The Stand (2020 Limited Series)

I'm not one to write long-winded reviews, so let's get to it: first off, I'm a 41 year old who has always been curious about The Stand (I remember my mom watching it when I was younger). So, I finally decided to check it out. I read the book (uncensored and uncut edition, 1152 pages), and I absolutely loved it. The characters really grow on you, great character depth and growth in the main cast, both good and bad. After the book, I decided that I HAD to see the shows, so I ordered both the '94 miniseries and the newer 2020 remake. First, I watched the '94 series. I'd seen in reviews that it seemed a lot of people preferred this version, which is why I started with it. If I'm being honest, I really can't say that I enjoyed it much. It was pretty faithful to the book, but sometimes maybe a bit too faithful. There are times when something that works well on the written page simply does not translate to the screen, and this series had a number of those instances. Overall I felt like the acting was bad, it was very campy, and was limited by the shorter runtime ('94 series was 6 hours as compared to almost 9 hours in the remake). It wasn't horrible but I'd give it a 3 out of 5. Then I watched the 2020 remake, and I have to say, it was all around much, much better in my opinion. I've seen people who didn't like the way the episodes were disjointed, how it jumped from the present to the past sporadically, and while I understand how they feel I want to point out that I felt this series was made for fans of the book. If you've read the book and are familiar with the story, then the remake's pacing is great. There are some small changes here and there, a few minor characters are missing, a gender swap or a race swap with a few characters, but I thought it still worked very well for the story and in some cases the changes were more fitting as opposed to what was originally in the book. I was very satisfied with this remake, and would give it a 4.5 out of 5. I rated it 5 stars for this review because I couldn't do half stars. Well, I guess that ended up pretty long-winded 😅, sorry. I hope this helps anyone trying to decide which version to get. Thanks for reading!

Seen a preview of this show that I never heard of before purchased it. Binge watched it loved it.

I watched the original stand with Rob lowe back in the day and overall this one stacks up well to the original. In an effort to be "inclusive" they changed the racial and sexual identities of several of the cast members which was a little jarring and they also altered the progression of the story from the original tv miniseries . Either change by itself would have been okay but both were a little much. In my opinion, Alexander Skarsgard steals the show as Randall Flagg and Whoppi Goldberg's version of Mother Abagail was also very good but her physical appearance just doesn't match Stephen King's description as a very thin frail woman. In that regard Ms.Tyson was much more accurate to the book. I think they did a good job modernizing the story for a new generation and I like the fact that they gave "Frannie" an end story. Overall good job but just a little too "inclusive". Stick with the source and you can't go wrong and if you haven't read the book please do as it's 100x better than either series.

Recently read the uncut version of the novel and then ordered this series. Now, I'm only up to the 4th episode but am confident in saying that this version blows the 1994 adaptation out of the water. I have a feeling that most of the people that dislike this series grew up watching the '94 series and did not read the novel. That said, this series is not perfect, but a heck of a lot closer to the source material than I imagined they'd ever get. I definitely recommend.

It's funny to me, as I read some critical responses from those who read the book, that they would have been confused as to what's going on if they hadn't read the book. I don't know what they're talking about. While, of course, most novels will give a much richer character study of each person involved in the story along with more complex descriptions of events, whether a film adaptation succeeds or not depends on how much of that information gets communicated via the visual medium. I had no problem whatsoever understanding each character's motivation throughout the series. And I enjoyed every minute of this series, finding many parallels to what's happening socially and politically today. I'm not religious, but the use of religious metaphor depicting the real struggle between man-made evil and humanity's potential to choose good absolutely worked for me. I don't get the criticisms about the flashbacks either. It was easy to see when the character was having a flashback, and it always helped tell that character's story in the real time of the situation the character was dealing with. I'm unable to find much if any flaw in this production. Well filmed. Well acted. Well directed. And with just enough humor in all of the misery, to bring a smile to Stephen King himself I'm sure. Stephen gave the series his enthusiastic approval, and I think anyone who gets Stephen King's work would agree with the master.

Nice companion to the original!

I was excited about the new adaptation of ‘The Stand’, but the 1990s miniseries is the better of the two versions. I was impressed by the high production values of the 2020 miniseries, but the original is still better. The age differences between James Marsden and Odessa Young (emphasis on the “young”) was egregious, too, considering they were the two love interests. Alexander Skarsgård is always pretty solid, though. I agree with other reviews that the 2020 miniseries is unfocused. It was hard to identify with any of the characters, because of the lack of focus.

The DVD series arrived on time.

This is not a review of the series itself as I'm yet to watch. Although I've seen the 1994 mini series when it was originally aired and absolutely love it. I can confirm this appears to be region free and works on my uk blu ray player

Excelente recopilacion de estas versiones de esta obra de Stephen king, En lo personal me gusta mas laprimera version , aunque en la version actual es mas completa y larga Emocion,suspenso debe verse

The best both of these have ever looked. Both versions are worth watching

Enjoyed the series.