Under The Dome Review

• 19th Nov 2013

(Warning contains Breaking Bad spoilers…)

The only saving grace of this tedious, uninspiring series is that Hank is alive and well! The bad news is that life without Marie has made Hank a mean old man with a moral compass that is basically f*cked.

The town of Chesters Mill used to be normal (this is the narration over every single episode; it is inane)…until a giant dome lands and cuts them off from everyone. Is it aliens? Is it the government? Who knows. Frankly, having spent a lot of time with the characters I’m beginning to think it’s all of the neighbouring towns who’ve just had enough.

With the Dome trapping all of the residents, there’s the inevitable looting, speakeasies, gambling and general small town lunacy. Dean Norris plays Big Jim Rennie, a man with dubious parenting techniques. His son is a disturbed young man whose Mother died in mysterious circumstances (you won’t care why). This explains why he steals girls at every given opportunity and episode one has him trapping his girlfriend in a bunker as soon as the Dome comes down – a forward thinking young man. Despite my initial wave of sympathy, his young lady friend is such an over the top screamer that it’s exhausting watching her. There’s a lot of emphasis on the teens in this show and its clear that they are meant to save the day – which is galling most of the time.

A smattering of other characters including our eponymous hero Barbie ( I have no explanations…) lend no weight to this piece of science fantasy fluff. I hear that half way through series one, the powers that be decided on a series two – even though it was always intended as one off drama series. This explains the half-arsed ending.

One to avoid at all costs although the appearance of the painting that Junior’s crazy Mother painted are worth a laugh at least.

Maliha Basak