The Measure of a Stand

It must have seemed like a great idea just a couple of years ago. In a decades-long career of hit novels, Stephen King's The Stand remains one of his most beloved. It had been over 20 years since the previous television adaptation -- which had a mostly solid cast, but the exceedingly limited production values of a 1990s television mini-series. Why not take another swing at it?

Of course, the people who set out to remake King's story of a battle between good and evil in the aftermath of a global pandemic... could never have known that they'd finish filming just days before a real-life global pandemic (albeit a less apocalyptic one) changed everything. They never could have imagined the world their new version would be arriving in.

Still... the new version of The Stand (on CBS All Access, now Paramount Plus) is not too bad. The story was always more about the aftermath than the disease, and if you can get over the hump of the first pandemic-centric episode or two, it all begins to feel like escapist fantasy again.

This new version has a lot more money behind it -- not to mention that fact that money can buy you a much slicker-looking product today that it could in the 90s. This version of The Stand feels like it has appropriate scope for fans of the book. In particular, the Las Vegas material improves most in the new version; the seat of post-apocalyptic evil feels grand and hedonistic and unhinged.

Some of the casting is particularly strong in this version. Alexander Skarsgård makes a great Randall Flagg, menacing and seductive in turn. Owen Teague makes a good Harold Lauder, smarmy and awkward and self-important. Ezra Miller is an indelibly creepy and dangerous "Trashcan Man." Whoopi Goldberg is a commanding yet still Mother Abigail. You also get James Marsden, Greg Kinnear, Amber Heard, J.K. Simmons, and more in the enormous ensemble.

Yet also: The Stand is from that period in King's work where he could rarely find a good ending, and this mini-series has to battle with that. That battle comes out something of a "split decision." On the one hand, the goofiest element of the book's climax is actually rendered here in a convincingly scary and powerful way. On the other hand, Stephen King himself steps in to script the ninth and final episode, and it's a fairly meandering bit of fluff that acts as an inessential coda to the meat of the story

Overall, I'd say no one should be picking up another streaming service just to watch The Stand. But since a lot of my readers will be subscribing at some point or another to watch new Star Trek series, you might want to consider watching The Stand while you're there. I give it a B.