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Director Josh Boone faced immense pressure in visualizing King's beloved thousand-page saga of humanity's battle between good and evil in the aftermath of the apocalypse.
Over the course of nine hours in an equal number of episodes, Boone judiciously balanced intimate character portraits with epic stakes, giving room for star-making gems like Whoopi Goldberg and Alexander Skarsgård to shine.
Despite the televisual limitations, Ben Cavell's scripts deftly distill King's essence: the dystopian despair and hope of the scattered American survivors, and the dark spiritual forces at play.
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Cavin Cash's photography vividly depicted the growing ruin, while Miguel Sapochnik's flashback direction oozed atmosphere. Production values shone.
Despite its flaws (pacing problems, underdeveloped subplots), overall Boone captured the core: a chilling parable about fate, faith, and humanity's capacity for darkness or salvation in troubled times.
Fans debated the cuts, but for newbies it served well as an accessible gateway. A laudable effort to do justice to King's epic on television. Boone asserts himself as a visionary adapter of ambitious genre material.
It was acclaimed for its scale and for visualizing King's complex work, but did not receive major awards recognition, unfortunately.
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However, star Whoopi Goldberg earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for her wonderful role as mother Abigail.
Commercially it did very well for CBS All Access, garnering new subscribers to the streaming service.
Nielsen recorded over 4 million viewers for the 9 episodes, one of the most watched limited series of the moment.