a more filled-out character than Larry or Nick... which just seems wrong. Granted, Nick gets short shrift in the novel, too. Here, he's ushered off-stage with nary more than a grimace.
So the bare bones of the novel are here, but the meat seems to be... missing. Besides Nick, another decent character who gets skimmed past is Judge Davis. The production staff couldn't even give her an on-screen death. What was the point of her going to New Vegas as a spy? She holed up in a motel, then apparently turned on and drove off to the border where she gets killed off-screen. And? What was the point of her, other than to have three spies? It's either a waste, or sloppy writing, or both.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Maybe evil is more appealing than good. Maybe that it's Flagg does something. It's evil and destructive, but somebody doing _something_ is more interesting than a bunch of people in Boulder doing much of nothing. Yes, God is silent and mysterious and all that good stuff. Literally. But at least with Flagg, there's a sense that he's doing something. And that makes for more interesting viewing.
Even the part in Boulder that are more suspenseful, like Nadine planting the bomb and Frannie breaking into Harold's workshop, are centered on the bad guys.
We get Trashcan Man, played by Ezra Miller and set up by the costume department to look like someone out of 'Mad Max: The Road Warrior. Which is... a way to go with the character. Not a good way, IMO, but it is a way. We don't get anything with the Kid, or see any of Trashcan Man's trip to New Vegas. Not that we did in the '94 series, either. But if a remake can't fix the mistakes of the past, what's the point?
I could live without the Kid, and clearly the production staff. But we don't get to see Trashcan Man's trek from Indiana to New Vegas. Which strips him, and Flagg, of a fair amount of backstory. And that's the problem with a lot of the mini-series. A lot gets skipped over, and the result is a lot of shallow characterization. We get more of Flagg and Abigail. The former because he's the "big bad", and the latter because she's played by Whoopi Goldberg. And to borrow a phrase, "attention must be paid!"
I don't think that we've gotten a lot of pretty much anyone else. Lloyd seems a more filled-out character than Larry or Nick... which just seems wrong. Granted, Nick gets short shrift in the novel, too. Here, he's ushered off-stage with nary more than a grimace.
So the bare bones of the novel are here, but the meat seems to be... missing. Besides Nick, another decent character who gets skimmed past is Judge Davis. The production staff couldn't even give her an on-screen death. What was the point of her going to New Vegas as a spy? She holed up in a motel, then apparently turned on and drove off to the border where she gets killed off-screen. And? What was the point of her, other than to have three spies? It's either a waste, or sloppy writing, or both.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
