The Early Reviews Are In On Stephen King’s TV Adaptation Of ‘The Mist’: Yay Or Nay?
Ever since the trailer for the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist dropped back in April, people have been eagerly awaiting the series. Now, as the air date looms, the early reviews are starting to come in. So, what’s the verdict? Is The Mist a Stephen King adaptation success story or yet another flop?
Ever since Stephen King became a successful writer, people have been adapting his works for movies and television. In fact, Carrie even ended up as a musical. But is the latest Stephen King series, The Mist, as good as the hype surrounding it? Most TV viewers will have to wait a little longer to find out. However, here are the early reviews from selected media outlets.
According to The Daily Beast, The Mist opens with the chilling scene of a soldier awakening in the forest and discovering the horrifying mist. When he makes it back to town and warns the local sheriff, he is rewarded by being thrown in jail. Even though The Daily Beast admits the show stumbles at times, it is a “show built for our current Trumpian era of political and cultural polarization,” so it could gain traction within the current political climate. And it is this reason The Mist‘s showrunner, Christian Thorpe, took on this project according to the Hollywood Reporter.
According to Deadline, The Mist is an inferior version of the Frank Darabont movie adaptation, citing the show’s lack of the “necessary sharpness” of the original. While the show appears to attempt to draw the viewers’ attention to the many conflicts of Bridgeville, Maine, The Mist ends up getting “bogged down in small-town stereotypes.”
USA Today admits that while there are some genuine scares, the show never “clicks into place.” They also warn that the series can be particularly graphic and bloody in parts.
While many critics are not a fan of the new version of The Mist, The Atlantic declared it “an absorbing supernatural thriller.”
CNet also found themselves unnerved by the show, and the fact that they had been hit by a freak storm during their viewing of it. They explained that the “first episode builds slowly, with the title monster staying mostly off-screen until there are about 12 minutes left in the episode.” They advise fans that the wait is certainly worth it.
The L.A. Times falls somewhere in the middle between the good and bad reviews, admitting The Mist is “creepy but lacks fun.”
Regardless of what the critics think of The Mist, fans can expect strong performances from the likes of Morgan Spector (Allegiance), Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings), Gus Birney (Chicago Med), and Frances Conroy (American Horror Story).
As The Daily Beast points out, this new adaptation of The Mist contains entirely different characters from those in Stephen King’s book and Frank Darabont’s movie.
The official synopsis for The Mist is below.
“Based on a story by Stephen King, Spike’s The Mist centers around a small town family that is torn apart by a brutal crime. As they deal with the fallout an eerie mist rolls in, suddenly cutting them off from the rest of the world, and in some cases, each other. Family, friends and adversaries become strange bedfellows, battling the mysterious mist and its threats, fighting to maintain morality and sanity as the rules of society break down.”
You can watch the trailer for The Mist below.
Will you be tuning into this latest adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist? Let us know by commenting below.
The Mist will premiere on June 22, Thursday, on Spike TV.
[Featured Image by Spike TV]
