This begins this week and is getting really great reviews. Based on a 2014 novel about the end of civilization, and the attempt to create a new one.
Oh wow, I read this book. Had no idea they were making it into a show.
As I wrote elsewhere here, I LOVE this book, and the trailer looks incredible! The timing is…I cant figure out if its good or bad, but its at least interesting. I am very interested in this, and from the one trailer I watched, it looked like they captured the spirit and feeling of the book perfectly.
Certainly an excellent read. The trailer didn’t grab me, but I will give it a try.
Earlier this year, I went into the book knowing nothing about it, and when I realised what the plot involved I did need to pause and wonder if it was a good idea to continue. I’m glad I did, it’s a great book, but not quite the level of escapism I was after!
Yikes, thanks for the heads up. Not sure how I missed that?
Caught the first three episodes last night and I like it. It has been some time since I read the book, but I’m pretty sure they’ve added subplots that aren’t in the book, and expanded a lot on characters, and it’s all very good.
I never heard of the book but I’m about halfway through the first episode. Liking it so far. I’m guessing this is going to be a more reality-based take on The Stand?
I was looking forward to this and pretty sure I have the book on my backlog. It appears to be getting near universal praise.
Think I’ll push the show up in my queue.
The universal theme of all the reviews is that it’s not misery porn like all the other dystopian, post-apocalyptic series out there. There are definitely moments of violence, and the first episode may be the toughest to watch because it has to show the world collapsing, but the overall theme is one of hope.
I listened the The Ringer’s The Watch podcast this morning, and Chris Ryan says it’s his favorite series of the year, and he explains why quite eloquently.
That was one thing I respected about the book, it was set in a dystopian and fairly awful world with almost everyone dead, but it did have a basically hopeful plot and message. I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance to watch this but I do want to see it.
I’ve read the novel and watched the first three episodes, and this is a faaaaantastic adaptation. They’ve made enough changes it feels new and fresh, and it effortlessly leaps around in time and place.
The release schedule is three episodes this week, then two episodes per week until the final week.
Just saw the first episode. Brutal, but amazing!
Yeah, I agree. I’m really looking forward to the next installment.
This is a very good show! And yet for me personally, it’s hard to watch. As someone who used to live in the Chicago area, someone who has family living on the north side, and someone who watched it the week before Xmas with omicron in the news, that first episode hit like a truck.
And even though the third episode features nothing more explicit than someone coughing, it brought back a lot of my 9/11 memories. (I was supposed to be flying across the country that day, and spent a week trying to get home. During that time I lived in a bland purgatory of muzak in hotels and airports while the world outside went to hell, something shown so well in the episode. Though nobody then said out loud the things that get said on the show, you could tell everyone was thinking it.)
I went into this considering myself a hardened vet of decades of post-apocalyptic fiction and someone who didn’t have much use for trigger warnings. Yet I feel I have to say: if you’re about to watch this, prepare yourself. It may hit a raw nerve you didn’t know you had.
(And this isn’t because the show is super graphic or gory, but because it’s a well-made, well-acted show about ordinary people in catastrophic circumstances.)
Speaking of acting, I was surprised to see that one actor from that one show appear in episode three. Though it turned out he worked well in that role.
End of episode 2 was super weird.
Ya don’t stab someone and then just leave them.
Episodes 4 and 5 dropped today
I’m beginning to find all the ‘before’ scenes far better than the ‘twenty years later’ scenes.
Can someone explain a bit more about the show? I get that there’s a pandemic and collapse of civilization, but can’t tell much else from the previews. What’s the tone–how bleak, how violent? What are the main characters like and what ties them together?