Subject: Morning-After Commentary: SK's "Golden Years" From: fi@grebyn.com (Fiona Oceanstar) Date: 1991-07-17, 07:19 Newsgroups: alt.horror,rec.arts.tv,alt.tv.twin-peaks Planned for it, taped it, and watched it--commercials and all. Not bad, but not really fine either, in my opinion. I was annoyed by the pandering to a "Twin Peaks" audience--or maybe it was just TP fandom on the part of the producers--it didn't seem to be the script _per_se_. You know what I'm talking about: diner scene, stuffed horned owl, stuffed weasel, and use of warm-tone colored lighting, to name just a few. I was delighted by Frances Sternhagen, whom I've loved ever since her spunky-scientist role in "Outland." The patented SK character portrayal--comic-book-flat in places, sentimental and believable in others--was well evident, and gives hope that the series will improve, as we get to know these people better (as we always do, in SK stories). The storyline is OK--it has elements from _Tommyknockers_ and the Shop tales, and even some gentle borrowings from "Cocoon," Spielberg, and Dan Simmons' _Hyperion_--which for my money, were not too intrusive. (What other borrowings did I not notice, y'all?) I also liked: the opening shot of the large cylindrical tower, evoking as it did the Standpipe in Bangor/Derry and even the Dark Tower itself; the guy whose hobby is taxidermy (even if he *is* rather like Sheriff Andy Brennan); SK's well-known use of women and blacks in convention-defying roles; Ed Lauter as the head military mugwump (remember him as Joe Camber in "Cujo"?); and the fat major in his tiny office, seen (aptly) from above. Some irksome flaws: too slow, too gushy in places, too repetitive (multiple takes on shower scene in hospital), and too many snide references to "Psycho" (shower scene again, car with corpse going in & out of the water, and comparison of mad scientist to Norman Bates). The medical setting wasn't very plausible: this is a *chronic* failing on SK's part. (He needs a doctor to help him out with his verisimilitude--maybe I should volunteer, hee hee.) And worst of all: *Must* we have more elevated flashing boards, whirring tape drives, and flying sparks a la the old "Star Trek"-- which render scientific scenarios not only unbelievable, but just plain silly? I realize it's supposed to be broad-brush, but sometimes SK's broad brush is more like fingerpainting, if you know what I'm saying. But I should have listed the minuses first, and *then* the pluses, because over all, I did enjoy the show. It's most encouraging that the powers-that-be in TV-land are beginning--in the wake of mini-series and (yes) "Twin Peaks" mania--to make more shows with this format. It gives a long-winded novelist like Stephen King, a lot more room in which to show his stuff. And I'm always game, for Stephen King's stuff. And wasn't it neat, the way they worked in David Bowie's "Golden Years"? --Fiona Oceanstar