I've been a huge fan of Stephen King for a long time now. He's written it, chances are I have read it. My obsession started when I was back in the third or fourth grade. I went to a small, conservative, Lutheran K-8 grade school. Suffice it to say the teachers were not very happy when they saw me reading a Sai King novel during silent study time. Despite every attempt to reform me and turn me from my evil ways, I resisted. Not only did I not stop reading the works of Stephen King, but the school's stubborn stance on not allowing me to read his works in class only strengthened my resolve to read more.
One by one I devoured his works, falling in love with his characters, his stories, and his unique style of writing. Misery, The Dead Zone, The Stand, Cujo, Needful Things, It, The Dark Half, The Gunslinger... the list went on and on. In his forewords where he'd address the Constant Reader, I always got the impression he was speaking to me specifically. My interest in his work was no passing phase either. Over 20 years later, I am still an avid fan. I've reread most of his books more times than I can count. My personal favorite: The Dark Tower series. I've read through the series five times, and could easily pick it up now and make it six. I love it.
To my knowledge there is only one book of his which I have not read. It's called Blaze, and it was written by Sai King under his old pen name of Richard Bachman. I've been wanting to pick up that book for a while now and read the hell out of it. Just to say I've read every in print novel that my favorite author has written. At the same time, I will be sad when I read it. I'm sure he'll come out with plenty of new books in the future, but for the time being I will have read everything there is to read from him. So despite owning the book for several years now, I keep putting my reading of it off. And off. And off.
One of my favorite recent books from Mr King is titled 11/22/63. If you just glance at the summary of the novel, you may think it sounds a little goofy. A man goes back in time to save JFK? How silly, right?
Wrong. This novel is so much more than that. It's not a horror story. Casual fans think that everything the man writes has to be scary. Which it doesn't. This book instantly grabbed me with its sense of wonder and mystery. Ten pages in, I was hooked. In addition to the horror genre, I love sci-fi. Time travel stories are perhaps my favorite genre of them all. So this was right up my alley. Plus- I'm not a big sappy romance person, but if something happens to have a love story that makes me cry, I won't object to it. I'm a relatively emotionless and detached person, so if something can really hit that special cord with me and crack that shell I've built around my emotions, I'll remember it. And love it for that.
11/22/63 was a great combination of many different things I love. It took my love of sci-fi (time travel... yes...) and combined it with a great mystery with great characters. Throw in a little bit of romance and a little bit of history, mash it all up and you get one hell of a story from my favorite author of all time.
If I had to rank this among my all time King novels, it would definitely be top five. I don't know if I could arrange those top five in proper order and pick a favorite, but I do feel safe saying this would be right up there.
When I heard that they were making 11/22/63 into a miniseries, I was excited. I'm sure a lot of people had mixed reactions. If this sucks, it will totally ruin the book. I don't feel that way though. The book will always be great. The book will always be there when I want to read it. Just because it exists in movie or miniseries form doesn't diminish the book's accomplishments in any way whatsoever. Even if the miniseries does suck. I was very curious to see what they'd do with it.
As ka would have it, I recently discovered that I could play Hulu on my PlayStation 3. I had been paying for the service for over a year, but it played like crap on my Wii and would constantly freeze up or buffer every minute or so when trying to watch something. It was horrendous and completely unwatchable. I urged my wife many times to cancel it, but she never did.
Months and months passed. We paid for Hulu, but it went unwatched. Netflix was where it was at. Randomly I decided OK I am going to try Hulu on my PlayStation 3 and see if it works better on this console. Lo and behold: it works like a charm on the PS3. And will you look at this - I set it up just in time. 11.22.63 the miniseries would be starting in two weeks. As excited as I originally had been over the miniseries, I was resigned to the fact I'd have to wait for the DVD or download it (legally!) somehow since I wouldn't be able to watch Hulu. But all the pieces fell into place. Call it coincidence or call it ka, but I had rejoined Hulu a mere two weeks before this miniseries was to start. Maybe it was even 19 days...
I've only read the book once, and that was several years ago when it first came out. I don't even remember the characters' names anymore. All I remember is the basic plot of the story and what happened throughout the course of the book. Nothing specific, however. I read a lot of different books so my brain can't really retain a lot of information from one single book unless I read it multiple times. Which I have not with this.
I occasionally write blogs, but never anything too serious. Mainly video game reviews and talking about what TV shows I happen to be watching at the moment. Since I loved the book so much, I figured I'd write up a little blog entry (although this is turning out to already be MUCH longer than I had anticipated) for each episode of the miniseries.
Be forewarned: like I said I don't remember a lot of specifics about the book. So this miniseries could potentially change a LOT of things and likely I won't notice these things or remember what is "supposed to" happen. How I plan to do this is to watch up to each little commercial break, pause the show, and then write up a small recap on each segment of the show. At the end I will probably post my thoughts on the episode as a whole and tell you whether I liked it or not. Depending on if anyone actually reads this thing, I may do this for all eight episodes when they are eventually released.
I guess... we'll start. I've wasted enough of your time with my rambling already. You clicked on this to see my thoughts on the show, and now it is time to get down to business.
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As I mentioned earlier, it has been a few years since I've read the book. From what I've seen so far, it seems to be doing an admirable job staying true to the source material. James Franco plays the main character, Jake Epping, a high school teacher in the middle of going through a divorce.
At night he teaches a writing class for adults. He is particularly impressed by a story written by Harry, the socially awkward school janitor. In the story, his entire family is killed by his psychotic father and he is the only one left alive. Whether or not this is based on a true story or is entirely a work of fiction is not explained. But by the tone in Harry's voice as he reads the story aloud to the class, you get the feeling that this is something that actually happened to him as a kid.
Jake meets his wife at a small diner, and divorce papers are quickly signed and handed over. Jake puts on a cool facade while saying goodbye to the woman he used to (and maybe still does) love, but you can tell it is troubling him on the inside. The owner of the diner, Al, disappears into the back during the signing of these papers, and when he returns he seems to be violently ill.
Jake is of course very concerned about Al's health. Al tells him it is cancer, which confuses Jake immensely. He was fine just a few minutes ago. How could he have gotten cancer and be suffering its effects in five minutes? Al takes him into the back of the restaurant and tells Jake to enter the store room. All would be explained there.
Jake begrudgingly enters the store room and emerges into.... the past. 1960, to be exact. Milkmen, antique cars blasting old music on their radios, well dressed people out and about - actually socializing and having fun with one another. Freaked out, Jake returns to the diner. He can hardly believe his eyes, so Al sends him back out with a knife to carve his name into a tree. Tells him to come back when he's done and check it out. Jake follows Al's directions. A homeless man harasses Jake that he is not supposed to be there. He had accosted Jake on his first trip into the past, but this time he seems especially agitated. Even if I hadn't read the book, I would know that this is a potential situation to keep an eye on. When he returns to the present - sure enough, what he has carved remains engraved in the tree. But aged.
Al proposes to Jake that Jake go back through the rift and hang out in the past for a couple of years and do whatever it takes to save JFK from being assassinated. Al would do it himself, but his health is failing him too quickly. Jake does not seem receptive to this at first, but Al shows Jake a bundle of money from the past he has saved for the occasion, fake identification, as well as a list of sports outcomes which Jake can gamble on and build himself a respectable nest egg.
Still unconvinced, Jake returns home to think on all that has happened on this crazy day in his life. Al is furious with Jake for not going back immediately. Relax guy! Give him at least a little bit of time to think on all this. Obviously Jake realizes that he has been involved in something special and will want to go back again. But to tell him to go back and save Kennedy right off the bat seems to be pushing things a little too hard, too fast.
Jake returns the next day to find Al dead in his home. Guess that explains Al's sense of urgency regarding the situation! Apparently seeing Al's dead body has changed Jake's view on the situation. He hurries off to the diner to head back in time. Has he gone back to stay and save Kennedy, or is this just an exploratory expedition? We shall have to wait and find out.
After a second commercial break, we return to the action. Realizing with his T-shirt and scruffly facial hair that he looks out of place, Jake gets a haircut and a change of clothes so he can blend in. Despite Al's previous warning to get a low maintenance and inconspicuous vehicle, Jake splurges and gets a flashy yellow sports car. Already nearly drained of his resources, he heads to a seedy bar to place a 35 to 1 wager on a boxing match. Obviously he knows the results of the match ahead of time, and wins big.
The goons at the bar seem pissed that he is making off with $3500 and intimidate him on his way out. Jake leaves and heads to a motel to stay the night. But with his flashy car parked outside, one of the goons finds him and enters his hotel room to beat him up and take the money back. Luckily Jake has the foresight to set his cell phone on the bed while playing a funny music video. This distracts the goon, and Jake clobbers him from behind and takes off. Tearing out of the parking lot, he nearly hits the homeless man (from this point on to be referred to as the Yellow Card Man because of the yellow card sticking out of his hat) from before. Yup, something is definitely going on with that guy.
Jake heads across the country on a road trip to Dallas, taking in the sights and the sounds of the 60's. Upon arriving in Dallas, he rents a room at a boarding house owned by a mother and her son. Exploring Dallas, Jake meets an attractive young blonde woman named Sadie. You can tell he is smitten by her, and nearly makes a large blunder referencing a movie that hasn't been made yet while chatting with Sadie. Unfortunately for Jake, Sadie's husband shows up and takes her away, presumably out of his life for good. We'll be seeing more of Sadie in the future, however. I can guarantee you that.
Jake recalls a conversation he had with Al the night before he left. Al had told him that if he tried to mess too hard with the past, the past would mess with him in return. I don't know what Jake is thinking, but he tries to call his father from a pay phone. His father would only be a child at the time, so again - I don't know what he was trying to accomplish. But the line goes fuzzy and the call is not allowed to connect. Jake hangs up and begins to leave. He gets about ten feet or so from the phone booth before he turns around, presumably to try the call again.
An out of control car nails the phone booth and flips over in the street. Jake rushes to the car and sees a woman sprawled out on the ground with a major head injury.
"You aren't supposed to be here."
Well, shit. Mess with the past, the past messes with you. If a simple phone call can cause this, imagine what altering history to save JFK will do.
In his quest to save JFK, Jake follows up a lead on some Russian guy named George. Apparently George was under suspicion for having ties to Lee Harvey Oswald. If Jake can connect the two, maybe even see if George is somehow connected with the CIA (as rumored) he will have somewhere to go with his investigation. He tails George to one of JFK's political rallies, and follows him at the end of the rally when George gets up to leave. Unfortunately George wanders into an area that Jake is not authorized to be in. When he is spotted and called out by security, he decides to run.
Probably not a great idea. Jake runs into the bowels of the building and experiences some nightmare hallucinations of the Yellow Card Man and a large group of beetles that converge on him. Right when he begins to panic and tries to leave, he is knocked out from behind.
Upon awakening, Jake plays the role of a rabid, frothing JFK fanatic who had only wanted to get close to the man to shake his hand. Apparently his captors believe him, and set him free without an arrest.
Jake follows up on another old lead from Al. George had attended a dinner that night, and supposedly had met with the CIA there. Al had attempted to get close to the action during his trip to the past, but an accident set him on fire before he could find out who George was meeting, and he had to be rushed to the emergency room. Jake avoids the fiery accident, even avoids a falling chandelier. The past really doesn't want him to find out what happened!
But eventually Jake gets to his table and watches the meeting unfold. He struggles to listen to what they are saying, but he is only able to make out three words: Lee Harvey Oswald. After confirming that the men are indeed CIA, Jake is ecstatic. He returns to his apartment, giddy with excitement. The excitement is soon cut short when he sees that the building has burned down, the young boy who was living there with his mother dead. Another result of his meddling with the past?
Jake is able to salvage a few of his notes from the burned building, but for the most part they are completely ruined.
Distraught, Jake decides to pack up and head for home. It's on his way back that he recalls the story old janitor Harry had submitted for his nighttime writing class. About how his father had gone crazy and killed his entire family with a hammer. Jake may not be able to stop the Kennedy assassination, but he may be able to stop the murders from happening.
Jake heads to Kentucky and parks outside Harry's home. He sees the dad come home and welcome the family warmly, but the look on Jake's face tells us that he still knows what he has to do before he heads home.
The episode ends.
Ahh, way to leave us wanting more! I'm sure that's the point though. Will Jake kill Harry's dad before he can harm his family? Will the past intervene? If he succeeds, what will the effect be on the future (our present)? What if he doesn't succeed? Even having read the book, I can't really remember what happened. This was at least four or five years ago that I read it, and I read multiple books a week. My memory is not great. I still wanted to continue watching. I have a really short attention span, so kudos to the show for being able to keep my attention for such a long episode, and leave me wanting more. That's a sign that it must be good.
So yes. I really liked this episode. It stayed relatively true to the source material. Sure there were some changes. In particular I remember the root beer float scene from one of Jake's early trips being left out. Travesty! OK, not really.
I'm sure there were some other changes to the time line and the order of things. Probably some minor things left out, some other minor things added for dramatic effect. Nothing that altered the story too much.
Being a long time King fan of both his books and the movies and TV series based off of his books, I can definitely say that this is one of the best adaptations of his work to date. It seems my nervous feelings of whether or not they could do the source material justice were ill founded. I can't wait to see more of this show!
And since it has been so long since I have read this book, the show has made me want to go back and read it again. Do I do it now, or do I wait until the run of this series ends? Questions, questions.
But yeah. This was really good. I'd recommend it to anyone, King fan or King hater.
I approve.
Thanks so much for doing this Dan! I had no way to access this series so was eating my heart out over it lol! Looking forward to your excellent recap/review of the series. <3
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