SquidFlicks

Category: TV Series

  • SquidFlick’s Into The Dome: Under The Dome – “The Fire” Review

    intoOur newest feature here at SquidFlicks is our “Into The Dome” line of entries. Each week we will debut a review of that week’s episode of the new CBS series “Under The Dome.”  I’m going into this without reading the novel, or any cliff notes of it in any form. Spoilers ahead!

    So we pick up with a frantic Linda receiving the back up that she had called for at the conclusion of last weeks episode. Duke, the town’s Sheriff, is dead after touching the dome and it destroyed (or exploded rather) his pacemaker. Linda frantically tries to keep order and tells the other cops to do their duty.

    We see a flashback to a prior day when Barbie was beating up Julia’s husband, saying that his boss wants his money. From this we can assume that Barbie, or Dale Barbara as we learn is his full name, was either a hired man to retain this money or does this for a living. Junior continues to torment and hold Angie hostage until she loves him like she used to. After she tries to escape he chains her ankle to the bed. He tells her how he knows all about Barbie and her. She tells him that he is right and that her and him hooked up. This obviously light s fire under Junior, who then goes after Barbie. After confronting him Barbie, and attempting to fight him, Barbie isn’t afraid to unload a few punches and promises that next time he won’t stop.

    The bigger plot line of this episode was that Duke left Linda everything including his house. Big Jim, who reveals that the local town Reverend is also in on this propane scandal, tries to find the evidence that Duke had against them. The Rev is able to take Duke’s keys (or Linda’s keys with Duke’s attached) and sneak into his house to try to find this evidence. After finding and burning it, he throws the burning papers into a PLASTIC bin and watches as the house quickly becomes inflamed.

    So we have a fire that’s filling a dome with toxic smoke and a town with no fire department (as they were at a nearby town’s parade). Barbie, possibly showing his military background quickly coordinates people to get their buckets, hoses, anything they can to try and keep this fire contained. Load and behold Big Jim comes riding a bulldozer to demolish the house and extinguish the fire. Linda, who saved the trapped Rev from Duke’s house, is starting to not buy into all of the talk that Big Jim is saying.

    This episode really started to have people turn on one another, and showed those basic human instincts get the better of some of them. As this season continues I expect more of this type of occurrence and more radical changes in the governing system.

  • SquidFlick’s Into The Dome: Under The Dome – “Pilot” Review

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    Our newest feature here at SquidFlicks is our “Into The Dome” line of entries. Each week we will debut a review of that week’s episode of the new CBS series “Under The Dome.”  I’m going into this without reading the novel, or any cliff notes of it in any form. Spoilers ahead!

    Based off of horror author Stephen King’s book, Under The Dome is a true look into the human soul, where the only enemy lays within all of us. Going into the pilot tonight I know only the basic plot of the show/book. The town of Chester’s Mill falls out of the norm of their simple small town lives and is thrown into national and possibly international spotlight after a huge invisible dome-like structure mysteriously appears over their town.

    We are quickly introduced to the set of key characters into the first five or ten minutes in. Mike Vogel plays a man, who from the first second of the show is up to no good, nicknamed “Barbie.” He seems quickly shows us he does have a heart despite shooting some poor chap in his and dumping his body in a perfectly dug hole.

    The town locals will drive this show. We meet “Big Jim” (Dean Norris), who is a crooked politician and seems to be willing to leverage anything he can against anyone to get what he wants. A character I dug from the get go was “Duke,” the town’s sheriff. I hope he lives to get another pacemaker, I felt like the balance of the good vs. evil between him and “Big Jim” was instrumental in setting up a deeper plot line going forward and hope it gets that way.

    Local newspaper investigator Julia is quickly into everyone’s hair, including Barbies. It seems that our solid love interest could be developing here. Julia invites Barbie to stay the night at her and her husband’s house. It seems that Julia’s hubby is having an affair, but wait! When we see a photo of her and her husband, we find out that HE is the one who Barbie was dumping off in the beginning. The plot thickens!

    Now let’s move on to one of the more unique characters on the show. That’s Junior, who turns out to be Big Jim’s son. This guy is INSANE! Not only is he considering cutting himself because this girl he “loves” doesn’t say it back and he throws a hissy fit. He obviously has some issues: scouting this girl out, threatening Barbie because he was talking to her, kidnapping her, and locking her in his father oh so convenient underground bomb shelter in their backyard. He is clearly a character who does not provide either good or bad in the show. I feel he will provide that one aspect that is rarely seen and thats the nasty, cruel demons that lie within the sickest of humans. Time will tell.

    All in all i feel like this was great pilot. We got a feel for the show, it’s characters, how the interact and will mesh or not mesh in the coming episodes. I definitely will be checking into the Dome for Mondays here on out!

    4/5 Reels