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I thought it would be a police procedural whodunit kind of thing, or maybe a little bit like True Detective. Turns out I don't think it's either... but not sure yet.
What I do know it's a tremendous piece of TV that left me wanting more. Ben Mendehlson is awesome as always, and the direction from Jason Bateman is no less than you would expect from Ozark.
Apparently this is based upon a Stephen King book? The real question now: Do I read the SK book which I am sure I would enjoy, but would consist of what would be spoilers, or wait until after? Tough call.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
I read the book shortly after the trailer first dropped a few months ago. I liked it, and since it includes at least 1 character from other Stephen King books(Mercedes Man series or something?) I’ll probably pick those up too. It was my first Stephen King book, actually.
A few things I didn’t like, one thing in particular was on the author, the other was on me, as I got the audiobook that was read by Will Patton and... well he did a good job, its just distracting when a dude changes up his voice for female characters in an audiobook. I need to stop buying audiobooks that aren’t historical accounts told solely by a narrator.
Been looking forward to this, but haven’t had the time. Will probably watch the first 2 saturday and check the third one when it drops sunday.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/01/18 00:09:40
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
Made a slight tactical error by having during right at the start of the first episode -- right with the dog walking scene...
...
.. Cast all really good.
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
I also started reading the book and am about 70% through. No spoilers - they fit easily half the book into the first 2 episodes, so they're going to have to flesh out the other 8 quite a bit, I think.
Show seems better than the book.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
nels1031 wrote: I liked it, and since it includes at least 1 character from other Stephen King books(Mercedes Man series or something?) I’ll probably pick those up too. It was my first Stephen King book, actually.
Mr Mercedes. That was pretty OK. I blieve as you say they did at least 2 more of those - I hadn't read the other 2 in the arc.
Also as a heads up, in my opinion Stephen King blew his wad kind of a long time ago. I personally would pick the high point of his career as round around 1994 or thereabouts. His modern stuff is... serviceable, for sure, but he is not the writer he was when he was poor, desperate, and coked out of his mind.
I would recommend as novels: Firestarter, Pet Sematary, The Dead Zone, The Stand - unabridged, if you dont mind reading like 1800 pages - Thinner, and Cujo. Eyes of the Dragon was written for his kids, but it's a great book for adults too, especially if you like fantasy.
Better yet, read the collections of short stories. I think he's the absolute master of short stories! My favorite collections are probably Night Shift and Skeleton Crew, but Different Seasons is also excellent.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/01/19 23:34:32
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
cuda1179 wrote: I don't have HBO, but I am intrigued by this show. Is it a doppelganger? Well made mask? Alternate dimension crossing? Time travel?
Since you are asking, I’ll spoil it for you:
***DO NOT CLICK IF YOU DON’T WANT IT SPOILED***
Spoiler:
King drew inspiration from El Coco/El Cucuy. Hispanic culture’s version of the Boogeyman. It has some similarities with “It”, but instead of feeding on fear, it feeds on sadness. One of its powers is that it can shapeshift, but it requires blood from whoever he is copying and its not an instant transformation.
Ouze wrote: Also as a heads up, in my opinion Stephen King blew his wad kind of a long time ago. I personally would pick the high point of his career as round around 1994 or thereabouts. His modern stuff is... serviceable, for sure, but he is not the writer he was when he was poor, desperate, and coked out of his mind.
Yeah, I’ve heard similar sentiments from multiple parties. Didn’t really get into horror novels until about 5 or 6 years ago, and I’m more drawn to original content and new authors that aren’t tainted (in my mind) by the mass media interpretations of King’s body of work. I think I’ve watched all of the TV/Movie versions of his work, so it just feels redundant to read them. I’m probably missing out on some great fiction, but thats just my thing, I guess.
I only read The Outsider because it looked like “True Detective”, which I loved (though Season 2 was garbo mostly), meets “It”, which I also loved(The movies).
Also, since you read most of the book :
Spoiler:
Did it seem weird how King just kept reminding the reader/listener how the initial boy was brutally killed. It felt like it was mentioned with pretty great detail over and over. Maybe its Kinfs style, but it seemed unnecessary. In the audiobook at least, it felt like every half hour you were told about it.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/01/20 00:37:07
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
Yes, he definitely retread that several times. Not sure why. He even kind of glossed over subsequent similar events to circle back to the original well. Weird.
I don't know how the book is going to end, but by the point I am at -
Spoiler:
where Holly just gave the group presentation before they head over to Texas
- it feels like it's maybe running out of steam.
Unfortunately he has been sort of a victim of his own success - anything he wrote that was any good has already been adapted, usually pretty poorly for a big run of it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/01/20 01:01:31
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
I have read a lot of King and am re-reading some of his older stuff now and I will say that certainly he has changed over the years. It is interesting to read and compare the major different feels from his distinct eras like:
-the early first best sellers
-the books that were done under the influence
-the books right after him getting run down and nearly killed
-the most recent era
I feel the most recent era books are still quite serviceable but not particularly scary or intense. The villain or nemesis are usually in the end pretty weak sauce. The endings of these books tend to just sortof lose steam. Still readable and have had a good interesting premise though.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/01/20 02:24:15
I would agree with that. I think the newer stuff is much worse than when he was at his peak, but his peak was pretty damn high, and even his bad stuff is better than most at their very best.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
Ouze wrote: it feels like it's maybe running out of steam.
Funny, that's about the time that I started to "check the clock". Mainly because Will Patton's reading of her voice/speech pattern was jarring, and just the character overall I didn't like.
Spoiler:
Would've much preferred that they discovered the supernatural aspect of the killer on their own, in their own time, rather than have Holly spell it out for them. Some of the characters are already suspecting something otherworldly at the point where they have the conference, but she comes in and rams it home. I think the various characters all grappling with the nature of the killer were my favorite parts of the novel. Was kind of all downhill from the group meeting. YMMV.
This might be the 2nd or 3rd time I ragged on some aspect of the book, but I did like it overall, for what its worth. A fun read, which is all I want from my fiction stories.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/01/20 19:55:58
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
After episode three my interest is dropping pretty quickly. I was all in on the first one, and still pretty excited after the second. But I watched 3 and its like...getting away from where I wanted it to I guess?
Spoiler:
It was better when Terry was still alive, so that there was still some kind of suspense that maybe he did do it.
This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2020/01/22 14:19:29
Finale aired tonight. This definitely started out stronger than it ended. I hadn't watched the prior 2 episodes yet, and then I wound up jamming both of those along with the finale out, back to back.
I'm going to wish I had gone to sleep earlier tomorrow.
It definitely was nowhere near the promise of the earlier episodes, despite having a really strong cast giving very good performances. I'm not sure how much better it could have been considering the source material had the exact same problems: A good premise, a strong start, and then a meandering middle and a weak third act.
If you're interested in watching this, skip the book: you'll at least have some surprises in the show, and ultimately I think the show was ultimately better.
Kinda bummed it peaked so very soon in the arc.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2020/03/09 08:48:52
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I hate to say it, but I don't think he's written anything great since he was hit by that van and/or sobered up, except possibly some short stories.
Duma Key, Mr Mercedes (the two follow ups were good, but not as good), The Institute, Lisey's Story, Joyland, and 11/22/63 were all great reads. YMMV, obviously.
I feel the most recent era books are still quite serviceable but not particularly scary or intense. The villain or nemesis are usually in the end pretty weak sauce. The endings of these books tend to just sortof lose steam. Still readable and have had a good interesting premise though.
King has always struggled with endings. He's said himself in the past that he's more interested in the story getting there than in what happens at the end.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/03/09 19:50:57
It definitely was nowhere near the promise of the earlier episodes, despite having a really strong cast giving very good performances. I'm not sure how much better it could have been considering the source material had the exact same problems: A good premise, a strong start, and then a meandering middle and a weak third act.
This is a good summary of everything King has every written, from his best work to his worst.
Thanks for the list, Insaniak. I’ll check some of those out. I got burned out from reading a bunch of his stuff around the time of the Dark Tower finale, Dreamcatcher, Bag of Bones and the Cell. Hopefully he got his groove back.
As excited as we still are for the success of Watchmen, HBO's adaptation of Stephen King's 2018 bestseller The Outsider proved to be the vicious, violent underdog that we (and a lot of viewers) didn't see coming at first. But as the season stalked along, the series found itself not only gaining more critical praise but also earning enough eyeballs to put it above some of the cable giant's other successes. As much as the series ended with enough resolution for it to a complete tale, powerful performances from Cynthia Erivo (Holly Gibney) and Ben Mendelsohn (Ralph Anderson) have viewers wanting and hoping for a second-season return. This Tuesday, April 21, viewers will get their wish but there's a catch: it comes in book form. That's when King's new story collection If It Bleeds from Simon & Schuster Books hits the market, consisting of three novellas and a novel.
The three novellas offer unique, modern takes on some recurring King themes: "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" offers a tech-based cautionary tale, while "Rat" once again focuses on the hardship of writing and what authors are willing to do for their craft; and "The Life of Chuck" tells an epic tale (backward). But for fans of The Outsider and Gibney, it's the novel named after the collection that they'll want to pay special attention to: a solo adventure that finds Gibney drawn into a world of danger once more after her obsession over a vanishing mole on a news reporter's face forces her to investigate. The connection to King's previous novel comes when Anderson opens an envelope sent to him from Gibney that contains evidence of the case as well as an audio report from Gibney that did not sound promising. If that's still not enough to sell you, then let King convince you as he reads the first chapter from If It Bleeds:
-- vid not pasted across
Speaking of The Outsider, so what's the deal with those rumors of there being more to come in the "Gibney-verse"? When asked last month, Mendelsohn didn't have anything official to say, but he was hearing some things, too: "This is the God's honest truth: I've been told some way, somewhere, someone is writing, and somewhere that person who's writing is saying, 'Go away until I'm finished.' So no one knows. No one knows whether there'll be another, who'll be in it, what it will be about, any of those questions. I'll put a bet that they make another, but as to who is in or out or what that's about or anything else, I couldn't tell you. That's the God's honest truth."
rapidly getting to the situation where I'd happily watch Mendelsohn read the phone book, but not sure there's much room here for a direct sequel TBH.
The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn't; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all
We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be.
"the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king,
They could always go the way Castle Rock did, and make a second season that is a separate story that is just connected in some way through one of the characters... Holly being the obvious choice there.
I liked the first season, and hope for a second season.
In the first season, Ben Mendelsohn as Ralph Anderson squirmed in disbelief until he finally believed. How do you fit a square (truth) into a round hole (justice system)? That was Ralph Anderson's predicament at the end, and he changed himself for good or bad to do just that.
For the second season, I would like to see Ralph Anderson squirm once again. Unlike the first season where Ralph Anderson was an eye witness to the antagonist and had a firm conviction thereafter, the second season would have Ralph Anderson as a peripheral witness of the antagonist. Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney would be the only eye witness of the antagonist and recount her instances to Ralph Anderson. Ralph Anderson would squirm as he tried to believe her while not being an eye witness himself and tried to fit the changing shape of the square into a triangle, pentagon, and star (Holly Gibney's evolving truth of the antagonist) into the round hole (justice system). The antagonist in the second season does not have to be bigger and badder than the first season, but bad enough to create the tension between Ralph Anderson and Holly Gibney.
