Revisiting the Revisiting of the JFK Assassination

I recently wrote about Stephen King's book 11/22/63 -- how I enjoyed it, and how I intended to go on and watch the Hulu mini-series based on it (styled with periods instead of slashes): 11.22.63. I've now done just that, and am back with some new thoughts.

For certain, I found the tale made a stronger novel than a TV show. Television generally demands a faster pace (and movies faster still), where novels can make a meal of the internal thoughts of the characters. I did note of the book that the middle slowed a bit, but even still, seeing the tale rendered in eight one-hour episodes really exposed that there are big stretches of the story where you could effectively argue that little-or-nothing happens. There's a big psychological component to "time traveling to save JFK" that just can't be captured easily on screen.

I suspect largely because of that inherently internal quality, there are some rather substantial changes made in the television adaptation. The main character needs to have people to interact with so that some of those internal monologues from the book can become external dialogues on the show. And the primary way the show does this is to take a minor character from the book, who appears in only a handful of early chapters, and expand them into a significant role. This is both an understandable, necessary choice for the adaptation... and a change that introduces more problems than it solves. A lot of 11.22.63 (the show) is spent trying to button up and explain away plot holes that weren't a problem for 11/22/63 (the book). Most of that revolves around having an extra character where there wasn't one originally.

The casting of the mini-series as a whole is pretty solid. George MacKay plays a good hot-tempered galoot (perfectly masking his native British accent with a Kentucky twang). Sarah Gadon is charming and sharp as "the love interest." Daniel Webber makes for a pretty good Lee Harvey Oswald. Chris Cooper does a great job imbuing personality into a character who's basically an exposition vehicle. In villainous roles, Josh Duhamel is appropriately intimidating, and more surprisingly, T.R. Knight makes quite an effective creep.

But if you know anything about 11.22.63, you've noticed I haven't mentioned the main character, star James Franco. There's a reason. I find him quite miscast here in the lead role. He's far too smooth and slick for the character of Jake Epping, even almost smarmy at times. This story calls for more of an Everyman at the center, and while of course you need some star wattage to anchor your TV mini-series, I think you could find one without the sort of "above it all" quality I sense here in Franco's delivery.

Much of what I liked about the book is still here in the show, but it definitely feels diminished this way. I'd give 11.22.63 a B-. It might still be worth the watch for writers, as an interesting study in adaptation. Otherwise, probably only Stephen King fans will want to try it -- and since the series is five years old, I'm betting they've already beaten me to it anyway.