The Stand 2020 - Looks bad, man 😟 -

[RomanesEuntDomus]

10 bucks say there is going to be a scene where the US is trying to downplay the virus, that'll be verbatim a quote from Trump. Bonus: a politician will make an ass of himself by claiming the virus is from China or refer to it as the Chinese Flu or something.

Worst case for the plot: The US made a weaponized flu virus and released it in China. This is gonna happen, if Tencent has its fingers in the pie.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Oh goody, needless race and gender swapping of characters. Awesome. The fact that Amber Heard is in this doesn’t help either.

 

[Secret Asshole]

I saw CBS All Access and then I immediately stopped the trailer and went, "Its shit." CBS All Access is one of the worst (if not THE WORST) major streaming service out there. It funds garbage, it produces garbage and it is garbage.

He's never really been a good TV writer, so its shit compounded upon shit.

 

[Muttnik]

What do you want to bet that, in an out of touch attempt to reeeee about incels, the hack writers unintentionally make Harold the only engaging character in this shit show?

This looks like hot garbage. I actually rather liked the previous miniseries, corny dated clunky wonder that it is. It at least seemed sincere. Unlike this turkey.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

The original was cheesy but it had a lot of good actors and the ones who had to go hammy seemed to have a lot of fun with it. Given just the tidbits I’m hearing about this and the fact that they’re changing things despite having a longer amount of time to show the story does not fill me with confidence, quite frankly.

 

[Shield Breaker]

M O O N, that spells uninspired rehash.

Though admittedly, I always felt that the Miniseries (haven't read the book) kinda falls apart in the second half. The beginning is very good, watching the epidemic run wild, humanity slowly dying and all that, it's a very good first half. But in the end, it kind of feels like "The Stand" entirely lacks "the stand" - like it sets up that final confrontation between good and bad and then just sort of gimps out on it. The good guys infiltrate the bad city and then a few minor things happen, and the city gets blown up with all evil people without any influence by the good guys. Had they not bothered with the bad guys at all, they'd just seen a bright flash to their east one day and it would have had the same result. The story feels like it ramps up for a great finale that we never get.

The book is the same way. King has admitted he hit a roadblock and came up with the sabotage / bomb at the midpoint to 'fix' it.

 

[Iceland Heavy]

10 bucks say there is going to be a scene where the US is trying to downplay the virus, that'll be verbatim a quote from Trump. Bonus: a politician will make an ass of himself by claiming the virus is from China or refer to it as the Chinese Flu or something.

Worst case for the plot: The US made a weaponized flu virus and released it in China. This is gonna happen, if Tencent has its fingers in the pie.

To be fair, that's pretty much all already in the source material. The superflu is a bioweapon and when it releases the President and the military cover it up as much as possible, instituting a total news blackout, executing journalists who try and find out the real story and trying to hide literal barges full of corpses by dumping them into the ocean and insisting that it's just a flu even as entire cities are starting to be depopulated. The Army even deliberately releases the flu into Russia and China out of sheer spite once America really starts falling apart, King was channeling a fair amount of Nixon Derangement Syndrome into that part of the story. There's actually a page in the graphic novel which I don't remember if it was in the book where the President gives a final address to the nation in a bunker trying to assure what's left of the American public at that point that it's just a mild flu and there'll be a vaccine any day now even as he's visibly sick with the superflu himself. All of this was toned down in the miniseries but I wouldn't be surprised if comes back in full force with a new orange paint job for this one while King snidely says it's just being more accurate to the book. Which honestly, it kinda would be.

 

[Meriasek]

Seriously, "The Stand" has so many opportunities to go Orange Man Bad and it being still faithful to the original, it'd be the surprise of the century if they didn't.

 

[Iceland Heavy]

Seriously, "The Stand" has so many opportunities to go Orange Man Bad and it being still faithful to the original, it'd be the surprise of the century if they didn't.

I will say, given how much different a media blackout in current year looks as opposed to the 70s I'm going to laugh my ass off if the Orange Man standin shuts down Tik Tok as part of the the cover up and sends death squads to silence the brave dancing zoomerinos trying to get the truth out.

 

[Dysnomia]

I read the book. I was probably too young to read it too. But I thought Larry was black throughout most of it anyway.
I think it was because the song he wrote sounded like black music to me. I also thought Flagg was black. I think I was like 12 when I read that book.

Ahem! Anyway, looks like it's gonna


Trashcan Man looks totally miscast with Ezra Miller. I'm not very familiar with him. But Trash was a gross, homeless, mentally ill man with a really interesting crescendo that I hope this guy can actually pull off. My hopes ain't too high.

Trash is kinda important so...

But because he is crazy I am wondering what they are gonna do to his character as it might "offend" people.

I wonder how they will portray incel Harold and if Nick is played by a real deaf actor so it's not ableist.

Joe is played by some big eared unibrow kid. I can't remember if Joe is white or not in the book. It might not be that specified. But this kid is some kinda.... brown. I dunno. Was Joe autistic or something? I remember him being a weird kid. But that might have been because of the situation.

I don't see Brian Warner (AKA Marilyn Manson) among the cast. Maybe it's a cameo?

 

[Meriasek]

I read the book. I was probably too young to read it too. But I thought Larry was black throughout most of it anyway.
I think it was because the song he wrote sounded like black music to me. I also thought Flagg was black. I think I was like 12 when I read that book.

Ahem! Anyway, looks like it's gonna


Trashcan Man looks totally miscast with Ezra Miller. I'm not very familiar with him. But Trash was a gross, homeless, mentally ill man with a really interesting crescendo that I hope this guy can actually pull off. My hopes ain't too high.

Trash is kinda important so...

But because he is crazy I am wondering what they are gonna do to his character as it might "offend" people.

I wonder how they will portray incel Harold and if Nick is played by a real deaf actor so it's not ableist.

Joe is played by some big eared unibrow kid. I can't remember if Joe is white or not in the book. It might not be that specified. But this kid is some kinda.... brown. I dunno. Was Joe autistic or something? I remember him being a weird kid. But that might have been because of the situation.

I don't see Brian Warner (AKA Marilyn Manson) among the cast. Maybe it's a cameo?

Ezra Miller does have the mentally ill part down, at least.

/edit: I guess it's finally time to watch the 1994 miniseries, which I have never done before.

 

[Syaoran Li]

This is gonna be a trainwreck if there ever was one.

At least the 1994 miniseries had an excuse for its campiness, namely that it was on a lower budget and had to deal with network TV censorship. Plus there was a bit of an endearing charm to it despite it all.

Ironically, blackwashing Larry Underwood is one of the few things about this that could actually work if they were competent about it.

In the original, it's pretty obvious Larry Underwood is an R&B pop singer and is part of the "blue eyed soul" sub-genre of the 70's.

If you were going to do The Stand in a modern setting, having Larry Underwood as a mainstream R&B star or hip-hop artist would actually make sense.

Bonus points if they did a shout out to the original novel and said he was black but everyone said he raps and sings like a white guy.

 

[XYZpdq]

I'm disappointed to hear Manson might be in this and he's not Trashcan Man

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

I'm disappointed to hear Manson might be in this and he's not Trashcan Man

He's not. He was supposed to be The Kid, and they cut that out.

Ironically, blackwashing Larry Underwood is one of the few things about this that could actually work if they were competent about it.

In the original, it's pretty obvious Larry Underwood is an R&B pop singer and is part of the "blue eyed soul" sub-genre of the 70's.

I'm re-reading the book. The white guy sounding black was a minor plot point, but kind of an important one early on.

When Underwood goes to visit his mother and asks what she thought of his hit song she said he "sounds like a nigger."


FWIW, the casting that absolutely kills this for me is Whoppi Goldberg as Mother Abagail. The more I think about her in the role the more I just shake my head. She is so far away from the character as presented in the book, gah. That one bothers me way more than the Welcome to 2020 race swap (Larry) and gender swap (Ralph/Ray). And introduction of Dr. Chinawoman.

I will say, given how much different a media blackout in current year looks as opposed to the 70s I'm going to laugh my ass off if the Orange Man standin shuts down Tik Tok as part of the the cover up and sends death squads to silence the brave dancing zoomerinos trying to get the truth out.

King has rewritten the ending, for the third time, for this mini-series. So maybe. God knows his Twitter is non-stop Trump sperging.

Maybe I shouldn't assume I'm gonna dislike something Screen Rant likes, but, well, I'm gonna assume that if Screen Rant likes it, I won't.

The Stand Miniseries: Why Stephen King Rewrote The Ending (& That's Better)

The new ending of The Stand should prove to be better than the previous two. In reality, as the world continues to face the devastating affects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a story about a superflu is something that could be extremely anxiety-inducing, despite evidence that viewers have been streaming Contagion nonstop. Perhaps King shifted the story around to insert in some hopefulness about a world that recovers from a deadly plague. There are also rumors that the updated ending of The Stand will provide more clarity on whether or not humans actually learn from their mistakes.

 

[The Nothingness]

To be fair, that's pretty much all already in the source material. The superflu is a bioweapon and when it releases the President and the military cover it up as much as possible, instituting a total news blackout, executing journalists who try and find out the real story and trying to hide literal barges full of corpses by dumping them into the ocean and insisting that it's just a flu even as entire cities are starting to be depopulated. The Army even deliberately releases the flu into Russia and China out of sheer spite once America really starts falling apart, King was channeling a fair amount of Nixon Derangement Syndrome into that part of the story. There's actually a page in the graphic novel which I don't remember if it was in the book where the President gives a final address to the nation in a bunker trying to assure what's left of the American public at that point that it's just a mild flu and there'll be a vaccine any day now even as he's visibly sick with the superflu himself. All of this was toned down in the miniseries but I wouldn't be surprised if comes back in full force with a new orange paint job for this one while King snidely says it's just being more accurate to the book. Which honestly, it kinda would be.

IIRC the closest the miniseries got to the government coverup was Kathy Bates playing a talk radio personality who is trying to reveal the truth only for federal agents break into her studio and kill her on the air.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

IIRC the closest the miniseries got to the government coverup was Kathy Bates playing a talk radio personality who is trying to reveal the truth only for federal agents break into her studio and kill her on the air.

There was also the reporter, cameraman and driver who got gunned down by the army people too.

 

[Muttnik]

So which character is getting the gay-ray?

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

So which character is getting the gay-ray?

Well, it can’t be anyone who dies, because others they’ll get accused of being homophobic. So I’m gonna say Tom, who they will heavily dial back on the level of retarded he is.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

Whoopie is cool af in Ghost and Star Trek so idk, not familiar with her outside of that and that View show so I'm okay with her for not.

 

[Iceland Heavy]

This is gonna be a trainwreck if there ever was one.

At least the 1994 miniseries had an excuse for its campiness, namely that it was on a lower budget and had to deal with network TV censorship. Plus there was a bit of an endearing charm to it despite it all.

Ironically, blackwashing Larry Underwood is one of the few things about this that could actually work if they were competent about it.

In the original, it's pretty obvious Larry Underwood is an R&B pop singer and is part of the "blue eyed soul" sub-genre of the 70's.

If you were going to do The Stand in a modern setting, having Larry Underwood as a mainstream R&B star or hip-hop artist would actually make sense.

Bonus points if they did a shout out to the original novel and said he was black but everyone said he raps and sings like a white guy.

I'm imagining Larry Underwood as a turbo-wigger instead and maybe blackwashing him is the better choice.