Robert Falconer
Kat McNamara did not spend 2020 learning to crochet or baking banana bread over and over and over again. Instead, the 25-year-old actress filmed a horror movie from home, started development on a YA adaptation, appeared at virtual fan conventions, and plotted where her career goes next as she looks to explore what she calls “new avenues of her psyche.”
But the pandemic escapes no one, so we’re meeting over Zoom. “I have tried to make the best of it, being the stubborn optimist I am,” she laughs as we both admit 2020 was not the year either of us planned for.
Photo: Robert Falconer/CBS All Access
Christmas comes early for Stephen King fans this year, as last week marked the premiere of CBS All Access’
The Stand, a new, nine-part adaptation of King’s post-apocalyptic riff on
Lord Of The Rings. There’s an unexpected timeliness to the story’s post-pandemic landscape, in which plague survivors are supernaturally drawn to opposing camps, but don’t go in expecting another
Contagion. As with King’s novel, the CBS limited series is primarily about what happens
after 99.4% of the world’s population is gone. That much is made clear in the premiere, which, in a departure from King’s novel, begins in the wake of what society names Captain Trips.
Mandatory Streamers: Stephen King’s Apocalyptic Vision The Stand Arrives on CBS All Access
Welcome to Mandatory Streamers, our column covering the best new streaming content coming your way every week! For the week of December 14, CBS All Access’ limited series adaptation of Stephen King’s masterful
The Stand is here, which will close out with a new coda written by the author himself. Check out the best shows debuting and returning online this week as well as the latest renewal announcements below, and be sure to visit our mother site Mandatory by clicking here!
CBS All Access
The Stand, Limited Series Premiere: Featuring an all-star cast, the nine-episode series adaptation of Stephen King’s novel from writers Josh Boone (
comments The Stand, Stephen King s epic journey of 1,152 pages, has enthralled millions. This is proven in the fact that back in the day millions of commuters enthusiastically carted around paperback versions of this doorstop around with them on public transportation, on walks and on trips. Read it and you ll get it: once you re well inside of the story, it is hard to put it down and walk away.
The same can t be said of subsequent attempts to bring it to screen, first in 1994 on ABC and again in 2020 on CBS All Access. But then, that s a common feature among TV adaptations of King s work. The best are watchable due to outstanding components as opposed to the work as a whole; HBO s The Outsider comes to mind. Similarly I have no qualms with Hulu s recent adaptation of 11.22.63. The lesser of them are . . . disappointing, if not complete jokes, like ABC s Rose Red.