Back in the 20th Century you could always tell which friends were reading Stephen King’s The Stand because they’d have half their living room furniture on the front porch. The novel was thick and required a lot of space. And it only got thicker when King released The Complete and Uncut Edition that ran 1,152 pages. It was bigger than any phone book used in Maine. Those of us with limited space in our apartments chose to watch the 1994 TV miniseries directed by Mick Garris. The miniseries was toned down a bit from the tome since it was network television. King was happy with it, but decades later began to pitch a new miniseries for Showtime. Instead of the pay cable channel; CBS ordered up a new version of The Stand for its CBS All Access streaming service. The production about a killer virus began in September 2019 and continued as the world kept getting more news on COVID-19. Production wrapped up days before the lockdown began. When The Stand began streaming on December 17, 2020, it showed an even worse version of what we were dealing with in reality.
Something goes horribly wrong at a secret military base that deals with bio-weapons. A version of the Flu that is mega-lethal escapes a laboratory. While the base is being locking down, one soldier flees and infects everyone on his cross country drive. In less than a month, the flu spreads, infects and kills over a billion people. The survivors gather up since many of them have had visions of an old woman named Mother Abagail (Whoopi Goldberg). She gives them a location to meet. There’s a chance of starting humanity on a good foot. Other survivors find themselves being contacted by Randall Flagg (True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard). He’s more involved in the virus situation than anyone imagines. Randall’s not done destroying civilization. The followers of either side have a showdown for who controls the nearly abandoned world.
The new miniseries is stretched over nine episodes that are about an hour each. The action plays like a long movie since there’s no need for commercial breaks. Make sure you start watching the Blu-ray when you have a free day since you’re not going to want to press stop and come back later. There’s also a lot more gruesome effects between the sights of people being infected to just normal violence in a world with no rules. There’s a lot of images that wouldn’t have made the edit on network television. They’ve loaded up the cast with plenty of recognizable faces including James Marsden (X-Men), Greg Kinnear (Autofocus), Amber Heard, Ezra Miller, Fiona Dourif, J.K. Simmons, Heather Graham (Boogie Nights), Bryan Cranston and others. There’s also two key cameos. Stephen King occupies his apocalyptic world. Mick Garris visits the remake of his miniseries.
When The Stand originally showed up, many viewers questioned why humanity would split up into two camps instead of focusing on how to survive. By the time the new version of The Stand showed up, we knew that it was possible for two camps to form very quickly in the midst of a pandemic. The Stand is extremely timely viewing after all these decades.
The video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer shows you the decay of humanity so clearly. The audio is 5.1 DTS-HD MA. You’ll hear the gasps, bullets and rats clearly. There’s also dub tracks in German, Spanish, French and Italian. The series is subtitled in English and 13 other languages.
An Apocalyptic Epic: Adapting The Stand (19:40) gives us a behind the scenes look at the production. Whoopi Goldberg talks about how she enjoyed the book when it first came out. Cast and Crew give their feeling on the work and how it’s still contemporary.
Gag Reel (3:40) shows what happens when simple things fail like the paper ripping or vultures not wanting to fly away. There’s a lot of botched lines. Luckily there’s second takes in the apocalypse.
CBS Blu-Ray presents The Stand. Directed by Josh Boone and others. Screenplays by Stephen King, Owen King and others. Starring Whoopi Goldberg, James Marsden, Alexander Skarsgard, Heather Graham and Stephen King. Boxset Contents: 9 Episodes on 3 Blu-ray Discs. Release Date: October 5, 2021.
