Under The Dome: Seasons 2/Episode 1 – “Heads Will Roll”

Under The Dome: Seasons 2/Episode 1 – “Heads Will Roll”

I have to be honest when I say I almost did not watch the second season  premiere episode; It came down to the wire for me to even decide to record this episode. I am a huge fan of all things Stephen King and love to read everything he writes and watch all the shows/movies that are made out of his books. To this day my favorite mini-series of all time remains “The Stand”. Yet, my love for Stephen King goes beyond that. He has a way of creating worlds and characters that feel real and is never afraid to have his stories go to some dark places. I always tell people to watch the “Storm of the Century” mini-series from back in the day. It is an over-looked Stephen King masterpiece that shows that happy endings do not always come true.  With that said you may ask "why I didn’t want to come back to “Under The Dome”".  For starters I should admit I am a fan of the book; I even do not mind the controversial ending. I loved this idea of what would happen to a town that is in theory still part of the USA but actually now on its own.  To me this story is like Stephen Kings own take on that classis Twilight Zone masterpiece “Monsters on Maple Street”. Throughout the book it is easy to see that this town becomes their own worst enemy. 

Why did the show fail in season one where the book succeeded? I think the biggest reason was that CBS was not sure if this show would be successful. This lead them and the writers to make a 15 episode season based on the book and call it a “limited series”. This philosophy made the first season a weird mix of adding new elements to the story but also trying to stay true to others from the book.  The biggest example of this problem can be found best in the character of Junior. This is a kid that is unhinged in the book. We are told he has some sort of raging tumor inside of him that keeps getting worse and sending him further into madness. In the book this causes him to out-right murder his girlfriend Angie during the first day the dome is down and then keep her hidden from everyone else. There is no grey zone with Junior; he is a murderer and a villain in the book. The character of Junior on the show is a whole different story. In the show he didn't murder Angie but just locked her up in a basement as his prisoner for the first half of the season.  He is a little crazy on the show but its more due to probably being raised by his father Big Jim and not a tumor. Then of course the show became a huge hit last Summer and CBS knew they would be bringing it back this year. All of a sudden Junior in the back half of the season is seen as slowly changing sides and even is mentioned as someone who has been pre-destined to help bring the dome down. I feel the writers realized that having crazy characters just acting nuts and never learn anything can work in a book that has an end point but the character of Junior as he was written just will not do on the TV screen.  Look what works on one medium does not always transfer to another.  However, as I have said, during the first season “Under The Dome” was trying to serve two masters and the show just become a jumbled mess. The show became boring and characters became annoying. I still do not understand how the normal sane cop Officer Esquivel became so easily and annoyingly stupid and went along with a plan from Big Jim to HANG the character Barbie in the public square based on no evidence and no trial in a matter of days. So suffice it to say, there were a lot of reasons stopping me from tuning in this past Monday.

I am happy to say that in the end I am glad I tuned in and can report I think the show may be moving in the right direction.  Before I go any further I am going to avoid spoilers on this episode as some people may not have gotten to it yet. To begin with this episode was able to replicate the big scale and craziness of last season’s opener which had the dome coming down. This time the show opens with the dome being magnetized. This sets in motions a lot of dangerous flying objects and big action pieces. Overall the episode dealt with trying to find a way to stop the giant magnet in the sky and try and get the town back into some sort of normalcy. It is with this episode a new character is introduced, a never seen before Science Teacher Rebecca Pine who has a scientific way to stop the madness. Of course other characters believe the only way to stop the magnet is by “listening” to what the dome wants. In the end no one knows for sure how the magnet was stopped and it seems to me the rest of the season will be a thinly veiled debate on religion vs. science.  

There were other positive developments in the opening episode including characters dying off that had lived past their usefulness. In addition, this show really likes to play with the absurd and has fun with it.  Of course while all the townspeople are fainting due to the magnetized dome the last man standing has to be our hero just because. I like that all of a sudden there are ghosts talking to people and try and get them to do absurd acts such as hanging themselves. The biggest improvement so far is that for right now it seems characters are finally acting normal and not ready to just hang people based on someone’s word. I want my big sci-fi show to be nuts but I did not enjoy un-realistic people populating it last year.

Of course, there were still moments that were just put in place to annoy the audience. All of a sudden we have a 4 person love triangle between our hero Barbie, love interest and possible savior Julia, science teacher Rebecca, and previously never before seen and obviously shifty Uncle Same (Juniors Uncle).  I should mention I was ok with having not known Rebecca existed last year but how the hell did no one know Sam was under the dome last season. The show doesn't make it seem like a big town so I find it hard to believe no one discovered his house on the lake when they were searching for fugitives last year. In addition for someone who was clearly hiding last year, his motivation for just announcing himself to his family with such simplicity did irritate me.  Sam’s motivation is a mysterious girl that appeared in a lake that he seems to know and she is just present this episode to be eerie looking and walk around town not speaking.  I still think with all these issues the show has taken 2 steps forward because its back to being fun and like just half a step back.  I look forward to seeing where this season goes because nothing that is happening now has anything to do with the book and I get to be surprised like everyone else.

P.S:  I would like to see more of how the world is reacting outside the dome sometimes. We don’t get much of that in the book but this show is clearing its own path and it would be interesting to see how this affecting the world.