Under the Dome, Season 2 Thread

[Mister Fandango]

Actually, it has an incredibly stupid premise, with characters who act like colossal idiots (when they're not busy being one-dimensional cardboard cutouts), with problems and solutions that feel like they were written by a six-year-old who hasn't had his ADHD medication in weeks, and "facts" that get changed every few episodes. For example, the center of town mysteriously changing from a wide open forest to a school.

It's a trashy show. I can't stop watching it for reasons I don't understand, but that doesn't make it any less trashy.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ I generally don't like Stephen King, so it's something of a rarity for me to praise something that's associated with him (either directly or indirectly).

I stand by my assessment of the series as detailed above, and remain baffled as to why it's supposedly so bad.

 

[shivkala]

It just seems to focus more on WTF moments than anything near character development. I'm still not liking this new science teacher, who, two weeks into this whole thing shows up, randomly, and then suddenly has answers to everything. Makes you wonder what she was doing all last season.

After watching the entirety of Breaking Bad recently, I've decided they are wasting Dean Norris' talent on the poorly conceived "Big Jim." Every time they seem to make him into a character who has plans and ambitions, something happens which just makes him someone who is only in his position because of the events. He's conspired with, and is familiar and/or related to every character with a motivation that's anything less than pure.

And then there's Lyle. Is it me or did they realize that they killed off Lester Coggins, but had more for a character like him to do, so suddenly there's Lyle, who gives off a strong Lester vibe?

 

[DigificWriter]

It just seems to focus more on WTF moments than anything near character development.

Based on what they covered in the Under the Dome: Inside Chester's Mill behind-the-scenes special, I'd personally say there was a LOT of character development in Season 1.

 

[shivkala]

I haven't seen that special. To me, the characters are still pretty paint-by-numbers.

 

[Guy Gardener]

A significant amount of "development" was wasted on the Sheriff and sassy blonde who were murdered within minutes of each other in the first episode of season 2.

By extracting those two women, it made over a third of season one specifically earmarked to their ongoing growth: moot.

 

[DigificWriter]

A significant amount of "development" was wasted on the Sheriff and sassy blonde who were murdered within minutes of each other in the first episode of season 2.

By extracting those two women, it made over a third of season one specifically earmarked to their ongoing growth: moot.

Even if characters end up being replaced, developing them and focusing on them in order to drive a wider narrative is NEVER a 'waste'.

 

[Yoda]

It's really poorly written, really poorly thought out, misses out completely on the tone of what made the book entertaining to me, and it clearly was meant to be a one season miniseries and thus had to deal with a ridiculous cast realignment that just plain doesn't work in the context of the story.

And c'mon man, even if you don't like Buffy, I don't see how you can claim that Under the Dome is in the same league of show. It had great dialogue, it turned tropes on their heads consistently to great effect, it had great comedy, it had emotional character arcs.

Do you really have an emotional attachment to any of these characters? And yes, if they kill off characters without resolving their arcs after actually investing some time and effort into the attempt, then yes it is a waste.

And while I appreciate that they got some actual young people to play the high school students... they're terrible. Seriously, Joe might be worse than Wesley Crusher. Speaking of the high school gang... I guess the long haired skater dude is just another actor they kind of lost for season 2?

 

[Guy Gardener]

The Sheriff with what seemed like an IQ of 40 has been "replaced" by a draconian School ma'am who looks for inspiration from Kodos the executioner.

The Blond locked in a bomb shelter girl by her mentally handicapped boyfriend, with what seemed like an IQ of 40 has been "replaced" by a magic amnesiac starchild brunette time-travelling domebaby.

It's like getting a pawn to the back line and asking for a second Queen, twice.

 

[DigificWriter]

It's really poorly written, really poorly thought out, misses out completely on the tone of what made the book entertaining to me, and it clearly was meant to be a one season miniseries and thus had to deal with a ridiculous cast realignment that just plain doesn't work in the context of the story.

Everything I've seen and heard so far says otherwise.

And c'mon man, even if you don't like Buffy, I don't see how you can claim that Under the Dome is in the same league of show. It had great dialogue, it turned tropes on their heads consistently to great effect, it had great comedy, it had emotional character arcs.

I'm comparing UtD favorably to Buffy and those other series because I genuinely believe it deserves to be.

Do you really have an emotional attachment to any of these characters?

Yes.

And yes, if they kill off characters without resolving their arcs after actually investing some time and effort into the attempt, then yes it is a waste.

I disagree.

And while I appreciate that they got some actual young people to play the high school students... they're terrible. Seriously, Joe might be worse than Wesley Crusher. Speaking of the high school gang... I guess the long haired skater dude is just another actor they kind of lost for season 2?

I love Joe; he's one of the highlight characters for me thus far. Colin is very believable in the 'everyman' role, and I like that he's one of the characters being used to drive the wider narrative forward.

His friend is definitely a weak link, though, so it doesn't matter to me if we never see him again after Season 1.

 

[Yoda]

Yeah, I'm going to have to just agree to disagree with you. Heck, they couldn't even do a decent job with the Microsoft Surface product placement in my opinion!

 

[AvBaur]

It's a trashy show. I can't stop watching it for reasons I don't understand, but that doesn't make it any less trashy.

Haha, same here. With any other show that's this bad, I would have stopped watching a long time ago, but somehow, I keep coming back for more.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Is the reason 5 foot 6 and ginger?

 

[Tom]

Lyle seems a bit old for a 43 year old? Jr's mom was born in 1971 (same year I was LOL) and Lyle was dating her in 1988 so he is either the same age or slightly older. In the pic he looks like the same age as the mom. Dwight Yoakum is 57, they should have cast someone younger to match up with the plot.

 

[Owain Taggart]

an interesting and engaging evolving and ongoing narrative thread

Huh, I find this to be one of the weakest things about this show, with the narrative being so thinly spread out that the situations the characters get into tend to feel so random and disconnected, to the point that it doesn't feel like there's much of a narrative at all, just random chaotic events supposedly related to the dome. Yet none of them really ever move anything forward, feeling as though it's stumbling along aimlessly.

 

[Taylirious]

Is the reason 5 foot 6 and ginger?

That is my reason. Rachelle Lefevre

The other ginger should have died instead of Britt.

I don't hate Mackenzie Lintz but Norrie is awful.

So mystery girl "Melanie Cross" is from the past?

 

[Guy Gardener]

1. Time Travel.

2. Clone or Robot.

3. Stasis.

4. Retroactively manufactured history... Which would then call into doubt the verity of every bastard from Chester's Mill.

5. Time dilation from fast as light travel to the Domebuilders homeworld/base and back.

 

[Mister Fandango]

Or just resurrected from the corpse that was obviously dumped in the lake.

 

[Guy Gardener]

35 years on a lake bed and even her bones are not going to be powder.

95 percent of her is going to be clone meat, unless they just wanted something that looked like her and the deeper essentials were too much work and they used generic dna to match her appearance?

Is she always a little girl, or does she sometimes change into a monster?

You know how Falling Angels turn into statues when someone is looking at them?

The entire aspect of this dopey kid could be active camouflage for something currently turtling.

Oh. She could be a probe they send down 35 years? And all the times she has integrated with Chesters MIll she has never been authentically human.

OMG.

What if there are two forces at work and the Dome is there to keep her movements contained?

 

[1001001]

I guess they decided to jump on Resurrection's success?



I keep watching, though I'm not sure why. This show is all over the place. To me, it has that quality of being made up as it goes along (I mean, more so than other shows).

I hope they have an endgame in mind that will tie it all up.

And if it turns out that they're all really dead, I will burn that studio to the ground!