Weekly Report from the N.T.A.B. Division of Media Review

The Stand/Tulsa King

It should be noted that next week being the week of Thanksgiving (how did THAT happen, we’d like to know), we’re very likely going to post, if at all, at a weird time and most likely from a weird place. You have been warned.

The Stand (Paramount+)

In the wake of a deadly pandemic, humanity is globally devastated by a virus that eliminates all but a fraction of one percent of the population. In this new reality, the survivors are called to Boulder, Colorado by an elderly woman in their dreams. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, a charismatic leader assembles the dregs of humanity in a modern-day Gomorrah.

Not for nothing, but this is a fantastic poster.

Stephen King’s classic and nigh-unadaptable post-apocalypse novel gets a stylish update in this semi-horrific series starring Whoopie Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgaard, Amber Heard, Ezra Miller and James Marsden. This mini-series was doomed, if not damned, to come out in 2020. It’s been done before, of course, but back in the days before you could field movie-quality content and special effects, the show fell flat on its face for trying to do too much with too little.

Not so with this production. It started in 2011 with Steve Kloves (the Harry Potter franchise guy) and then pachinkoed through the hands of a large number of good writers and directors as it went from one movie to two movies, then 17-episode series, a 10-episode series, and then finally a 9-episode series with King himself writing the final chapter.

How is it, though? This hardly needs to be said, but it’s miles ahead of the mid-nineties mini-series by any yardstick you wish to measure with. And it’s full of great actors doing their best versions of Stephen King Central Casting characters. Skarsgaard in particular must really like playing villains; he’s not been this good since True Blood.

As adaptations go, it benefitted from It (2017) showing people that the way through a Stephen King novel is to identify his favorite toys and then re-arrange them into the shape of the story you need. The Stand is full of them: Creeps, Weirdos, Bullies, Victims Who Survive, Mystics, Magical Simpletons, Psychic Kids, and more. You just can’t start at page 1 of a Stephen King novel and expect an adaptation to work. So, the first three episodes of The Stand are a combination of Right Now, and Back Then, so we can see what people are doing in Boulder, Colorado, and then cut away to when they were being bullies as the flu pandemic is killing everyone.

It works, mostly. The first three episodes feel like a slog, but then the series picks up steam as soon as Flagg shows up. If nothing else, the flashbacks get more interesting. And the series manages to bring in some creepy moments, too, which is an accomplishment in a world with 10 full seasons of The Walking Dead under its belt.

Now that the divorce is out of the news cycle, and most people are out of imminent danger, you might want to give The Stand a whirl. It’s more of a salad than a main course, but we aren’t rushing it. After six full episodes, it’s held our attention and we’re rooting for characters, which is exactly what a Stephen King novel does by the time you get to the halfway point. I am very curious to see what King’s new ending holds.

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Tulsa King (Paramount+)

I can sum this up in two words: Taylor Sheridan. That should be all you need to know. Honestly. Taylor Sheridan. If you don’t know who he is, spend 30-seconds of Google-Fu and realize that you probably know his work, and if you don’t, you really should.

Okay, here’s the pitch, because you don’t seem that impressed. Sylvester Stallone is a mobster who gets out of prison after 25 years of silence, only to be told by his crime family that they can’t use him anymore. So they send him to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to open up shop.

I swear to God, I thought for half a minute that Sheridan sold the series by saying, “Let’s cross The Sopranos with Rhinestone!” My excitement grew, if that’s even possible. Alas, we don’t get that, not really, but the New Yorker in the south is something Stallone has done before and with Sheridan writing the story, the results are wonderful—funny, in that “Oh, someone’s gonna get punched in the head now!” kind of way.

I love Sly. Can’t help it. He was the first action star I imprinted on, thanks to Rocky and Rambo. And I’ve loved watching him be surprisingly good in Non-Rocky, non-Rambo roles for the whole of his career. Sometimes, other people noticed, too. Other times, like with Rhinestone and Oscar, I was the only one laughing. Assassins was the first movie where he started looking his age and he gave a restrained performance opposite Antonio Banderas. And did you see him in Cop Land? Come on!

I’ve only watched the first episode of Tulsa King, but I can tell I’m going to love it. And, if you like any of Taylor Sheridan’s other projects, or Stallone at all, you will, too.