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[Ape Gone Insane]

Synopsis

High school teacher Jake Epping travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy - but his mission is threatened by Lee Harvey Oswald, falling in love, and the past itself, which doesn't want to be changed.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXUx__qQGew

Early Reviews
Metacritic - 67
Rotten Tomatoes - 76%

Washington Post

King’s work doesn’t always happily travel through the portal connecting the page to the TV screen, but Hulu scores with an impressively stout-hearted, eight-part adaptation of “11/22/63” that begins streaming weekly episodes on Monday. It’s a fun and easily absorbing thriller wrapped inside a cautionary tale about indulging in nostalgia — and best of all, it has a definite and emotionally satisfying conclusion.

NY Times

Making an attention-getting opening installment is the easy part. Once the gimmick is established, though, “11.22.63” slows down as it becomes less a science-fiction story and more a period drama.

...

Many pieces of the book have been omitted here, including some of its more rewarding threads, and as the pace slows in the middle of the series, fans of the novel might wish different choices had been made. But things quicken again by Part 6 as the rendezvous with history nears and the question of what happens if you alter the past is put to the test. And the finale is beautifully done and beautifully carried by Mr. Franco, thought-provoking and heartbreaking at once.

Wall Street Journal

But there is much here that has undeniable appeal, most of it having to do with the impressive period detail of the early ’60s. Jake Epping (a charming James Franco) is told to get himself to the Texas of that period and to look as though he belongs. Not only must he be clean-shaven, he has to wear a hat, as all men did in that time. The ’60s atmosphere in Dallas—filmed there and in Vancouver—and the TV clips of the nightly news are engaging if short-lived. But we’re soon drawn into labyrinthine plots targeting the president, or hints thereof, and into meetings with Oswald ( Daniel Webber). It also falls to Jake, as he lurches about in his time travels, to deal with ancillary plots of the darkest kind. Early in the series, Jake impatiently tells Al Templeton (the ever-welcome Chris Cooper), who first directs him to this mission, “Just because you wasted your life on this doesn’t mean I have to.”

A comment a lot of people would like to direct at our legions of tireless Kennedy assassination buffs, reporting on the latest find. That said, there are enough mysteries here to sustain interest in this saga—and, if nothing else, there are those persuasive portraits of Dallas, early ’60s.

Hollywood Reporter

Even in its slower moments, 11.22.63 demands attention because King has crafted a story you want to watch unfold, with the question of whether the trip back is worth the cost always at the forefront, providing the stakes. And even though it has clicked with previous efforts, Hulu proves here that it can wrangle the likes of King, Abrams and Franco to produce content and is therefore to be taken seriously as yet another important player in the scripted TV game.

Time

Eight episodes, here, is too many; the series goes down several blind alleys before it gets to Dealey Plaza. But its best moments thrum with tension, as when the past rebels against our hero, trying to repel him. You probably shouldn’t try to go back to the past. But whether it comes to changing history or reviving a genre, it’s too tempting not to try.

Entertainment Weekly

Time itself tries to thwart Jake’s quest with its own assassination attempts—a random fire here, a runaway car there. Jake’s odyssey is all side missions and epic prep, most of it made interesting by well-played supporting characters, including Josh Duhamel (Battle Creek) as Jake’s first target, Canadian actress Sarah Gadon as Jake’s love interest, and Cherry Jones (Transparent) as Oswald’s mom. Carpenter never makes Jake’s motives credible (like: Why is he so certain saving JFK will make everything better?), but the weakest link is Franco’s often low-watt, seemingly disinterested performance. 11.22.63 reaches some thoughtful, moving conclusions, but oh, what coulda been with a more engaged star. If only there were a time machine to fix that mistake. C+

 

[chefbags]

I'm all in.

 

[Ape Gone Insane]

Lukewarm reviews though, which puts a slight downer on things.

 

[Battersea Power Station]

They're doing weekly episodes...?

 

[RPGamer92]

I could see it being hard to adapt some of the middle part of the book into interesting TV.

 

[Nipo]

I love this book so much for anyone who hasn't read it try to go in as spoiler free as possible.

I only wish two things:

1) that it was being released all at once ala netflix.
2) that it wasn't starring stupid James Franco.

 

[Bowlie]

Whoa! I loved this book soooo much when I read it.

Let's see if his (just a quote)

Spoiler

"the past is obdurate"

will give me the chills too.

 

[oatmeal]

The fuck, Hulu is doing weekly?

 

[GavinUK86]

Don't like James Franco but hopefully it turns out good. The book was pretty interesting.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

The fuck, Hulu is doing weekly?

I believe Hulu does this with the majority of their original shows. I know Casual, Difficult People, and the newest season of The Mindy Project were all weekly.

Loved the book, so I'm definitely down for this.

 

[Einchy]

Been looking forward to this, the trailer looked great.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Will check this out if impressions are good at the end of the season.

 

[osake]

I'm really looking forward to this. The audiobook lasted me over a month - I'd listen before bed, fall asleep and only remember an hour or so each night. Craig Wasson was a great narrator.

 

[AgentChris]

The fuck, Hulu is doing weekly?

booo!

 

[exmachina64]

Will check this out if impressions are good at the end of the season.

This, not really going to devote time to watching this weekly.

 

[BewareTheBatsie]

If "this is for the broom" isn't an actual line, I'm gonna flip.

 

[TheOddOne]

- A|V Club review: James Franco tries to save JFK in a flawed-but-worthy Stephen King adaptation.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Really dug the first episode. It didn't feel rushed at all, I kinda expected to walk away thinking it was over too soon, but to my surprise "The Rabbit Hole" is over 1 hour and 20 minutes long. So it gets to the meat and potatoes of the story with plenty of time to spare.

I've watched a lot of King adaptations over the years, and I think they're going to do the book justice here. There was a period in the 90s where some of his books got shafted with cheap productions. This doesn't feel like that at all. I hope that being 8 episodes long, they don't have to rush things.

Edit: I will say that unless I'm misremembering the book, they reordered or removed some events. Hard to say without seeing the next episodes, but it didn't really bother me much. I liked the pacing of the first episode.

 

[Jb]

It seems like the series has the same lull in the middle that the book did, which is fine honestly if they stick the landing.

 

[Chucker]

Watched the first 5 minutes last night because it was suggested after watching Agent Carter.
Found the connector that Abrams always uses.
http://imgur.com/gallery/z76sn

 

[Jag]

Is this subscription only, like Netflix?

 

[asa]

Looks interesting but Hulu doesn't even work here, what are the changes it comes to HBO or Netflix at some point?

 

[Mitch]

Recently read the book. I had seen the preview for this and the premise was pretty interesting, so I decided to pick it up. Ended up getting hooked. Looking forward to watching it.

 

[Chucker]

Looks interesting but Hulu doesn't even work here, what are the changes it comes to HBO or Netflix at some point?

It'll never go to a competing service, so Hulu is out. HBO is doubtful. You may have to wait for a physical release, if they decide to do so.

 

[GavinUK86]

It was pretty good, better than I thought it would be. James Franco is... actually alright. The audio is terrible but I'm not sure if me or Hulu. Really deep and hollow sounding. What's it like for everyone else?

 

[Apathy]

Gotta watch this. They filmed the school scenes right next to my house. Sadly that school us now demolished. There were so many production trucks out there and so many teamsters

 

[x-Lundz-x]

Lukewarm reviews though, which puts a slight downer on things.

Considering how awesome the book was yeah, but I still pumped.

 

[Jb]

It was pretty good, better than I thought it would be. James Franco is... actually alright. The audio is terrible but I'm not sure if me or Hulu. Really deep and hollow sounding. What's it like for everyone else?

The audio was fine for me.

The first episode felt oddly rushed. It made sense when they were trying to convey the idea of the past fighting back, but it also meant that some scenes that should have had more impact were over before you really got to feel emotionally involved. The direction was pretty uneven too, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. For a moment I thought they were going to skip the entire

Spoiler

Harry segment of the book

, it's sort of weird to have Jake go to

Spoiler

Dallas and then backtrack to Kentucky.

 

[ryseing]

Considering how awesome the book was yeah, but I still pumped.

I wonder what was cut.

 

[Karish]

One of my favorite books ever

 

[JeTmAn81]

It's up! I really enjoyed the book so I've been looking forward to this. Looks like they're going with an R rating, quite a few f-bombs already.

 

[jwk94]

Loving it so far. I'm surprised episode 1 is movie-length. Are the rest going to be like this too?

 

[Jonm1010]

Man, both of my anticipated dramas starting this week getting luke warm receptions: Vinyl and this.

Sucks.

 

[Macadinho94]

Loved it. As echoed above, does anyone know the episode length after the first episode. Not that I'm complaining with it being 80 minutes.

 

[firehawk12]

All those lukewarm reviews.

 

[strafer]

I love how accepting he his about there being a portal and shit in the closet

That goes to show how easier it is just to show than to tell.

 

[TVexperto]

Fantastic pilot, loved it much more than I expected, also james plays this role pretty good.
I also like the soundtrack and how it looks and feels more like a movie than a tv show.

 

[TheKeyPit]

I love time-travel stuff, so I really enjoyed the pilot. How should I watch the whole thing after all episodes are done? Hulu's not available here in germany.

 

[Ape Gone Insane]

Pretty good first episode. Getting my Life on Mars fix all over again.

 

[strafer]

They should do one were they try to prevent 9/11.

I thought Franco was going to say that at one point during the diner scene; why don't you have me try to prevent 9/11 while you're at it.

 

[Chris R]

They're doing weekly episodes...?

This just means I subscribe to Hulu for one month when all episodes are released instead of today

 

[M3z_]

 

[oatmeal]

Is it already up or do we have to wait for a time like a network show?

Hulu: You're doing it wrong.

(EDIT)
A scroll up reveals it is indeed up.

 

[Nipo]

This feels like they needed a full 13 episodes. Everything is so rushed. Did they cut "the past is obdurate" line?

 

[Miker]

I finished the book a few weeks back, and just finished the first episode earlier tonight. I found it to be very oddly paced, with no real logic to Jake's actions and travels. That's not to say that it wasn't intriguing or fun to watch, but it was all over the place as an introduction. There's about half an hour in there that wasn't in the book at all, and I have no idea why. I suppose we're just one episode in, and maybe down the line I'll see the reasoning behind their changes.

This just means I subscribe to Hulu for one month when all episodes are released instead of today

Hulu only offers week long trials as far as I can tell.

 

[HeisenbergLannister]

Maybe it's the same way in the book, but it kinda annoys me that he sees that the past pushes back and it has ended up in death, yet he still wants to help change things with the old guy's father on Halloween 1960.

 

[msv]

So, I like it, it's nice. But I'm having trouble with the premise. There are so many things you can do that would have a lot more / better impact than just saving JFK. If you are going to change the timeline, then you might as well consider your options, but they really didn't. It wasn't discussed why saving JFK was the best option.

Why not just disperse some 21st century tech around to the world, including wikipedia and just all the data you can fit, so you can speed up tech advancements insanely. Surely that would have a much greater impact.

There are other nonsensical things that he does as well, like throw away his phone (eh, how about you just go out the closet and leave it at home since you were just there for a day, or better yet, keep it! it just saved you from getting mugged/killed!).

And doing a silly bet like that, why not a lottery and have plenty of money instead? He's getting more and more people killed as well, but apparently changing the timeline is more important than that?

It was also kind of weird how this dude who owns a diner and a timetravelcloset is suddenly the foremost expert on what to change in the timeline. He seemed more like a conspiracy nut who suddenly had the power to find out the truth, rather than someone who actually had a well thought out idea to change the timeline for the better.

So when the main character accepted the JFK angle so easily it broke my suspension of disbelief.

 

[Miker]

So, I like it, it's nice. But I'm having trouble with the premise. There are so many things you can do that would have a lot more / better impact than just saving JFK. If you are going to change the timeline, then you might as well consider your options, but they really didn't. It wasn't discussed why saving JFK was the best option.

Why not just disperse some 21st century tech around to the world, including wikipedia and just all the data you can fit, so you can speed up tech advancements insanely. Surely that would have a much greater impact.

There are other nonsensical things that he does as well, like throw away his phone (eh, how about you just go out the closet and leave it at home since you were just there for a day, or better yet, keep it! it just saved you from getting mugged/killed!).

And doing a silly bet like that, why not a lottery and have plenty of money instead? He's getting more and more people killed as well, but apparently changing the timeline is more important than that?

It was also kind of weird how this dude who owns a diner and a timetravelcloset is suddenly the foremost expert on what to change in the timeline. He seemed more like a conspiracy nut who suddenly had the power to find out the truth, rather than someone who actually had a well thought out idea to change the timeline for the better.

So when the main character accepted the JFK angle so easily it broke my suspension of disbelief.

It's kinda glossed over in the book as well. Al realizes the rabbit hole goes down to 1959 (changed to 1960 in the show), and picks the JFK assassination as the one watershed moment that he can realistically stay around for and change. His speech on the potential upsides of Kennedy living is also a bit longer in the book, and you can really tell that he's convinced himself that it'll be for the better. Jake, in both the book and the TV series, goes just along with it. It's definitely one of the weaker links in the story.

 

[Futurematic]

As a fan of alternate history the first episode is pretty darn great, ASB portal and all.

The book has me worried if they follow too closely however, please Hollywood change it like you do for so much else

 

[The Interrobanger]

How many episodes will there be in total?

This was filmed largely in my neighborhood so it's cool to see how they used a bunch of locations.

The telephone booth/car crash location with the bridge in the background is literally minutes from my house. And since they filmed there, one of the houses in the background has burned down and a dude was murdered a block away.

EDIT: hahaha, here's the actual film crew setting up for the shoot, caught on google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/d9SY1HxVhQm