So, time traveling and Stephen King. What can go wrong? The book, original source material liked to dwelve into the Kennedy conspiracies, but also taking itself to be a part of King's Castle Rock universe. Both book and show tries to keep to itself most of the time, only presenting so many aspects of King's horror universe within the moments that has so much forward momentum in terms of the story.
Watching a production, billed by J.J. Abrams himself, there's only good expectations. I mean he's never made a bad show before(ok, I know Lost had its problems . So I came in with those expectations and I wasn't disappointed, though, ah, my attention span you could say, lost it right around the third act and ending.
To put it in a summed choice of words, this was an enjoyable King flick through and through. Stephen King doesn't make bad stories, just ones that sometimes tends to maybe stand out more than the others. This felt like it was a personalized drama and political thriller, with some supernatural elements sprinkled on top.
You can't change the past without dealing the consequences of time-space manipulation. While it doesn't like to go deep into technicalities around time traveling, the show has a simple plot structure. It puts a reluctant protagonist, Jake Epping, to do this mission for the sake of his diner friend because he is such a helpful sort. He found a portal to 1960, just 3 years before the JFK assassination and has been tasked to do whatever it takes to foil the late president's death.
One near impossible mission becomes a long journey of realization, love, and loss. The evocative foreshadowing that the show employs with King's book to help with, pulls you into the thrill of the suspense. One point, the main character just wins a few bets of that timeline, next he is saving a middle-aged man he knew from his current timeline by evading him from childhood trauma. As the show progresses, you pretty much realize halfway that, he has a savior complex. More on that later.
The characters in this show are delectibly disturbed, deranged, unhinged, sometimes even the ones who think are right, turn to be misguided. The big exception being the protagonist who has a bit of a Mary-Sue thing going on for the first few episodes.
King's writing are all about the characters and the mysticism they get embroiled in. Like both the protagonist and his deutaroganist that teams up with him, whom have been tasked on saving J.F.K. Stumbles time after time. From helping Jake's girlfriend by dealing with her psychopatic ex-husband to dealing with the interventions that the past throws out. And then some more.
These characters can't catch a break from the grand hands of faith, trying to do whatever it can to stop them from achieving their mission. This is a believable premise because of how meticulously created the setting and characters are. How the supernatural elements all fit in.
Despite that, I never got behind the protagonist. He seems fine but is also just a run-of-the-mills goody-two-shoes who wants to do right by people. His partner in crime, Bill is completely naive, to that point of stupidly foiling a well-thought out plan. Of course, this show is also about the drama, so I was trying, accepting this aspect of the story, despite seemingly being flawed.
The show doesn't pull punches when it comes to inducing some traumatizing story moments. Characters will die, you just don't know who at times. It plays around with your expectations. But the biggest rug being pulled is how connected the show is to King's Castle Rock universe. There's going to be so many heavy hitting images and character revelations, that reminds you that this is indeed a Stephen King's story and that you're not going to be ready for what's to come.
Through the end, I did enjoy watching the show. Though the ending to this didn't hit as hard as any of his other works. Seemingly because this was wrapped up with a nice bow in the end. A cushioned ending where the character doesn't get what he wants but everything in the world is right and that order is restored.
Of course, I'd be remiss If I said that the show follows the book one on one, because I never got around to read it myself, but from what I've gathered, the book has a better narrative all throughout. This is a great series, the production quality and the superb pilot episode really knock it out of the park. Finished it in 8hrs, from about 8 episodes as a limited-run series.
