The Stand (2020) Review

M-O-O-N, that spells disappointment

Synopsis

In the aftermath of an entire population-killing pandemic, the remaining survivors are drawn to two figures that represent good and evil, culminating in an epic STAND-off.

Review
“The Stand” has a plot with an intriguing hook. This coupled with character development, depth and storytelling are part of what has given author Stephen King the legendary “Master of Storytelling” label he has carried all these years. Unfortunately, like most King adaptations these days, this nine-episode miniseries lacks the magic of its inspired source material.

Josh Boone (of “Fault in Our Stars” and “New Mutants” fame) and Benjamin Cavell steer the ship of this much-anticipated adaptation of a beloved, classic horror story. From the start, this work has a lot of ambition.  It’s roster of stars (James Marsden, Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgard, Greg Kinnear, Nat Wolff, Jovan Adepo, Ezra Miller, etc). Its length of nine episodes. Its creative freedom of airing on CBS All Access (now Paramount+) where there’s plenty of room for sex, drugs, violence, lions, tigers and bears, oh my! To its involvement from King himself, as well as his son Owen King who writes and/or co-writes an episode or two. However, its great ambition doesn’t compare much to its disappointing final result.

We begin the story following the main characters as they navigate or survive through the pandemic (sprouted from a legal strain outbreak at a military biological research station) and how they share dreams and nightmares of two figures beckoning them to make their stand – the excessively long-in-the-tooth (108 years old!), god-fearing Mother Abigail (played by a weary-eyed Whoopi Goldberg) and the dark, nefarious Randall Flagg (played by a stilted, mostly-underwhelming Skarsgård). The players involved: the noble everyday southern man Stu Redman (James Marsden); the down-and-out singer Larry Underwood (Jovan Adepo); the tough, no-bull, young mother-to be Frannie Goldsmith (Odessa Young); the deaf and half-blind empathic hero Nick Andros (Henry Zaga); the abandoned and once-bullied Harold Lauder (Owen Teague); the tortured, Flagg-possessed (or Flagg-obsessed) Nadine Cross (Amber Heard); and the wild, boisterous ex-immate Lloyd Henreid (Nat Wolff). It’s not hard to tell from the short descriptions who joins which team (or who eventually migrates over to the dark side).

“Stand’s” problem lies within its storytelling rather than its characters or world-building. We are given a non-linear form of storytelling for the first four episodes, detailing how each main character ends up on the side they’ve chose (or which side they’ve chosen to “spy” on) as well as the people they were before the pandemic and the people they have become after. For the first three chapters, it is intriguing to explore the backstory of each player and how they fit into the grand apocalyptic scheme of things. However, by episode four, this spinning of wheels (switching back and forth between “the world before” and “the world now”) overstays its welcome and becomes exhaustive. Thankfully, episode four is the same episode where this storytelling form ceases and we are released to a single, straight narrative. The direction of the series itself (two directed by Boone himself) is solid – special effects are on point, tone is mostly done right (some tonal shifts throughout are awkward) and the cinematography is nicely done. By the slight half-point of episode four or five, it’s evident that “the Stand” gains its strengths through (some of) its performances and not its plot.

Standouts worth mentioning are Greg Kinnear (fantastic), Brad William Henke (great) and Ezra Miller (actually creepy). Kinnear portrays Glen Bateman, the Abigail-led soldier who is an agnostic scientist. This supporting character has probably the best dynamic character changes throughout the miniseries. Part of this development is brought to life by Kinnear’s witty, sardonic performance. His performance transforms Bateman from a typical religious skeptic to an interesting, ever-changing human being that becomes missed the more he is not on screen. Henke also knocks it out of the park as beloved Tom Cullen, the forty-something mentally-challenged man that befriends Nick and is most likely destined to be the audience’s favorite. In a surprising, yet late-in-the-game addition, Ezra Miller appears as the creepy pyromaniac Trashcan Man, a man who ventures over to Flagg’s camp (a more-hedonistic-than-usual Las Vegas in contrast to Abigail’s humble, sunny farm) where he is tasked to “bring him the fire”. Miller’s performance is a standout because of how over-the-top it is. He plays Trashcan Man with a feral presence and near indecipherable speech. His slinkish gait as well as the flashbacks of him being bullied almost leave a bit of sympathy for the doomed fire-loving character.

While these supporting turns are much to be celebrated, it leaves a lot to be desired from the main characters. It’s a shame that a talented roster of actors like this can’t work with much of what they’re given. With the exception of the three aforementioned characters, every hero (from Stu to Larry to Mother Abigail) is presented as a generic do-gooder, flawed humans with hearts of gold; every villain is presented as just plain ol’ bad or once-good-but-now-bad. There’s no real depth that breaks through on either side of the horizon. Goldberg and Skarsgård try their best to bring the best out of their opposed leaders but their efforts are downplayed by stilted dialogue and underwhelming action. The same goes for the players on either side. There’s a great performance lurking beneath Marsden and Adepo’s performances but it can’t break out beneath the bland surface material they are serving.

Closing Thoughts
In contrast to the critically acclaimed 1994 miniseries, “The Stand” fails to capture the “lightning in a bottle” that has been captured with so many other King adaptations. The plot, as straightforward as it is (non-linear storytelling notwithstanding), doesn’t break new ground in its presentation. There’s not much nostalgia to be taken in nor much originality to make note of in this new adaptation. Even with the closing episode “The Circle Closes,” in which King himself writes a new coda to his material, there’s not much added to what has already been told. It serves as a solid epilogue for a well-known character but it’s for a character that didn’t really leave an impression on us in the first place (if you let this adaptation present it) nor is this character’s climatic journey that much worthy of a whole episode. “The Stand” is a nine-hour disappointment that could have been cut down to four to five hours at most.

Trailer