Wednesday, January 14, 2015
From Stephen King to Supernatural: let's have it serial
STEPHEN KING – UNDER THE DOME – TV SERIES – SEASON 2 – 2014
The first season had changed a
few things in the trajectory of the plot. The second season changes the plot
radically and opens up onto a third season for more changes in the plot line.
The extra-terrestrials of the book are this time completely pushed aside. We
are dealing with more concrete and material elements typical of Stephen King’s
vision of a society where danger is institutionalized behind uniforms, and at
the same time hope can only be found with the help of people from these
uniformed institutions. Think of The Stand or Golden Years.
The egg becomes the center of the
plot, the egg deposited in the perimeter by a meteor some 25 years before or
ago. At this time this meteor and this egg discovered by four high school
students (probably seniors) caused the death of a young woman accidently killed
by three people. These three people have to come back and the dead one has to
reappear on the crime scene. This season brings two of the three survivors
found in the perimeter itself under the dome and the third one has to be
brought back into the perimeter under the dome. One is a crazy preacher, the
other is the uncle of Big Jim’s son, and the third one is the mother of Big
Jim’s son who is supposed to be dead. You can already feel and smell how
important this Big Jim family is becoming. Big Jim was on the verge of hanging
Barbie at the end of the first season. Things become a lot more treacherous and
tricky for him at the beginning of the second season and all along.
Barbie is revealed as the son of
some important industrialist in Zenith, the city on the other side of the dome.
That industrialist is in energy production and his projects have to do with
this egg. They are planning some kind of high security action. This father has
his own security force but at the same time some invisible governmental force
is controlling this private security force. This makes the clandestine secret
operation extremely tricky and dangerous since there is no real control over it
because of the rivalry that comes along with this double allegiance.
From climbing into the small
hills of the perimeter under the dome and managing to get the dome lifted by
the extra-terrestrials who are playing cosmic electronic games on earth, we
shift to underground tunnels with a way in and a way out. The egg is the key to
these ways in and out. Big Jim plays it alone and of course disrupts everything
and brings havoc. He makes himself sheriff and you can imagine his sheriff
style: shoot even before shooting before asking questions. Preventive (preemptive
as Bush used to say) shooting to prevent the police force from having to shoot
before asking questions.
Then the second season suggests a
way out of the dome but underground and leading to a place that is not
identified as perfectly human and the nature of that outside escape world is
the cliff hanger of this season. Wait one full year for the next season and the
discovery of where these escaping people find themselves and what happens to
the three they left behind and what happens to Barbie’s father on the other
side who is arrested by his own private security force that receives orders
from a higher level that is not identified.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
SUPERNATURAL –
SEASON 9
It is hard to go on with this
series without being repetitive. I will not say much about the episodes that
are local and small if not limited battles against this or that monster,
vampire or werewolf. These episodes are entertaining but they do not make the
plot move forward – nor backward either, just sideways.
The main plot is little by little
destroying itself into some kind of delirium tremens caused by self-punishing
zeal to go on forever ranting and raving about angels and demons, about hell
and heaven, and all that directly on earth that becomes slightly crammed if not
jammed with extra-realistic beings who want only one thing: destroy each other,
destroy one another, recreate heaven for the good angels who will be stronger
and defeat the others by destroying them, and reopen hell for all bad demons
though some are worse or badder than others and either they have to be
destroyed or they have to destroy those who are not badder.
I would say then the novelty can
only be in the technical achievement of the director and editor or special
effect technician. But that does not make a good series even if the pictures
are original and good. We can of course search the series for what has already
been seen, exploited and is coming to the worn out phase, like Wincest for
example. Dean and Sam are not like good cheese or good wine, they do not
improve with age, they just get older and you cannot teach new tricks to old
dogs, or monkeys, or horses.
Let them meditate on Prison Break
or Lost
So I am afraid the series is
becoming quite unreasonably lengthy and thus insensibly repetitive.
Too bad because I had liked it
quite a lot,, in fact tremendously. You can check on academia.edu the following
papers:
·
SUPERNATURAL – SIX
SEASONS – STEP BY STEP Jacques COULARDEAU & Ivan EVE
· SUPERNATURAL IS LEADING TO SO MANY THINGS Jacques COULARDEAU
·
SUPERNATURAL – WORK
SCHEDULE – WRITING May 27, 2012 Dr Jacques COULARDEAU and Ivan EVE
But well I guess even the best
things have to end but it is at times difficult to find the proper exit.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
# posted by Jacques Coulardeau @ 2:47 PM 
