I just watched the finale. Overall, this was an enjoyable adaptation of King's story, I give it a B+.
11.23.63 - New Hulu Series
- Thread starter davejames
- Start date
It felt very... anticlimactic to me.
I mean, nothing actually happened. Like, literally. That was as big a reset button as anything Star Trek ever did. Nothing even really changed for Jake either, other than him having a reason to be melancholy for the rest of his life.
It would have at least been nice to explore more of what happened after his return. Literally all we know is that JFK was re-elected, Wallace became president after him, there was a nuclear war, and JFK set up "refugee camps" in the U.S. for U.S. citizens. That, and whatshisname was inexplicably sad because Jake saved his family by killing his dad, but left his siblings and mother alive (which, apparently, was more horrific than just having his by-all-accounts evil dad die).
And instead of learning exactly what happened, and then trying again for a better world -- something he was apparently committed to at least some time in the past -- he just says "fuggit" and gives up? Including letting the woman he allegedly loves go through however many years of being married to a psychopath, all because she'd apparently gotten over it some forty (hopefully)-odd years later?
Meh. Feels like a colossal waste of 8 hours of my life having watched that.
It would have at least been nice to explore more of what happened after his return. Literally all we know is that JFK was re-elected, Wallace became president after him, there was a nuclear war, and JFK set up "refugee camps" in the U.S. for U.S. citizens. That, and whatshisname was inexplicably sad because Jake saved his family by killing his dad, but left his siblings and mother alive (which, apparently, was more horrific than just having his by-all-accounts evil dad die).
And instead of learning exactly what happened, and then trying again for a better world -- something he was apparently committed to at least some time in the past -- he just says "fuggit" and gives up? Including letting the woman he allegedly loves go through however many years of being married to a psychopath, all because she'd apparently gotten over it some forty (hopefully)-odd years later?
Meh. Feels like a colossal waste of 8 hours of my life having watched that.
The ending of the last episode glossed over quite a bit. The book goes into much more detail.
In the book, the country was decimated by time storms because of the temporal contamination Jake put into play. The Drunk guy following him, the yellow card man, was a time cop who was going insane because time was fracturing from the last guy buying cheap meat over and over again.
Between 1960 and the date of the diner's construction, the time portal was essentially in the middle of a large open area. I would think that random people would have been stumbling into it on a regular basis. Jake didn't seem to have any trouble finding it when he needed to.
In the novel, the "card men" (the people dispatched to watch over the time portal) placed a sign near the portal which said NO ADMITTANCE TILL SEWER PIPE IS REPAIRED, so people wouldn't accidentally stumble across the portal. Maybe they did the same thing in the series?
Finally finished this up, and while I agree the series sort of lost momentum and seemed to meander way too much after the first couple episodes, I thought it still finished up on a high note with the moving and intense finale.
And while I kind of expected the twist at the end, it was still a pretty good one I thought (although I think it might have been more interesting and ironic if, after all the hard work he did to change the past, the world he came back to was not all that hugely different from the one he left, and that most people's lives hadn't changed much at all).
And while it may seem a bit cheesy, I like the idea that it was really small things like trying to help a student get a job that made the biggest difference, rather than trying to change the entire course of history.
And while I kind of expected the twist at the end, it was still a pretty good one I thought (although I think it might have been more interesting and ironic if, after all the hard work he did to change the past, the world he came back to was not all that hugely different from the one he left, and that most people's lives hadn't changed much at all).
And while it may seem a bit cheesy, I like the idea that it was really small things like trying to help a student get a job that made the biggest difference, rather than trying to change the entire course of history.
I'm only on episode 4 or 5, but that was my initial problem with the show (especially after pissing off the gamblers, which i thought was going to come back and bite him in the ass a lot more then it has seemed to so far).... with the ability to reset, and being at the "beginning" of the journey, i would have reset repeatedly until i had it all correct.
Never understood why he didn't plan out intricate plans with modern surveillance eqquipment, either. Or make copies of all his intel before he went back the first time.
Perhaps, but that would be a pretty massive time commitment given that he would have to start all the way back in 1960 again (and apparently even further back in the book). If I were him, I would just want to improvise and make the best of the situation too. Especially given that the past was always going to find new ways to throw him off course no matter what he did.
I'm saying he was only there for a few days/weeks when he pissed off the gambling people..... or when that house burned down and the kid died. He already learned what there was to learn and he didn't have much time invested. I would have been pulling constant resets until I got it started off perfectly, anyways.
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