Watching the first episode and I have to say this is so different than the book. Not just a little, but way way different. It's like bad time travel. Having a memory of the way it should be but something changed and now it's all different. This entire scene in Dallas is not in the book at all. And what the hell happened to him going to save the family on Halloween???

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The very end of episode 1 shows him in KY, preparing to save the janitor's family. I think that will be a central theme in episode 2. Perhaps a little out of order, but it's coming I think.

Ya. Saw that. But where did that whole Dallas scene come from? And then when he ran into Sade??

What network is it on?

Hulu

I did a Hulu free trial just for this. Liked the first episode. I guess I will have to hold on to Hulu for a bit.

TU!

One of my favorite books.

As I just finished the book (loved it) last week, I definitely agree it's much different so far.

In the book his name is George, not James. He travels back to 1958, not 1960. He initially goes to try to save Harry's family, which is another town in Maine, not Kentucky. He only partially succeeds, so he returns to 2011 then goes back again. He then moves to Florida for a while before ever setting foot in Dallas. In the show, he went directly to Dallas, never saw Florida (so far, at least), and didn't go to try to save Harry's family until the end. I agree this will likely form the plot of episode 2. He also never met Sadie in Dallas, like he did in the show, only meeting her after working for a while as a teacher in a small town outside of Dallas. Also, the entire scene where he followed George to a JFK rally never happened at all in the book.

It's alot of changes right away, but I'm willing to be patient. It's a long book, even at 8 episodes they have to cut out some stuff to make it fit. I imagine they changed the order of events (going straight to Dallas rather than to save Harry's family) to keep the viewers attention. It takes several hundred pages in the book to ever get to anything related to Lee Harvey Oswold. TV viewers have a much shorter attention span.

Will the entire series be available at some point on Hulu at one time? What I am asking is, would it be possible to watch all the episodes during the Hulu free trial?

If you wait for all to come out in 8 weeks, if the free trial is still going, you could then watch them all that week.

Feel like I'm getting old, but some of the salty language they had in the first episode felt forced just to make it feel edgier...

Not sure if that's the right word, but it made Chris Cooper's and Franco's acting seem more like they should have been on a SyFy channel miniseries.

I agree that in a lot of shows, the language seems forced.

In all fairness to this show, though, the language seems forced in King's books at times as well, so maybe this is the one area where they decided to stay true to the source material!

Completely agree. They jumped way too fast to the JFK thing. If they had stuck the original story, it would have been more compelling and more heart felt. But I am holding out hope for the second episode. I feel like the first episode was basically just a setup for the rest. Maybe like an extra chapter that foreshadows the rest of the store

Finished ep 2.

I enjoyed the first episode more than this one. Hopefully it picks up some steam.

*I havent read the book.

I do not like how the Yellow Man shows up in different places in the show, but that never happens in the book...... I think only like 25% of the first episodes scenes were anything like what was in the book......

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It's like bad time travel

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I'd love to time travel any way, bad or good.

This is seriously starting to piss me off. If you have read the book, you know what I mean. This show is so far from the book that it's almost as if it uses the name and premise and nothing else. About 99% of what happens in the show never happened in the book.

I'm reading the book now, and enjoying it. Just watched episode 2, and was really looking forward to how the whole Dunning thing would be handled in the show.

Wow. Like you said, this had almost nothing to do with book. I almost wished I'd seen the show first, because maybe I would like it. But as it is, it's pretty awful knowing what it could have been.

Oh well, back to the book!

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This is seriously starting to piss me off. If you have read the book, you know what I mean. This show is so far from the book that it's almost as if it uses the name and premise and nothing else. About 99% of what happens in the show never happened in the book.

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One of the most famous Stephen King adaptations of all time completely whiffs on the major points of the book, so you shouldn't be all that surprised.

I realize too I've only really ever seen Franco in 127 hours, and thought he was great in that. But this, he just really seems like he's phoning it in.

I'm enjoying it, but I've never read the book. It's hard to take Franco seriously because he's such a goof ball.

Re-reading the book now, and Derry, Maine is a central portion of the early part of the story. When I read 11.22.63 the first time, it was my first King novel. I've never read or seen It, but there's clearly a tie-in.

I don't think the show is heading this way at all.

I like both. The stories are similar but not exact.

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So basically, book readers hate the show and non-book readers seem to like it

shocking

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It's not that. It's the fact that this is one of my favorite books of all time. And it's not like they are just leaving a few things out ala Lord of the Rings....they are completely rewriting the story and it makes no sense. Over an 8 part mini series, they had more than enough time to follow the book and make it just as amazing. But things like Dallas in the first episode and all this stuff with Dunning in the second episode never happened. They never hung out. Never did any of that. The only time Jake had interaction with Dunning was when he killed him. Otherwise, he always saw him from afar.

I will say this -- reading the book while watching it makes it hard to keep storylines straight.

I think they started with Dallas to pull non-readers in. Given the title of the book, seems necessary perhaps?

I'm enjoying both, just having a hard time keeping which is which straight!

Enjoy the show, will never touch the book.

I have not read the book and am enjoying the show as well.

I can definitely see where people who have not read the book would enjoy the show. I am not knocking the show by any stretch. Just the direction they chose to go with it. I will probably wait now until they are all out and do a binge watch so that I don't sit there think "What the hell is this? This was never in the book"

Agree, and will do the same.

I am ok with the alternative storyline of the show, I realize they need to setup relationships in a way that pays off within a 40 minute show.

I will say, regardless of the book, I think Franco is terrible in this.

The more I watch it, the more I disagree that Franco is bad in this. I went back and read the book, and I realized that Jake really doesn't have much of a personality at all. His character feeds off the personalities of everyone else around him. So in an essence, Franco is perfect.

I have NOT read the book, and was getting into this show over the first 2 episodes, but episode 3 was pretty disappointing. The sidekick kid is incredibly annoying, his acting sucks, and it's very frustrating to watch him attempt to display emotion realistically. And then the teacher babe/Ms. Mimi getting SOOOOO butthurt when Franco had to leave the dance early after he said HE ALREADY HAD A COMMITMENT that night...seriously, what a bunch of guilt-tripping babies. That dance scene was cheesy as hell too.

And then Oswald...is that how Oswald sounded, like a toddler with a speech impediment? Man...I hope the story gets interesting because I'm not invested in any of these characters right now. Bring back American Beauty Confused Gay Dad at least.