What happens when the world’s most prolific writer, Stephen King, and the insanely prolific producer Steven Spielberg get together?
What else? You know bad things will befall good people in a small town, of course.
And they do in tonight’s premiere of King’s “Under The Dome,” from his best selling novel about an invisible dome — sort of like a round electronic dog fence — that suddenly covers the town of Chester’s Mill.
When the invisible dome descends, a plane hits the thing, explodes and falls out of the sky — which is expected — but then a giant cow is cut in half, giving new meaning to the term “a side of beef.” Lots of meat shots follow, and seriously, who doesn’t love a good cut of meat?
Neatly severed human limbs are strewn about while incredibly good looking humans — newcomer Dale “Barbie” Barbara (Mike Vogel); go-getter newspaper reporter Rachelle (Julia Shumway); waitress (what’s a King story without a waitress?) Angie (Britt Robinson); Deputy Linda (Natalie Martinez); and Angie’s horribly abusive ex, Junior (Alexander Koch), the son of councilman Big Jim, (Dean Norris) — scramble to figure out what- the-hell to do.
The only thing all of these small-town people seem to have in common is great hair. Seriously, this is a town where, apparently, you aren’t allowed in (or out now) unless you have a fantastic head of hair.
At any rate, hair -do’s aside, nothing can get in and nothing can get out of Chester’s Mill. That means emergency services, food, drink and all other life-sustaining necessities.
It’s all made worse because, as it happens, the dome descended while most of the police and all the fire department personnel had traveled to the next county to march in a parade. Now they can’t get back in.
For the folks in Chester’s Mill it’s like being stuck in a giant terrarium, minus the miniature temples and moss.
The thing we all need to figure out is whether the dome was sent by God, aliens or terrorists — or is it government-issue? Nobody knows, but since the army can’t penetrate it, the dome probably isn’t something made by the government. Or as one guy says, it can’t be made by the government because it works!
Secrets abound, such as horrible hunk Junior, who doesn’t care about the dome much because he’s busy perfecting his kidnapper techniques. And we need to know why his dad, Councilman Big Jim, has been stockpiling propane.
As Big Jim threatens the sheriff about the secret propane pile, the lawman’s heart explodes. Damn! I hate when that happens — before you know the truth. Fire up the DVR before a dome hits and you won’t be able to watch all 13 episodes.