"Under the Dome" Season 1 Review

            Steven King released a book called Under the Dome in 2009, and now in 2013, it gets a “mini-series” put right in the middle of the summer. For some strange reason, though, the “mini-series” is getting a second season. Weird things are going on… Are we under a dome?

            

How was the acting?

            Under the Dome stars Mike Vogel, Rachelle Lefevre, Natalie Martinez, Britt Robertson, Alexander Koch, Colin Ford, Dean Norris, and Mackenzie Lintz. First, I’ll name the actors that didn’t do well. Alexander Koch did the best, and I thought he was Junior (his character) and he played a somewhat believable crazy guy. The idea is that the viewers are supposed to hate him, though, and I did not at all. Mike Vogel does an alright performance as Barbie, but he seemed to say every line the same way. Dean Norris also did an alright performance except for the fact that he almost always had the same look on his face and said every line the same way. Rachelle Lefevre did seem to overact, and I did see Rachelle Lefevre instead of Julia Shumway (her character) when she was on screen, but she gave a more or less believe performance and she didn’t terribly. Natalie Martinez, Britt Robertson, Colin Ford, and Mackenzie Lintz did do terribly, though. Britt Robertson probably does the best out of them, but she was still bad. It was easy to tell that she was acting, and she didn’t speak lines correctly in order to be acting well, and every other actor that did badly were worse with it. They all had the same on their face all the time, and all of them except Natalie Martinez spoke the same way every time. The reason I thought Martinez was worse than Robertson, though, was that she gave an awful performance and was not believable at all. Colin Ford did the worst, and his acting was hilarious. It was so had that it was funny. Mackenzie Lintz also did pretty terrible, but she is not as bad as Colin Ford. Under the Dome: Season 1 has bad acting.

            How was the writing?

            The acting for this show was a letdown, but good thing that the writing saves the show by also being bad and evening out the level of stupidity. There are countless obvious lines of dialogue where we can see what’s happening right there. The screenplay has the have the characters say it just to have lines of dialogue because they can’t think of anything else. “There is the mini-dome.” “There is a caterpillar inside the mini-dome.” Those things were really said in the show. They also wrote people reactions to just stare at something while it is happening. There was an incredibly lazy screenplay for this show that writes the events pretty badly. Though, there were good lines of dialogue and for most of the time the dialogue was not terrible and I didn’t have a vast amount of flaws with it. Some of the events and character’s reactions to the events were written well, but some were still written badly. Some of characters’ actions reflected on the characters’ mood and personality, but many did not. The writing had good and bad parts, but it was still not the best.

            Did it have an interesting premise/good story and good characters?

            I did think the premise for Under the Dome was interesting, and the story was not bad, but the way it was executed really bothered me, because every episode had some really big thing happen to help keep the audience’s attention and to keep the show entertaining. That made no episode special, and no episode bigger than another. I would have done a review of the finale, too, but the finale was just like every other episode. I also didn’t like the events: most of them had very predictable outcomes. There would be one every now and them where I predicted falsely or couldn’t predict it, though. That is basically the only compliment I can give to the story. I can say, though, that it did keep my attention and I liked one or two of the events, with the rest of them being ridiculous. Now I’ll touch up on the characters. I didn’t care about them at all. They weren’t believable, most of them weren’t likeable. The city can just explode and I would not care. I would actually think it would be pretty awesome. Though, there was very, very few times where I would think “You know, it would kind of suck of he or she died”. Overall, this show does have an interesting premise, but it has a bad story and really bad characters.

            Was it entertaining or boring?

            Under the Dome did hold momentum throughout the first season, and it kept me entertained, but not interesting and intrigued. There were some times throughout the season when I really wanted the show to move on and was bored by it, but I actually somewhat enjoyed the show through most of the season. There were several times where I was fully enjoying it, and a few times when I was really enjoying it. Almost the whole season was entertaining. It was because of major plot events happening every episode, but I already covered that when asked it had a good story. Here I’ll just say that most of the season was entertaining, and there were several times when I was enjoying it.

            What things in particular did I like about it (that I haven’t already said)?

            Some of the CGI was good, and some of the shots in the season were good. And I didn’t think the directing was bad.

            What things in particular did I dislike about it (that I haven’t already said)?

            Most of the CGI was bad, and almost anyone could tell that it was fake. Some of the shots were bad, and some of the action sequences used “shaky cam”. Also, one of the biggest flaws with the season is that the musical score is terrible. On the smallest lines and almost at random times incredibly loud music would play, nearly drowning out the dialogue. The score was completely overdramatic and completely overused.

            How was it overall?

            Under the Dome: Season 1 had a good actor and some alright actors, I did not have a huge problem with the dialogue, some things were written well, it had an interesting premise and alright characters, had some events I liked, almost all of it was entertaining, several parts in the season were enjoyable, there were some times when it was really enjoyable, it had some good CGI and some good shots, but the overall acting was bad, the overall writing was not very good, it had a poorly executed story, unrealistic characters that you did not care about, mostly bad events, some scenes that were boring, most uses of CGI were bad, it had instances of shaky cam, and it had a terrible, overused and overdramatic musical score. Under the Dome: Season 1 was a mediocre, slightly bad, overrated show.

            Did I recommend this film {season}?

            No, I do not recommend watching this season, because it is overrated, and actually a mediocre show. If you are looking for a show you can just sit back and have nearly mindless entertainment, then this show is for you. If you need for substance to enjoy something, though, this show is not for you and if you watch it, you will probably enjoy it as much as I do

            What is this film’s {season’s} rating?

            It was hard to come up with the rating for this season on my rating scale. For me, it was between “Don’t Watch This If You’re Looking For A Good Movie {Show}” and “Good If You Don’t Watch It Seriously”.
I will say that Under the Dome: Season 1 is at the abyss of the rating on my scale “Good If You Don’t Watch It Seriously”.
On the grading rating scale, I give it a C.
I lastly give Under the Dome: Season 1 a 5.4/10.