The genre nerd in me (a big part of me, honestly) is very much looking forward to next Monday. The date marks the season 2 premiere of the CBS sci-fi drama Under the Dome. The show is adapted from a Stephen King novel of the same name. Season 1 had only 13 episodes, and if you are looking for something to do this weekend, you should consider a weekend Under the Dome binge to catch up. Built on trashy drama and unexplained mysteries, Under the Dome is structured upon the addictive qualities of slowly revealed information. Though it won’t be winning any awards, it’s perfect fare for a summer binge-watch.
Here’s 5 reasons its worth catching up on Under the Dome.
1. The Concept
Like many Stephen King stories, the concept of Under the Dome is simple and brilliant and completely self-evident. A town, in this case Chester’s Mill, suddenly finds itself under a dome. That’s it. One day, for reasons unknown, an impenetrable dome falls from the sky and covers just this one small town. No one can enter or exit, it cannot be destroyed or penetrated through our most advanced technologies or powerful weapons. It is just a town in a dome.
I love complicated and elaborate science-fiction stories, but there is something unmistakably enjoyable about this kind of simplicity. The show is first and foremost a mystery, adding strange, King-esque layers every episode. And while the show expands into a web of dramatic human and sci-fi story elements, the core of Under the Dome remains focused on the question at hand: Where the fuck did this dome come from?
2. The Isolated Catastrophe
There are no shortage of stories about catastrophes and apocalypses on our televisions. Large scale, national, global catastrophe is a common fantasy, one many of us-especially genre fans-partake in regularly. Under the Dome inverts our love of watching the whole world fall apart by letting us watch it happen in isolation. What happens to Chester’s Mill is on display for the world to watch. It understands the voyeurism we enjoy in watching the world fall apart by letting TV audiences watch the rest of the world watch a town collapse.
Unable to receive food or water or aid from outside, the people of Chester’s Mill are forced to negotiate for power not only to keep themselves from killing each other but to organize well-drilling and food management and distribution of the little medicine that remains inside the dome. And since the rest of the world can do nothing to help, they simply follow the story on the news. The mystery of the dome at first amazes the world, and news coverage and gawkers flock to see what happens inside. As time moves on and answers remain absent, the story slowly loses hold of the public imagination. Imagine that.
3. The Trashy Drama
I can’t emphasize enough that the word trashy here is not meant to be mean or dismissive. There is a long tradition of trashy television drama that indulges our need for good guys and bad guys, betrayals and cruelty and obvious turns of the screw. Today, Scandal has perhaps achieved the greatest heights in this regard, but Under the Dome follows closely on its heels. A smart sci-fi/horror genre show, run by a brilliant genre storyteller (more on this anon), Under the Dome doesn’t fear indulging in the hoary elements of television drama so long as that drama serves the bigger mystery.
To do that, Under the Dome makes sure to capture only those people in the dome who are sure to cause drama when confined together. An elite military vet turned hit-man named Barbie who was in town to kill a doctor. The doctor’s wife, who quickly begins an affair with Barbie. A local town official and used car salesman, Big Jim, who becomes the organizer and leader of Chester’s Mill. Oh, and Big Jim is also a power hungry nutter involved in running a massive drug operation. He wants to kill Barbie.
Big Jim’s son, Junior, a psychopath who kidnaps his ex-girlfriend and locks her in a bomb-shelter, only to get deputized by the new sheriff, given a gun and set loose to protect the town from itself. The lesbian couple and their son, who were just stopping for lunch on their way home when the dome came down, and are now trapped with the redneck population of rural America. The four teenagers who are the key to solving the mystery, capable of communicating with the dome itself through seizures and chants and an egg inside a mini-dome inside the dome. The kids must come together and unravel the clues they find while keeping the adults in the dark.
It’s all a string of manic stock-characters in ridiculous situations, exasperated by claustrophobia, played by talented actors who eat up the trash like vultures. Rachelle Lefevre and Dean Norris are particularly well-prepared for the task, relishing the parts with aplomb. It takes a while to get into the rhythm, but the trash soon becomes one of Under the Dome‘s greatest treasures.
4. The Body Count
Chester’s Mill is a small town. Or at least, it feels like a small town. But it must not be all that small, because holy cow do a lot of people get killed in this show. The amount of shoot-outs in the streets of Chester’s Mill must rival our most violent cities. One thing is sure about thesee good folks: no matter what happens, they just keep killing each other. On purpose.
It’s hard to imagine what one would do if faced with circumstances such as those the townspeople of Chester’s Mill are faced with. But the violence that is inspired by the dome truly is remarkable. (To be fair, the dome may be responsible for this, through some kind of psychological manipulation of the inhabitants…)
And yet, even when they’re not killing each other, the dome inspires plenty of deaths simply through its unseen presence. The premiere of season 2 is called “Heads will Roll,” so it’s a safe bet this element of the show is unlikely to disappear soon.
One of the unexpected pleasures of the body count is the unexplained appearances of new characters. Surprise, I’m a major character but I’ve been hiding in a house for 3 weeks! Don’t kill me please! (spoiler alert: that person got killed).
5. The Addicting Sci-Fi of Brian K. Vaughan
The man behind the TV version of Under the Dome is Brian K. Vaughan. This is the reason I started Under the Dome in the first place. Vaughan is best known for his work in comic books, but he’s got some TV credits, too. He’s written some brilliant sci-fi comics (Y: the Last Man), wrote for J.J. Abrams’ LOST, and is now writing one of the best science-fiction stories of the day in Saga. Like Saga (and LOST), Under the Dome operates with a keen sense of the expectations of the audience.
There are multiple mysteries unfolding at once, and the show is crafted just to leave the horror of impending disaster perfectly hidden around the corners. Episodes of Under the Dome trigger the feeling-a terrific feeling as a viewer-of being totally unable to wait to see what happens next. All leading to the finale of season 1, which literally ends with a noose on the neck. But the best part of Under the Dome is the manner in which Vaughan subjects the characters in the show to the same treatment as the TV audience. We have knowledge the characters do not (Barbie killed your husband, Dummy!) but the characters-Big Jim especially-are also privilege to information we do not have.
I have no idea what is going on in Under the Dome, and my guesses are uninspired (aliens is about all I got). But I love that feeling, that lack of orientation in sci-fi world, and for that feeling alone, Under the Dome is worth a weekend.
Under the Dome is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Season 1: RECAP
If you’ve already watched season 1 and are just looking for a recap, here’s one care of Rachelle Lefevre and Mike Vogel:
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