The Mist (new tv series on Spike)

[RJDiogenes]

Okay, I really want to like this show but they're making it real hard.

Here we have a middle-aged suburban mom with a teenage daughter who is trapped at the mall by a mysterious fog, who is chosen by random lottery (despite having that child to look after) to brave monster-infested corridors to get to the emergency radio, who discovers that her companion is a government employee at local government facility and proceeds to steal the emergency radio from him, fight with him, brain him with a fire extinguisher, and finally grab his gun and shoot him dead.

And the junkie girl gets them away from the carjacking only to flip them over by rear ending a parked vehicle-- and when was the last time you saw a car flip over as a result of rear ending a parked vehicle?-- a crash from which they all walk away within seconds, without a bruise or a stiff neck. And what was up with that window ominously cracking and breaking? It just kind of happened and no reason or complications resulted.

And, aside from the old lady, there are no likable characters on the show. The junkie girl and the soldier dude are kind of interesting and could develop, but the mother and father and teenage girl are boring, the teenage friend is boringer, the cop is a jerk, the priest is a dope, and the manager of the mall is a coward.

And.... NO MONSTERS!!

It's The Mist! I want some crazy monsters. Last time all we had was some bugs. This time we don't even have that. We do have one or two dead people appear in the mist, which was not a part of the original story and seems a weird and pointless addition. When are we going to get some real monsters? Something must be ripping all those limbs off.

It's only ten episodes, so I'll try to make it through, but there's really nothing grabbing me so far.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

We do have one or two dead people appear in the mist, which was not a part of the original story and seems a weird and pointless addition. When are we going to get some real monsters? Something must be ripping all those limbs off.

The Mist, The Fog, it's all the same, right?





that's sarcasm btw since I have a lot of posts that people don't take as I intended...

 

[RJDiogenes]

The Mist, The Fog, it's all the same, right?

I wouldn't be surprised if that was the thinking.

that's sarcasm btw since I have a lot of posts that people don't take as I intended...

I've noted that phenomenon myself.

 

[JD]

It's not bad so far. Most of the characters are OK, I don't think there have been any real standouts so far, but no horrible ones either. We've gotten some fairly interesting mysteries set up.
I'll keep watching, but I won't miss it if it ends.
I've never seen the movie or read the story, so I don't have anything else to judge it against.

 

[Starbreaker]

This is pretty terrible. The pilot just got worse and worse as it went along. I won't be watching anymore. I wish more competent studios would take control of Stephen King properties.

 

[Beagleman]

I like it a lot, it is sufficiently creepy and actually has some interesting characters, after three episodes I'm absolutely in. One of the stronger shows this season for sure.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

hmmm, fourth episode is up on demand. Being kind of ahead of the TV airings I don't want to spoil too much but I thought this seemed to be a step in the right direction. There is some interesting movement with the characters and situations and we get a reveal of one of the denizens of the mist. It is not what we see in the movie but it is intriguing and has me curious what is up their sleeves. This one served up a surprising victim and it's kind of disturbing...

 

[publiusr]

Still not seeing any gorillas

--oh..wait
http://flypaper.soundfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/gorillaz-header.png

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ Whaddya expect, they're in the mist!

 

[RJDiogenes]

So this week we have a guy with bug wings who immediately dies and a swarm of insects. I think this series is going to have different kinds of monsters than the original story, which is very disappointing. Although something grabbed that woman, I suppose.

I'm still convinced that the jock is innocent of the rape and that the friend is the one. Although I don't know why nobody seems to know that DNA testing would sort it out. And they seem to be making it very obvious, so it could be a red herring.

The people in the mall seem to be settling in to Walking Dead mode very quickly. I don't think they've been there more than a night. The mom is very quick to grab guns and shoot at people, and now she's caused a rift between the mall people, setting up her own "camp." And the bit with the two gamers who rolled the dead bodies out into the parking lot was a bit over the top.

At the church, the old lady is getting weirder and weirder. She was my favorite character, but now I'm not so sure-- I felt bad for her when she wanted to join her husband, but now she thinks she's seen God-- and not the priest's God-- in the bug-winged guy. She might be turning into one of King's "ancient gods" fanatics. The junkie girl and the soldier guy are still interesting, and I thought it was pretty amusing when the father was going to break them out of the basement and ended up getting himself thrown in.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ I think you'll find that episode four touches on many of your points. I'll be curious of your thoughts after that one. I should wait and watch them as they air but I keep stumbling on the OnDemand early releases.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Good to know. Maybe I'll have time to check out the early release of ep 4 this week.

 

[kitik]

Okay, just watched the first 3 episodes. Yeah, this show isn't exactly full of standout characters so far.

My take on the mist itself is that it seems to be making your fears or your own demons real. Moth guy was into moths, roach cop was scared of roaches, and when druggie girl saw the old lady from her past, the soldier saw her too. So it wasn't hallucinations. The mists make what's in your head real.

If that's the whole story, then those two dead bodies out in the parking lot should stay unmolested, since there are no thoughts left in their heads to hurt them. (Until I guess somebody else comes along, and a thought from their head springs out and attacks the bodies.)

Will keep watching though. It is creepy.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I watched the fourth episode yesterday, and a new element is indeed added. Plus they've mentioned a couple of times that there was a similar incident in the 1860s, which I don't believe was a part of the original story. So this is definitely a different concept than King's original.

 

[kitik]

Okay, just watched 4 and 5.

I think that thing in the bookstore still fits into my theory. It was the darkness that the little girl was afraid of.

I'm always against kicking people out of safety and into danger in movies like this, but holy crap, that guy totally deserved it. I think we can say with 100% certainty that he was a threat to people's safety. Just that type of guy. So of course, our other group will run into him on their way to the mall and he'll probably still be fine.

Not quite sure what to make of the very end of the operation episode. My eyes seemed to indicate to me that he was trying his absolute best to save his brother, but the flashbacks were trying to tell me that this was some sort of revenge for how his brother wronged his wife. A little confusing.

I guess the scene with the kid (Zach?) and his abusive lover was another hint that we haven't been told the truth about what happened at the party, but they're going to need to drag it out I guess.

With the mother of the girl who died "defecting" to the other side of the mall, it's safe to assume that the mall is going to go to shit soon enough.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

That priest should've known better because I don't think having faith has ever protected anyone from bad things. It might give you a way to cope with it but too much bad shit happens to good people to think God is going to shield you. I'm pretty sure the mist doesn't actually care if you believe in God or nature but Nathalie and Frances Conroy's butt double will carry on. It does seem to have something to do with projecting one's fears (doubts, weaknesses, whatever) though.

Is everyone crazy at that hospital? I really can't wait for everyone to leave that place, it's just taxing to watch. And back at the mall, stuff happens, I guess the limitations of being isolated to a couple of locations is starting to show through at this point. It seems a bit off for everyone to be so off their rockers at this point but there do seem to be a lot of unhinged or near unhinged people functioning out there in the real world today.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Okay, so the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse is about the closest thing we've had to real monsters on this show, except maybe for the butterfly kid. But it's pretty obvious by now that whatever manifests itself out of the Mist comes from inside the characters' heads. This still leaves some unanswered questions, such as what it was that killed the old woman's husband-- was it somebody from the guy's past or just a general fear of hoodlums?-- and why some people see people while some get torn apart by unseen forces (and why would a dog get torn apart?). And what was it in the bookstore? Did that come from the little girl's mind or the teenage girl's mind? So, yeah, lots of unanswered questions.

The interlude with the psycho in the psych ward seemed pretty random. Was it just so that the father could kill somebody and be on par with the mother in the doing-the-hard-thing department? It didn't really work, because he had a decent reason, while she just apparently doesn't like government employees. And the other kid would prefer to stay with the dead body of the psycho rather than move on with his friends? Still having mixed feelings about being Gay, I guess.

And the junkie girl is apparently now cured in around the time it took the father to kill the psycho. And the soldier is having flashbacks to having a word association test while undergoing electro-shock therapy. Is that because he was crazy, or because he was part of some human experiments connected to the Mist?

And the situation with the mall rats continues to deteriorate. They're going to be turning to cannibalism by the end of the season, I suppose.

And I wonder if that priest will come back to haunt the church people.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

And what was it in the bookstore? Did that come from the little girl's mind or the teenage girl's mind? So, yeah, lots of unanswered questions.

I'd have to watch it again but wasn't the girl afraid of the dark? What attacked her could be seen as a manifestation of the dark.

I never read It but I think I've read that Pennywise is a creature that can choose different forms though he prefers the clown. I wonder if Pennywise and the TV mist denizens are of the same ilk? Just

 

[RJDiogenes]

That makes sense. It also seems consistent that nobody is in danger from anybody else's fears. The father seemed to be attacked by the leeches, but they didn't overwhelm him and kill him like his brother-- perhaps he was just in the way as they fell. This would be why the teenage girl and the old lady were not attacked-- the teenage girl was safe from the little girl's phobia and the old lady has no fear of the Mist.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, it's a good thing Adrian's family owns a car that they could siphon gas from, because clearly no other person in the entire town owns a car. I don't think this show is actually written. I think they're just making it up as they go along.

So I was right about Adrian being the rapist, but it was more than I expected. Apparently he is seriously mentally ill and is off his meds. His father, jerk though he is, was probably telling the truth that his mother was afraid of him. And now he has killed his father and tried to kill Kevin-- for which he blamed his father. But so what if he is a mentally ill killer and nasty fibber. This is pretty normal in this neck of the woods.

Because we have the soccer mom who killed a government agent and has now locked up a teenager in solitary confinement after threatening to mutilate him. The mall manager who hides food for himself and killed the crazy woman who was going to tell on him, and blamed a teenage girl for it. An elderly Hippie and a dim-witted cop who locked a bunch of people in a church and then set fire to it, killing them, so that they could go to the mall where the cop will kill his son. A priest, now apparently dead, who sent a teenage boy, also apparently dead, to beat up the old lady. And the amnesiac soldier who killed the guy whose identity he stole.

I'd be rooting for the monsters IF THERE WERE ANY.