Under The Dome - Episode One: Pilot - Review

An entertaining opener to a relatively promising new series.

Stephen King's original 2009 novel, Under The Dome, followed a small holiday town in America who become completely cut off from the outside world when an invisible and seemingly impenetrable dome comes down upon them. The novel itself was one of his best in years; even though it was just shy of 900 pages, it ended up being, to use old ancient cliche, a real page turner. Now the novel has been adapted to the small screen, following the lives of the inhabitants of Chester's Mill as they come to terms with life inside the dome.

Episode One took a full hold of the shows intriguing concept, although it has to be mentioned early on for those that read the book; there are quite a few differences in the story between the two. Needless to say, SPOILERS AHEAD.

The episode began spectacularly, mainly because (and I'll admit I'm being a little self indulgent here, but I have to emphasise) the scene depicting the moment at which the dome comes down was just about exactly how I envisioned it occurring in my head when I was reading the novel. Furthermore, we're introduced to Dale 'Barbie' Barbara (Mike Vogel), something of a variation on the all-American hero, who could even be considered something of an anti-hero based on the fact that the pilot opened on him burying a corpse, which varies a tad from the source material. But, then again, King himself has stated that the show incorporates variations due to the fact that prose and television are two entirely different mediums, which is fair enough.

One of the programmes most positive aspects is the character of Julia Shumway, who has been cast in  a pretty much spot-on fashion to be played by Rachelle Lefevre. Her relationship with Barbie is going to likely going to be one of the best sections of the programme, considering that we're made aware of the fact that Dale has, in fact, killed Julia's husband, albeit in self-defence (see the previously mentioned body-disposal).

All good things aside, there were several aspects of the shows general production that made me shake my head in the most pretentious way. The CGI was one of the primary problems; it has an overwhelmingly painful similarity to Mega Python vs. Gateroid at times, I'm thinking specifically of when the dome first comes down, as we see a destroyed plane come plummeting towards one of the main cast only to have Barbie push him out of the way just in time, as well as the almost blackly comic moment when an unlucky cow is cut in half and we have the pleasure of witnessing a perfectly symmetrically severed bovine cross-section. Some degree of exemption has to be given to the cheap effects though, because, after all, Under The Dome is still a TV show, and therefore doesn't have the kind of hefty budget to egotistically swing around like so many of the summer blockbusters. Kudos can at least be given to the production team and the writers for having the guile to include such bloody images.

I have a soft spot for TV shows that have a kind of self-awareness in their stupidity, in that they know they're just mindless entertainment and they don't try to be anything else, and that's what Under The Dome is all about. While watching it I was, to a pretty large extent, reminded of the cult series Jericho. Fans of it will likely find Under The Dome to be something of an unintentional spiritual successor. There's no question about it being a silly programme, but it executes it's silliness for all the right reasons.