Haven: Season 5 Discussion (Spoilers)

[RJDiogenes]

If you're still watching, Haven has been moved to Fridays because of NFL football. It will air at... 7 Eastern/6 Central.

Don't know if this is permanent or not.

I hope not. That's a really bad time slot. Why is NFL football effecting Sciffy programming?

 

[RJDiogenes]

So they let Mara try to help, and guess what...she betrayed them and killed more people.

Come on, you dunces!



What's going on with Dave??

I don't know, but we might be about to find out. Apparently the next couple of episodes are a two-parter about Dave and Vince traveling to North Carolina, no doubt to follow up on the "Croatoan" reference. Seeing that word made me literally shout with delight-- this is one of the classic mysteries of American history (even though they seem to have solved it) and I can't wait to see how it ties in.

 

[1001001]

They had a Croatoan reference in Falling Skies this year too. It's everywhere!

Duke babbling rhyming nonsense was kind of bizarre.

So Mara gave us a couple of clues (if anything she says can be believed). The comment about how "you're insects to us" or something to that effect, and the fact that she has been alive a very long time. But are the Troubles simply cruel amusement for long-lived demi-Gods? Dwight wasn't buying that part...

 

[Velocity]

Going to Manteo this weekend, myself.

 

[RJDiogenes]

They had a Croatoan reference in Falling Skies this year too. It's everywhere!

Damn, I missed that. What was the reference?

 

[1001001]

They had a Croatoan reference in Falling Skies this year too. It's everywhere!

Damn, I missed that. What was the reference?

Hal wrote it on the warehouse wall when they had to evacuate their position. He knew his father (the Professor) would get the reference and know they were not captured or killed.

 

[1001001]

The body switching one was pretty good. Poor Vince/Dave doing his best Scotty in ST:V impression.

 

[Aragorn]

They had a Croatoan reference in Falling Skies this year too. It's everywhere!

Damn, I missed that. What was the reference?

Hal wrote it on the warehouse wall when they had to evacuate their position. He knew his father (the Professor) would get the reference and know they were not captured or killed.

Ooh! A Falling Skies and Haven crossover event!

AUDREY: "Tom Mason, your trouble is that you make everyone around you think that your family is more important than anything else, including their own lives and families."

COCHISE: "It just so happens that we have a troubles-removing device located at a hidden weapons cache two miles from here."

TOM: "Why didn't you mention this before?"

COCHISE: "The location is being heavily guarded by one skitter, possibly two."

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ The Skitters are really just Troubled hipsters from the Haven Starbucks. They were aliens before it was cool.

Hal wrote it on the warehouse wall when they had to evacuate their position. He knew his father (the Professor) would get the reference and know they were not captured or killed.

Oh, that's right, I did see that.

I thought this was a really good episode. First of all, more Vince and Dave is always good. Secondly, I always like these body-swapping stories because it gives the actors a chance to play with both the other characters and the other actors' acting style. Vince and Dave were quite funny, but Dwight and Gloria really cracked me up. And then Nathan acting like Duke practically had me in tears.

This episode probably took twice as long to film as a typical one. I'd love to see the outtakes.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Damn, I missed that. What was the reference?

Hal wrote it on the warehouse wall when they had to evacuate their position. He knew his father (the Professor) would get the reference and know they were not captured or killed.

Ooh! A Falling Skies and Haven crossover event!

AUDREY: "Tom Mason, your trouble is that you make everyone around you think that your family is more important than anything else, including their own lives and families."

COCHISE: "It just so happens that we have a troubles-removing device located at a hidden weapons cache two miles from here."

TOM: "Why didn't you mention this before?"

COCHISE: "The location is being heavily guarded by one skitter, possibly two."

^

 

[Aragorn]

Why stop at Audrey? They should pull out another personality so Duke can have a new love interest.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, I was actually thinking that same thing. Duke's Trouble has not ended, so more of Audrey's prior identities could appear-- in fact, Duke could bring back more past lives of other people. So, is Audrey's continued existence now dependent on Duke's Trouble staying active? And what if Mara is killed? Would Audrey survive, or would she die, too?

 

[1001001]

Well, they got a naked Audrey to appear, so that's something.

I was wondering how far the trouble travelled? Was it contained to the cabin only? We've seen these activations have far wider consequences.

So what's with Dwight's sister? Have we heard anything about her before? I'm sure that's not some random mention...

 

[Admiral2]

I just love how they slipped in a Colorado Kid reference, just to say "We really are based on something Stephen King wrote! Honest!"

Meanwhile, over on Lifetime, Mario Bello starred in an awesome movie actually based on something Stephen King wrote.

Haven writers, view it and take notes...

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, they got a naked Audrey to appear, so that's something.

Not naked enough.

So what's with Dwight's sister? Have we heard anything about her before? I'm sure that's not some random mention...

I don't think so. We know he had a young daughter with the same Trouble who was killed, but I don't recall any prior mention of a sister. I'm not sure if this was just done to create a secret between him and Gloria, or if it's going to lead somewhere.

 

[Velocity]

I just love how they slipped in a Colorado Kid reference, just to say "We really are based on something Stephen King wrote! Honest!"

Meanwhile, over on Lifetime, Mario Bello starred in an awesome movie actually based on something Stephen King wrote.

Haven writers, view it and take notes...

But the book was pretty poor and they have to pad it to make the story interesting. About every episode has some reference to a King book which is more than enough for me.

 

[Admiral2]

I just love how they slipped in a Colorado Kid reference, just to say "We really are based on something Stephen King wrote! Honest!"

Meanwhile, over on Lifetime, Mario Bello starred in an awesome movie actually based on something Stephen King wrote.

Haven writers, view it and take notes...

But the book was pretty poor and they have to pad it to make the story interesting. About every episode has some reference to a King book which is more than enough for me.

The book is not poor. It's great for what it is: a tale about an unsolved mystery. And they are not "padding" it. They created "Stephen King's Eureka" and claimed it was based on the Colorado Kid just so they'd have an excuse to attach King's name to it. There is a huge difference between referencing King and actually basing something on his work, and "Big Driver" made that difference blindingly obvious.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

There's a music venue near where I live that has a fan-shaped pavilion with comfy seats underneath and a grassy hill bordering the edge that forms a valley in which the stage sits at its lowest point -- an outdoor amphitheater. Now, the comfy seats beneath the pavilion garner a steep ticket price, of course, but admission to the hill is generally quite reasonable since you have to either stand or sit on the ground and you're pretty far removed from the heart of the show. So, no comfy seats and poor acoustic quality but cheap ticket prices so you get to attend a concert that would normally be outside of your means.

To me, Haven is the cheapest hill ticket that the producers of the show could actually afford to the Stephen King universe. Just because their ticket only grants them access to The Colorado Kid, they haven't let that stop them from enjoying the larger King-verse from their little corner in the cheap seats.

I love all of the little Easter eggs to King's other stuff -- Shawshank, Misery, the Dark Tower mythology -- because that's what the author does himself, sprinkling in references to other places and people from his various works into his short stories and novels. Haven is definitely a loose adaptation of the original novel but it is also the most "Stephen King" entrenched of any adaptation I've ever seen of his work and I think that alone deserves a small bit of praise.

The show may not be of the highest quality or budget, but at least their making the most of their low-priced access pass.

 

[Admiral2]

To me, Haven is the cheapest hill ticket that the producers of the show could actually afford to the Stephen King universe. Just because their ticket only grants them access to The Colorado Kid, they haven't let that stop them from enjoying the larger King-verse from their little corner in the cheap seats.

I love all of the little Easter eggs to King's other stuff -- Shawshank, Misery, the Dark Tower mythology -- because that's what the author does himself, sprinkling in references to other places and people from his various works into his short stories and novels. Haven is definitely a loose adaptation of the original novel but it is also the most "Stephen King" entrenched of any adaptation I've ever seen of his work and I think that alone deserves a small bit of praise.

How do "easter eggs" of Shawshank and Misery entrench this series more in King's work than the actual movie adaptaions of those books? Or how does a loose tv adaption feel more entrenched than things King himself wrote specifically for tv, like Storm of the Century?

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

To me, Haven is the cheapest hill ticket that the producers of the show could actually afford to the Stephen King universe. Just because their ticket only grants them access to The Colorado Kid, they haven't let that stop them from enjoying the larger King-verse from their little corner in the cheap seats.

I love all of the little Easter eggs to King's other stuff -- Shawshank, Misery, the Dark Tower mythology -- because that's what the author does himself, sprinkling in references to other places and people from his various works into his short stories and novels. Haven is definitely a loose adaptation of the original novel but it is also the most "Stephen King" entrenched of any adaptation I've ever seen of his work and I think that alone deserves a small bit of praise.

How do "easter eggs" of Shawshank and Misery entrench this series more in King's work than the actual movie adaptaions of those books? Or how does a loose tv adaption feel more entrenched than things King himself wrote specifically for tv, like Storm of the Century?

Because by referencing the other stories -- and in the case of the Dark Tower, its symbols and larger mythology -- Haven suggests a larger world than what we see on the show. Shawshank prison exists, the Misery novel series exists, thinnies exist. A majority of the time, King litters his novels and shorter works with allusions to the multiverse of the Dark Tower or call-backs to Castlerock or Derry and the events therein.

What King does in his prose, his quasi-continuity, is what Haven's producers are attempting to tap into with their Easter eggs and, to my knowledge, no other King adaptation -- be it TV series, mini-series, or theatrical release -- has ever really attempted to capture with such a far-reaching net. How Haven is more entrenched in the world(s) of Stephen King than the films you mentioned is the way Haven fully embraces the King mythos while other adaptations limited themselves to just the story at hand.

As for Storm of the Century, since King himself wrote this and not based on an earlier work, this mini-series cannot be applied to my earlier statement that "[Haven] is also the most "Stephen King" entrenched of any adaptation I've ever seen of his work" since it isn't an adaptation.