11.22.63 - Miniseries

I sort of cringe when mainstream media says that Oswald acted alone. You know, because people are going to believe the Warren Commission then. And we all know what a steaming pile that was. We also all know who killed JFK...Allen Dulles. So, this hurt when I read it and it hurt even more when I watched it on the Hulu machine But I am also a King fan and he likes his build ups and those are always fun. I am disappointed it wasn't longer, I am disappointed some early chapters were cut entirely...but it was still a pleasure to watch. Franco did a great job in a serious role and got to follow him through King's wonderful twisting plot in a period that felt an lot like the era I've only ever studied. A disappointment is that it lacked a lot of the nostalgia for the bygone era that King filled the book with and made you feel, at times, that your father was telling the story to you and doing so without editing out the filth the times. You could see it, but you couldn't feel the fatherly love embedded in the book. All you got was the story itself. But, that story was entertaining and fun to watch.

The show has an interesting time travel premise and is “good“ overall but unfortunately, especially in the second half, it relies a lot on simplistic storytelling, plot conveniences and one-dimensional characters. This reduced my enjoyment over time. For example (no spoilers), two antagonists are characterized by nothing more than “I am a violent psycho” and then unsurprisingly commit violent acts against the main characters with almost no further motivation. The main characters do not involve the police which creates contrived situations that you have seen a hundred times. Almost the same is true for the main antagonist – in the end, we don’t really understand why he does what he does. Another example is that one of the main (good) characters does a 180 in their attitude which feels very contrived and was frustrating for me, because it felt like the writers simply wanted to write them out of the show. With just eight episodes altogether, they could have planned this out and made the switch gradual and realistic. I also wish that they would have done more with the setting in the past. The contrast between the time periods is shown in the beginning and then sparingly sprinkled here and there, but there is neither character development nor any realization grounded on this contrast. The past feels mostly as a theme park. In summary, its good, don’t expect too much, be ready to watch parts on higher speed once you just want to finish it and get to the end – that’s what I did.