The Stand (1994)

The TV mini series of the Stephen King epic novel exploring a world that has had 99% of the population wiped out and this is the story of the survivors as they try to find their way in a world they no longer recognise. This is usually shown in 4 parts and is still very short compared to the scope, scale and detail of the book. I have read the book 3 or 4 times and it is my favourite Stephen King book and is actually one of my favourite books of all time.

This visual representation is actually a very good compared to the book and grabs the major points, I have to say as in all of these cases the book is far and away more involving and I would recommend that everybody reads the book. You follow several characters through a plague that starts like the flu and has a 100% mortality rate however there are a small amount of people who are immune to the virus. You have Stuart Redman played by Gary Sinise, Fran Goldsmith played by Molly Ringwald, Ralph Brenter played by Peter Van Norden, Nick Andros played by Rob Lowe and Larry played by Adam Storke.

There is a large supporting cast that capture the characters as written by Stephen King and as he has a small part in the film I presume he approved of all of the changes and helped to sculpt it for the TV from his original book. As a TV serial of a book I really enjoyed it, I think though that my love of it comes from my love of the book and the fact that it is quite true to the book. I give it 3 stars, I would love to see a 12 part serialisation of this perhaps going in a bit more depth and darkness. If you have read the book worth seeing and if into good old  fashioned post apocalyptic stories.