MovieChat Forums > 11.22.63 (2016) Discussion > NOTHING like the novel. SO disappointin...

NOTHING like the novel. SO disappointing

posted 8 years ago by TommyFilmProductions
10 replies | jump to latest

For anyone who watched this series and never read the novel... I honestly feel bad for you. King had what was probably THEE greatest story he's ever written, gave it to J.J. Abrams, and allowed Abrams to completely rip apart the story and made it NOTHING like the novel, other than the basic premise.

WHY WHY WHY do so many of these movie makers feel they need to take GOLD and turn it into garbage on the screen??? If I was Stephen King, I would be FURIOUS what they did to my story. There was soooo many wonderful things in the novel they completely left out and replaced with these absolutely ignorant storylines. Like Bill Turcotte's character... in the novel Bill never goes to Dallas!! And when Jake rescues Harry from his father, he GOES back to the future to see how that turned out, and that makes his decision to save Kennedy. And the whole beginning part where Al reveals the rabbithole to Jake.... Damn, the series COMPLETELY brushed over that. I could go on and on and on, but I'm wasting my breath. The damage has been done and King let another great story go to hell on screen.

For anyone who has NOT seen this series, READ the book first, or better yet, log onto Audible.com and listen to the book narrated by Craig Wasson. It's a wonderful read.

[–] duckofprey 8 years ago

1) JJ did not do what you say. Bridget Carpenter was the script writer.

2) King was involved with EVERY change, approved all that were in the final, AND called her idea on how to use Bill as a "sidekick" brilliant (King's words). They HAD to do that to avoid needing Franco to narrate a ton of dialogue and they did not want to do that.

They had to cut a lot (christ, the audio book [which IS great! Wasson was excellent!] is 34 hours), which is why the portal went back to 1960 instead of 1958 and why they flashed by 2 full years. Considering the audiobook was 34 hours, to do the series about the same would mean at least a 26 hour mini-series. Ain't no such animal.

So Derry had to go, as did a lot at Jodi.

I can understand your issues, but the bottom line King's longest novel by far would not translate to a series even at a 2/3 inclusion. So they had to make changes. Even a 14 hour mini-series (6 more hours) probably would have disappointed many, but such is life.

By the way, I was glad they cut out a lot. The audio book dragged in many places. The high school play and sports for one. Yawn listening to it and it would have been boring on TV. Just my opinion.

[–] mister_salty 8 years ago

Just to clarify: King's longest novel, by far, is the uncut edition of "The Stand."

[–] duckofprey 8 years ago

Thanks for the correction. Not even sure why I said that, especially since I've only experienced one of his actual novels (audio or written)

[–] duckofprey 8 years ago

And I just did some research. Looks like it's #4, behind Under The Dome (#3), It (#2) and The Stand.

[–] Starchie28 8 years ago

Thanks for clarifying this. I liked the book as well for letting us linger in the detail of Jake experiencing the past and falling in love. But it did drag on at times and the miniseries did a commendable job of moving the story along while keeping the core elements intact.

Including Bill seemed initially jarring but I understood immediately why they had to do it. Otherwise, as you said, we would have been stuck with Franco voice-overs. It was also pretty obvious why they didn't have Jake go back and forth multiple times. That would have just taken too long and slowed the story way down.

[–] MrBelette 8 years ago

King being one of the producers you can't seriously expect him to say anything bad about the production in public. Of course he finds everything brilliant, he's part of it.

[–] techiebug 8 years ago

that's a good thing for me, tho. I read the book before watching the show. The show is really different from the book so I didn't feel bored. However, the core plot is the same.

[–] moderngamenewb 8 years ago

I finished the book last week, and then watched the series yesterday and today. While there were many changes I didn't like, there three main ones I was annoyed that they cut out, and one that was rushed. The three main were: His argument with Sadie over singing the Rolling Stones which led to their breaking up, her suicide, and they cut out all of the whole Mice and Men play segments and Jake's influences on Mike as a result of the play.

These all could have easily been included had they decided to make 9 episodes instead of 8.

The other change I didn't like was the whole scene with Sadie, her husband, and Jake. That felt so rushed, and Deke was cut out of all of that. I thought he was supposed to be a diversion with the casserole dish?

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