'Under the Dome' TV Review

It looks like we all tuned in to CBS for Under The Dome, but was it as good of a show as we were hoping?  Is this going to be Jericho in a bottle? (You'll see why I suggest that in a bit.)

(This is a non-spoiler TV review)

Per TVMI, early TV ratings estimates show Under the Dome pulled a whopping 9.2/15 share for its series premiere.  And if like any show, the ratings drop 10 to 20 percent over the next few weeks, that would be normal, but still be good.  But I'd be surprised if it only dropped that much.

Quickie TV Rating Explained: In other words, an estimated 9.2% of all households had tuned in, while 15% of all TV viewers were watching.

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I think people want to see this new show based on a Stephen King story to do well and to give them their summer TV entertainment.  And I think many will stick around and enjoy the series.  But for me, the premiere felt a bit dull, moving along, giving us character introductions across the board, so we get an idea of the players.

And maybe that's where I fall short with the show.  I like shows that introduce characters as they're needed.  Not pour them all in the character bucket for us to see, then flesh them out as it goes.  But that's my short-coming and not the show's.

At first I was worried we'd have to meet too many characters before things got going, but that wasn't the case, and we were soon introduced to the event in the series, when the dome materializes and cuts a cow in half, slices a building open, destroys an airplane and a few other incidents that we were shown in the premiere episode.

But there were also a few other things/events going on to create the drama between characters, while dealing with this mysterious dome.

Let's think about this for a moment.  This town was just cut off from the world.  This means that they are pretty much all alone in dealing with this event, and with whatever resources they have on-hand in the town.  Hopefully this dome thing won't go on too long and starve them out!

And what does "The pink stars are falling in lines," mean?  A line uttered by two different characters while having seizures.  I guess we'll find out.

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This series is based on what's been called a very long novel from King, so there's a lot of material ready for our consumption.  The events in the book only took a few weeks.  TV on the other hand, well, who knows what the creative forces will do with the timeline.

The story could be drawn out for a while, while the characters deal with what I presume will be dwindling resources.  This reminded me of the first season of Jericho, when the town found themselves dealing with what was going on around them, and suddenly supply lines were cut off and they had to figure things out for themselves.

I haven't read the book, but I took a sneak peak at the synopsis and according to early reports from the creative forces behind the show, they're going to take liberties with the resolution of the series.  So I wonder how much they'll deviate from the story?

That is...  if you can muster through the series of ads that peppered the show.

So a dome shows up which may have most viewers wondering what the heck it is?  There is an interesting mix of characters stuck inside it with each other, just to make sure we have a good mix for those tense interactions.  Wrapped up in a sci-fi genre time slot on Monday nights.  Up against The Bachelorette (which I can't stand the girl this year) and other shows.

With the name of a legendary producer attached, Steven Spielberg, I suspect many are tuning in for that, as well as this being a King story.

I've seen some folks compare the show to Lost... and then it's pointed out that the man behind Lost, Brian K. Vaughn, developed King's book to series.

Now I've seen The Mist and love that movie and how all the character interactions keep the story going in that movie.  So I am putting some faith into how King is going to treat this little sampling of America, in this cut off town of Chester Mills, Maine. 

But I'm also worried that when he has too much time or material on his hands, that he'll also possibly draw it all out and mess it up.  I've seen him take good stories and slap together some not-so-great endings.

We'll see.  Yes, I will be tuning in again to see what happens.  But if it stays flat in energy or people start getting more psychotic almost instantly (you know who I'm talking about if you saw the premiere) then I might not stick around for all thirteen episodes of the series.

Did you like Under The Dome?
-Bruce 
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