Based on a Stephen King novel (which I haven't read), Under the Dome is set in the present
day and concerns events inside a small American town that is suddenly and
mysteriously sealed off from the world by an invisible dome-shaped force field
several miles across. Cue some dramatic crashes and slicings-in-half as the
dome arrives.
The focus in the early episodes (I've seen the first three
so far) is entirely on the impact of this event on the townspeople and visitors
who are caught there, with all sorts of personal stories and devious schemes
being gradually revealed and people showing their true colours under the stress
of the situation. We are not shown anything about what's going on outside the
dome (except for the sight of biohazard-suited people performing tests on it)
nor is there any hint as to how or why it might have appeared. Bizarrely, there
is no attempt by those outside the dome to establish communications with those
within, which if anything like this happened in reality would be a first
priority. While radio waves don't reliably penetrate the dome, it would be
simple and obvious to erect message boards on both sides.
Also, apart from one brief mention, no-one has so far
expressed any concern about what would rapidly become the priorities as a result
of the shut-down of mains electric power. First there is the piped water
supply. If the source were outside the dome, it would be cut off immediately.
If inside, the towers providing water pressure would soon run dry as they need
electric pumps to keep them filled. Then there's the availability of food. Shops
normally keep only a few days supply of food (rather less for perishables) and
much of that will be frozen or refrigerated, as will be the food in people's
homes. With no power, except for a few places with their own generators, that will
quickly spoil, so only dried and tinned food will be available, plus whatever
happens to be growing – and ripe – in fields and gardens. While there seems to
be plenty of farmland and a lot of cows within the dome, it takes months to
raise crops, and people might get tired of nothing but beef to eat. And
incidentally, when the generators run out of fuel, how will they be refuelled?
Without power, the gas stations won't be able to operate. You could probably
get around that issue by moving one of the generators to a gas station, but
nothing like this has even been mentioned. In fact, the main problem with the
loss of power identified so far is that teenagers can't recharge their phones
and media players (without which, of course, their world comes to an end), and
the only response to potential shortages has been someone bulk-buying
cigarettes.
As a result of this peculiar omission of such obvious practical
issues, so far it's just a routine "disparate group of people trapped in
isolation" story, with the mysterious dome being merely an excuse for
this. There's no evidence in the first few episodes of anything that we haven't
seen before, but it's just about interesting enough for me to persevere with for
the time being, in the hope that it improves.
Fringe continues
to impress (I'm now in Season 3) with Anna Torv playing Agent Olivia Dunham
(actually two of them, in parallel worlds) still very much the highlight of the
series. The way she shifts body language and expressions depending on which Liv
she's playing is fascinating; the uncertainty and vulnerability of the
"original" Liv, the result of experiments she was subjected to as a
child, being replaced by the bold swagger of the confident "alternate
Liv" who did not experience that. The progress of the plot threads is
somewhat erratic, with some episodes focusing on carrying forwards the
intriguing parallel worlds mystery while others take a time-out for more or
less unrelated X-Files type weird events. I am becoming a bit irritated with
the increasingly overt product placement, though. I don't mind the characters
driving around in cars provided by a sponsor, but it's too much when they start
commenting on them too.
I am impatientily awaiting the arrival on DVD in the UK of
the third season of Game of Thrones
(due February) and the second season of Continuum
(due who knows when?).
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