Although 2013’s three-season Stephen King adaptation was enjoyable enough in its own right, the CBS show was frustratingly close to perfection. While Twin Peaks was ultimately derailed by the revelation of Laura Palmer’s killer, the show had already made its mark on TV history by the time the small town murder mystery went off the rails. Thus, the legacy of Mark Frost and David Lynch’s iconic ABC series was already secure.
In much the same way, even a critically disliked two-season revival and a middling movie spinoff could not tarnish the reputation of The X-Files. The show earned so much widespread acclaim in its early seasons that the gradual critical decline of The X-Files didn’t ultimately matter, since the Fox sci-fi cop show was already considered a classic long before its last few disappointing seasons. This explains all the excitement surrounding Hulu’s upcoming The X-Files reboot.
Sadly, there are some shows that don’t quite manage to make TV history or win over critics completely before their stories fall apart. One such series is the highly hyped Stephen King show Under the Dome, a 2013 series based on the legendary author’s book of the same name from 2009. While Under the Dome isn’t as famous as King’s debut novel Carrie, The Shining, It, or Salem’s Lot, the book was both a bestseller and a critical hit among reviewers.
Under the Dome Was Almost The New Lost (But Eventually Became Too Similar To Lost)
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Credit: Everett Collection</figure>
In much the same way, the TV series based on King’s novel was initially a big hit. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Under the Dome tells the story of the small town of Chester’s Mill, whose residents are sent into terror and disarray when they wake up one morning to find the titular see-through, indestructible dome encasing their entire hometown.
This wild high-concept premise allows King to explore all the community’s residents in a story that shifts from one viewpoint to another, mixing high-stakes sci-fi action with small-town soap opera drama. As Mike Vogel’s military veteran Barbie and his love interest, Rachelle Lefevre’s local reporter Julia, try to unearth the origins of the dome, some other locals try to find an escape route or a way to destroy the dome completely.
Thus, the stage is set for a show that mixes King’s love of small-town horror like Carrie with the bigger scope of action-forward stories like Cell and The Stand. With an astounding ensemble cast that includes Breaking Bad‘s Dean Norris, CSI: NY‘s Eddie Cahill, and Tomorrowland‘s Britt Robertson, Under the Dome season 1 was propulsive, twisty, and thoroughly unpredictable, with every episode’s answers just prompting further, more urgent questions.
Under the Dome’s Struggles Were Mirrored By Many Other Sci-Fi Shows Following In Its Wake
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Image courtesy of Everett Collection</figure>
Of course, this isn’t always a good thing, and no show can last forever without eventually providing viewers with some clarity. The critical consensus agreed that somewhere between seasons 2 and 3, Under the Dome lost its grip on the show’s original appeal, and its constant twists started to feel less like shocking revelations and more like lazy obfuscations.
Perhaps because the cultural memory of Lost‘s divisive series finale was so fresh in the minds of the public back in 2013, Under the Dome never won the same level of mainstream hype as that earlier series. Similarly, in the years that followed, highly hyped critical hits like HBO’s Westworld reboot would be accused of following the same pattern, starting out strong and smart before getting too confused for their own good.
In the decade since Under the Dome ended, sci-fi TV has only gotten more complex and ambitious in its storytelling. However, it is tough to tell whether CBS’s Stephen King adaptation was really held back by the requirements of traditional network TV, or if, when push came to shove, Under the Dome never really knew where its story was going after all.
Under the Dome
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