I once watched a television mini series called The Stand. I had watched it long before I had even began to read the work of Stephen King. After watching The Stand I was intrigued by this man Stephen King so I made my way to my local library and checked out a couple books I didn't get The Stand because I was young and even for a well read adult the length of that book can seem daunting. So I checked out some shorter ones three in all I believe they were Carrie, Cujo, and The Shining. After I read Cujo I was enthralled with his work I waltzed through those three books in a week and went back to the library for more.
That was twelve years ago, since then I have read every book the man has written and I have any new ones pre ordered a year before they come out. Even after I had dedicated myself to reading all of the Stephen King books I could find, I still avoided The Stand because it was so long. Finally I came to the point where I had to read it or at least try. I was utterly disgusted by the end of the Stand that the so-called adaptation that was made was such a travesty in comparison to the book itself. Later, I would read all of the books with movies or television shows based off of them and then watch the shows/movies themselves. To this day I have found few adaptations that were even worthy of their source material. The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, Christine, Carrie, Misery, and The Shining are the only ones even worth watching in my opinion.
Which brings me to the point of this rant, Under The Dome. I am appalled by how much they have deviated from the book, and I will quote another favorite author of mine, Lee Child, he said, when speaking about Under The Dome, "The best yet from the best ever" I am inclined to agree with him about Under The Dome being his best work (outside of the Dark Tower series, that is). I still tune in and watch every week to see what they may actually get right. From the deviation of the characters and major plot lines destroyed in favor of something Brian K. Vaughn thought would be more suited to a television show.
For example the utter disrespect to the book's protagonist Barbie. In all of the books I've read I have found very few characters that I respect as much as Dale Barbara. Yet on this show he is made in to a criminal who is responsible for the death of his love interest's husband and the man that plays him does not come off as a battle hardened special forces member. In addition, Big Jim Rennie and his son Junior, from the beginning of the tale I absolutely despised them for their lack of humanity and in this television show they are given a sort of redeemable quality that is spitting in the face of the core and basis of the characters. Phil "Chef" Bushey is turned into some hipster radio DJ that is actually coming off as a positive force under the dome instead of the insane, delusional methamphetamine cook that he is in the original.
I guess in the long run, I am just being really vocal and whiny about the sheer disrespect that is shown to the work of Stephen King and I would just really like Hollywood to leave it as it is, because the only thing that Under the Dome show has in common with the book of the same name is the dome itself. As always this has been your angry neighborhood inkslinger saying, just because it can be made into live action... doesn't mean it should. Peace.