Under The Dome [CBS - US] [** Spoilers **] (Warning in OP)

Thargor

There isnt a hope of there being some secret passage in and out of the dome, the writers even told us in their cack-handed way that she'd been hiding and watching all that time, she told Big Jim she'd arrived in town the day the dome came down.

Neil McCauleys Cooler Brother

I've just finished episode 9. Have to admit, this show is pretty terrible - but I will keep watching just to see how the sf/supernatural elements are developed. I think the problem is that nearly every episode has a different scriptwriter and director. Well, that's one problem. The dialogue, and I mean every single line in this show so far, has been awful; so bad, in fact, that even Dean Norris is slicing the ham. No good actor can make it work, and some of the less-than-great talents here (moody mad son, justin bieber clone, and that deputy sheriff...) come across as downright embarrassments. It's slick, but the writing destroys it. And Stephen King must share some of the blame: he came up with these simplistic characters (a fault I've found in all the post-It King book I've read is that the characters are so cliched and one-note).That's my take, anyway.

Bacchus

Oh God. That was pretty sh*t. I've stood by the show for a while now but that was awful viewing. Where to start...

The introduction of Max has been a terrible one. It's so "daytime cheesy American soap opera". How many times did she have to remind Barbie (the audience) that she could "air his dirty laundry" just to get her way. She never felt like a real threat (a stiff breeze could knock her over I'd say). Also, within the space of an episode all that dirty laundry is out anyway... so what's the point of having her?!

Oh yeah, so she can set up a fight club and set up a black market type thing. Now, a black market is a good idea for a plot in Under the Dome but this was sooooo cheesy and ridiculous. Where did she find all the muscle, with the tattoos and everything? Were they all just hanging out in Chesters Mill too? Possible they were because of the propane but in 8 episodes we've not seen one tattooed muscle man and now she has an entire workforce. Also, the portrayal of the citizens of a small sleepy town in America all super charged, baying for blood after a week! Nonsense.

I remember the first episode where Barbie bought some packs of cigarettes as something barter with in future. I thought, "nice touch". It was a subtle, sensible scene. This fight club/black market thing has the subtly of a sledge hammer. I really think the writers/producers have fcuked up here. Under the Dome was the best opportunity since LOST to show a band of people within a larger community, cut off from the world, struggle to rebuild while also deal with a sci-fi mystery element. Instead we have "Days of our Lives under the Dome".

Back to the dirty laundry. Maria doesn't seem to really care that the man she's been sleeping with for the past few days killed her husband a week ago. WTF!

The mini dome story even took a sh*t turn. Screen time wasted on that radio girl getting zapped and not remembering anything. Junior being the 4th hand was flat and the episode ended pretty much as the last one did. Exposition boy continued to be annoying. He reaction about Junior was some truly awful acting.

I think the problem the show is having is that it is trying to force every situation to an extreme in attempt to create tension while simultaneously dumbing it down and having the characters spend more time explaining what they are doing/seeing instead of just getting on with it.

The police woman, Linda (had to google her name) and Maria, were the worst culprits in this episode. Some awful lines and some awful delivery. "Duke never went anywhere without that hat" OMG :eek: Could there be something in the hat. A key! But what cou... oh thanks Maria it's a safety deposit box key. Mystery solved people. Cut to the bank and an explanation that money is worthless now UNDER THE DOME. When we finally get into the safety deposit box room... Linda: "Oh my God it's Dukes safety deposit box". What else were you expecting to find there!!! Some cop you are! Truly awful painful TV.

The season is nearly over so I'll stick with it but unless something changes, I doubt I'll be back for Season 2. Pity. Just when it was starting to look like finding a good groove it derails.

Hyzepher

I don't understand why money is worthless. if it was me I'd be storing all that money for the day the dome lifted.

Dempsey

Hyzepher wrote: »

I don't understand why money is worthless. if it was me I'd be storing all that money for the day the dome lifted.

Oh thats being stockpiled by someone, just hasnt been revealed yet in an episode cliffhanger

CastorTroy

Thought they'd wait until next season at least to bring in a character that was there the whole time that no one noticed like they did now with Natalie Zea. And she comes into it and sets up all that in the cement factory after 4 days, since everyone took shelter there about then.

So we now have pink stars but none falling.

The girl from the radio still has pictures on her phone but don't know where that will go.

Mr E

Another stupid episode. Quickly losing patience with this show. I read a synopsis of the book yesterday on Wikipedia (just to get an idea of where this show might be heading) and I rolled my eyes. They've gone a different path for many of the characters, but I think the origins of the dome will stay the same (and that's not a good thing).

I'll stick it out for the last two episodes anyway.

dark crystal

Bacchus wrote: »

.

Back to the dirty laundry. Maria doesn't seem to really care that the man she's been sleeping with for the past few days killed her husband a week ago. WTF!


The police woman, Linda (had to google her name) and Maria, were the worst culprits in this episode. Some awful lines and some awful delivery. "Duke never went anywhere without that hat" OMG :eek: Could there be something in the hat. A key! But what cou... oh thanks Maria it's a safety deposit box key. Mystery solved people. Cut to the bank and an explanation that money is worthless now UNDER THE DOME. When we finally get into the safety deposit box room... Linda: "Oh my God it's Dukes safety deposit box". What else were you expecting to find there!!! Some cop you are! Truly awful painful TV.

She's called Julia!

Look, it's not the best TV show ever made, but it's entertaining fluff. I haven't read the book, so I can't really compare it, but I'm still enjoying it for the most part.

Yes, some of the acting is shocking (Natalie Martinez as Linda the sheriff is a simply woeful actress) and the writing isn't going to win any Emmys, but for switch your brain off drama, it's fine.

Seems to be getting steadily great ratings, too.

CastorTroy

I would love to know how big this town is. It seems to take forever to get anywhere, unless it's convenient to the story to just take a couple of minutes. Like how long did it take Linda to get to the house after Barbie called her, yet back when the missile was launched at the dome it seemed everywhere was only about a minute from the cement factory.

I have to laugh at how at least 3 of the younger ones are so calm about the dome talking to them.

calex71

can't compare to the book at this point, it;s so well of the book's great characters and crap ending. Here we have crap characters and i bet

the alien ants will still have done it

in the end, can't believe they had the nerve to drag it out over a second series :mad:

Bacchus

CastorTroy wrote: »

I would love to know how big this town is. It seems to take forever to get anywhere, unless it's convenient to the story to just take a couple of minutes. Like how long did it take Linda to get to the house after Barbie called her, yet back when the missile was launched at the dome it seemed everywhere was only about a minute from the cement factory.

This is a problem I've had from the start with the show. There is absolutely no sense of scale. No sense exactly of what is cut off, where anything is in relation to one another. Heck, we've whole farms, an island, a huge cement factory, a huge storage facility. I've no idea where they are in relation to the town.

Sorry to compare to LOST again but they established the setting of the island very well, especially in the first 2 seasons. I always felt with that show that I could visualise a rough map of everything in my head. Even the book version of Under the Dome established a clearer picture of Chester's Mill. There was a map at the front too and TBH, it's not that big a town. It feels much larger and more disperse in the show.

CastorTroy

And speaking of the missile, how is it that everything looks like it's back to normal outside the dome? I'm sure they can say it happened on the other side of the town from where it showed but going from what was said about the missile, it would've destroyed everything around the dome. Though I'm sure it hit beside Angie and Joe's house.

FloatingVoter

This has become car crash TV - I'm only sticking with it to see how bad it gets. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if some of the dead start walking about again and we'll have a zombie show. One thing is for sure, neither Stephens King nor Spielberg were doing much other than collecting their cheques while this was being "written".

chickenboy

I'm sure they said in the early episodes that the radius of the dome was 10 miles from where the egg was initially found. But I'm past caring at this stage, I only started this because I enjoyed the book, and now I'm only sticking with it because my girlfriend still seems to be inexplicably enjoying it. Only two episodes left!

Bacchus

Another poor episode. Once again, I don't know where to begin.

How about killing off the new character they made a big deal about introducing? I'm glad she's not in the show any more as she added nothing of interest, but seriously, what was the point of having this big "new boss in town" arrive, wasted 2 episodes with nonsense on her and then just killed her. Were the writers trying to be shocking or something? There were far more interesting ways they could have had Big Jim find out about Barbie's secret than introduce her.

Also, Linda (the cop)! WTF, you find out Big Jim was in bed with drug producers and you casually interview him to the point where he is leading the entire interview and you wind up chasing Big Jim's winks and nods that Barbie is the real criminal. What a sh*t cop. She is a terrible actress to boot, absolute worst thing about the show.

Exposition boy is in close second. His performances belong in a remake of Skippy, where his excited declaration of every piece of information that comes to him would fit right it.

There's a lot of little things that annoy me too. Like Barbie, having slept the night downstairs on the couch in his shorts has to walk upstairs to get dressed? Shouldn't his clothes be downstairs. And what about the spare room, he could have slept there. No, the writers wanted to emphasise that Julia is none too happy with Barbie murdering her husband a week ago so he's on the couch... to give her time so they can have a hope of a future together

One redeeming aspect was the storm in the dome (dodgy CGI aside). They actually managed to create a bit of a mystery there. Is it linked to the group of 4? I thought it was Angie and Junior argument that created it. Or is it because of Julia? The monarch thing is kinda interesting too.

Really hope we get an army/outside world episode next week to shake things up. We've finally got acknowledgement that the army are interested in talking to Barbie. Why it took them this long to figure it out I don't know. Especially when you consider Barbie actually spoke to one of the soldiers.

The ending was quite cool/creepy too. Pity they ruined the moment with the spelled, out overly dramatic "The dome is coming down. Big Jim has to die first. We're supposed to do it". That's a pretty big leap to conclusions. How do they figure it means the dome is coming down.

Really disappointed in the last few episodes (since Max's introduction). The show feels like it's jumping all over the place with no plan on where it's going. The writing and acting has not improved at all. If anything, it's worse than ever, on both fronts. I'm gonna stick it out the end of the season, purely because it's so close to it, there's not much else on and I wanna see what happens.

Lovely Bloke

chickenboy wrote: »

I'm sure they said in the early episodes that the radius of the dome was 10 miles from where the egg was initially found.

Which means there's 314 square miles inside the dome, and nowhere inside the dome is more than 20 miles from anywhere else.

Richard Dower

Well....yáll will have to suffer on, show ain't going anywhere........

Boom_Bap

I've blazed through the episodes and am up to speed now. I kinda like it, I like how things are being answered every episode and new twists to the characters are added, new twists to the dome and the mini dome.
There are a few uber cheese yankee doodle dandy moments as well that I'm doing well at not getting annoyed with. For example, last night the missus happened to come in to the room at one of those moments (i think Barbie's revelation to the fox with the ginger hair about the husband) and commented on the cheesieness of it. I had to agree, but, that will she/wont she find out end was tied up in that scene. So there was a bit of a result from it.
I guess I'm just following now to see where the story goes (aint read the book) and can ignore the irksome traits that have developed in the show.

bnt

Under The Dome is starting on RTÉ Two next Thursday (12th), 9:00pm. I'll try the first few episodes, at least ...

Thargor

FFS what was Barbies plan in the latest ep? Somehow use 2 wires to interface a Nokia Lumia with an an ANALOGUE switchboard from the 1970s (also write an app that says "Lights Out" when it does it) to turn off the lights at that exact moment when he knew they'd need it somehow? Thats why he brought the flares?

Rovi

Thargor wrote: »

FFS what was Barbies plan in the latest ep? Somehow use 2 wires to interface a Nokia Lumia with an an ANALOGUE switchboard from the 1970s (also write an app that says "Lights Out" when it does it) to turn off the lights at that exact moment when he knew they'd need it somehow? Thats why he brought the flares?

Eh?

Have I missed something somewhere?
I don't recollect anything like that happening.
At least, not up to Episode 11, which is the most recent one as far as I know.

Boom_Bap

Rovi wrote: »

Eh?

Have I missed something somewhere?
I don't recollect anything like that happening.
At least, not up to Episode 11, which is the most recent one as far as I know.

Just before they go down to the cement factory he rigs that up....quite brief, and then they

whack Maxine and the hired goon

in the factory.

You have to remember that Barbie has a military background, is a hired goon and is some sort of special dude that the army loves (Jack Rabbit) and are looking for. So it's not totally inconceivable that he would have some A-Team gear with him.

Thargor - if you think that Lumia Lights Out rig up is a bit far fetched in the show......it is a show about a magical dome after-all, so not everything may be reality

Rovi

Oh yeah, so he did!!!

How did I forget that?

I guess my attention was wandering :rolleyes:

Thargor

Boom_Bap wrote: »

Thargor - if you think that Lumia Lights Out rig up is a bit far fetched in the show......it is a show about a magical dome after-all, so not everything may be reality

It was more of a commentary on the stupidity and laziness of the writers and the director that went along with it that that was all they could think of to do in that situation, just because theres a magic dome in place doesnt mean they can throw common sense completely out the window.

TwoShedsJackson

Mr E wrote: »

Post on this thread again and get a month off for trolling.

Richard Dower wrote: »

Well....yáll will have to suffer on, show ain't going anywhere........

...

FloatingVoter

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

...

If RD said the show was a masterpiece of acting, scriptwriting and direction leading to what can undoubtedly be called the finest use of celluloid yet in the 21st century... then we'd have trolling.

Hank Scorpio

Rubbish writing and acting. It's hard going from breaking bad back to this. Will watch the last 2 episodes

Richard Dower

TwoShedsJackson wrote: »

...

dont remember that warning.....

TwoShedsJackson

Richard Dower wrote: »

dont remember that warning.....

Didn't think you did, Richard, seeing as you've posted about five times in the thread since, but it's there a few pages back. Still, until your previous post you had avoiding the low-level trolling.

Hank Scorpio

New episode is out. Show gets sillier and sillier! I really like Dean Norris as a actor, his character is somewhat believable aswell - only reason I'm watching this I guess. The female cop/sheriff is so incredibly bad Really brings the show down