Stephen King makes a cameo in the first show ala Hitchcock.

Someone dies in the first seven minutes. The DOME is still white. Cats and dogs are sleeping together (Oh wait, that's another movie). The Dead walk the earth. New characters appear. Strange lights appear.

I liked it.

A piece of advice to CBS: Repeat the damn show during the week.

Season 2, Episode 2: Infestation.

"This is a test"

gee, "This IS a test"

I watched it and yes someone dies, I was crushed, no wait, er, if I understand the story they are locked in under the dome, now with nobody able to get in or out, the question of food supply comes to mind, or am I over thinking it like the HP 2 where the chamber of secrets are in a girls bathroom built in 1000 AD, flush toilets and everything 1000 years old, bathrooms in the castle, no out houses no sir.

River

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 08, 2014 9:18 pm I watched it and yes someone dies, I was crushed, no wait, er, if I understand the story they are locked in under the dome, now with nobody able to get in or out, the question of food supply comes to mind, or am I over thinking it like the HP 2 where the chamber of secrets are in a girls bathroom built in 1000 AD, flush toilets and everything 1000 years old, bathrooms in the castle, no out houses no sir.

River

In days of old

when knights were bold

...and toilets weren't invented...

They dropped their load

beside the road

...and walked away contented!

Old English Proverb...

Episode 3. REVELATION

I almost quit watching but there's a late reveal that satisfied me.

Episode 4 season 2. Is titled REVELATION.

I messed up the title of episode 3.

I thought this was going to be the episode that bored me with typical SyFy plot devices BUT NO Not in the least.

Although the first 15 minutes is a bore.

However, someone is crazier than Dr Strangelove and he was really nutso and messed up.

Kind of like the Dr Mengele of Chester's Mills.

BWA-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I'm watching it on Amazon, so I don't watch it until Friday, but I was pretty bored with episode 3, and this was a series I liked last year.

It is, of course, nothing like the book, and I think King is beginning to lose focus writing this for TV trying to stretch it out, probably for another season. The crazy barber was a reincarnation of the crazy preacher that was killed off last season. This next episode will have to be much better than #3 to keep my interest.

Stephen King helped write the first episode of season two and that gave him a chance to guide the writing team on the rest of the year. I don't think that the writing team has more than the outline of all episodes and the possible ending of season two. That's how these things work.

I don't write screenplays, I write short stories but I have some idea from reading the musings and thoughts of various screen writers as to what the thought process is. IT begins with an idea, and then a season arc is laid out. UNDER THE DOME was a one year arc initially where BABYLON 5 was a five year arc. Then a history of the show is prepared and a history of each character, and then the particular 10, 12, 22 or 24 episodes (however many) are written along the seasonal arc.

SO what happens in the lesser shows is that the seasonal arcs follow too few people, OR that the writers invent too complex and confusing a history and behavior for their characters. Currently,

THE LAST SHIP has thin plots to stretch out the shows into one season that either ends with mankind dying or mankind surviving.

Another example is DOMINION (angels and devils fight over the messiah on some variant of earth) which is so complex as to be stultifyingly dumb.

SHARKNADO has a plot so silly and characters so thin as to become farce. You can really live on FARCE for a long time in a TV show.

THE WALKING DEAD has a reservoir of good stories from the books and they have the writer of the books advising constantly with the writers. That's why it works and can keep coming back. IT also is willing to renew itself and kill characters.

What is happening with UNDER THE DOME is a bad transition from one year to another year. They threw away the character of Deputy Linda Esquivel. I thought she was one of the stronger characters. They brought in several more characters with weak explanations and are only now developing them. Some of this character development defies logic. That's not nice to do to readers and watchers. We still don't know if Big Jim or his Teacher girl friend are good or bad -- that creates bad feelings in the audience.

Remember, SEINFELD had no observable plot but went on for years with rather fun shows. It's not the plot itself but the way the show is written and characters presented. Baby Boom Ennui was never so funny.

LAW AND ORDER with its 20 seasons was another example - the characters held a rather disjointed storyline together on current events. Many of the shows were simply "one offs" that fit the characters. It stayed topical with current affairs.

I have lots of ideas for my short stories but when I go to put them on paper to sell to an anthology or website, I have to make them enjoyable and satisfying to the reader. Think of the TV series you like or have made it big and try to determine what made them that way and why are they different from the failed series.

As I look back over the years, few shows held my attention for the entire run, Babylon 5 was one, Hill Street Blues. I think the reason that these two come to mind is it had a beginning and end. It was how the Sgt who in real life died of Cancer but on the show died in the arms of Grace, cremated and his ashes dumped in the street only to have the street cleaner come up right after. In Babylon 5 in the first episode a question was asked about giving some DNA, in the next to last episode she answered it. It is things like that, that make a show work for years the continuing story it builds from week to week and when one story ends another takes its place, you must watch them in order or your lost.

Most shows no matter how good are one and done, each show stands alone.

River

Season 2, Episode 5: Reconciliation

Now they are acting like real human beings - - paranoid, crazy, violent, stupid, and religiously obsessed, like cornered rats.

And let me put it this in these words - never tell a starving crowd that you are starting a voluntary food sharing program.

Never feed a starving man a diarrhetic because eyou think he's constipated.

You see it's all an experiment - - they aliens who started THE DOME were brainwashed by a renegade Nazi Scientist who was trying to clone Hitler in the jungles of Brazil back in WW2. Cloning didn't work but they did discover some really nifty psychedelic hallucinogens and when they moved to the USA - Chester's Mills - - which BTW had a founder who like fondling women with big tits, hence his appearance in HEAD COMICS - - they used weapononized the hallucinogens as gas and unleashed them on Chester's Mills with the blessing of the CIA.

On the other hand - there's multiple liars in Chester's Mills.

And a few killers, cold blooded killers.