Spoilers forward for “Carrie” Season 1.
Shared universes are all the craze in movie and TV, whether or not they’re superhero universes, a failed basic monsters universe, or a MonsterVerse filled with kaiju. So, it is sensible that sure studios would wish to try to adapt one of many largest shared universes in literary fiction: the Stephen King multiverse.
After all, Sony beforehand tried to just do that with its “Darkish Tower” film in 2017, and it was an enormous disaster. However now we now have celebrated horror storyteller Mike Flanagan accountable for bringing King’s world to the display screen once more, with Flanagan growing a “Darkish Tower” TV collection that King himself thinks can be “good.” But, forward of that, it appears Flanagan has simply soft-launched a second Stephen King universe on TV with Prime Video’s “Carrie.”
Flanagan’s “Carrie” TV present is an imperfect however attention-grabbing adaptation that adjustments lots from its supply materials. That features shifting King’s authentic story to the current day and exploring the impact of social media and the web on bullying. The present additionally makes the bullies that infamously torment its namesake extra than simply cartoonish villains, and that extends to her historically abusive mom, Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan).
Then there’s the framing system of Carrie White (Summer time H. Howell) awakening her powers within the context of a bigger historical past of girls with psychic skills, with “Carrie” Season 1 ending on a be aware that is still trustworthy to King’s ebook whereas steering into utterly uncharted territory on the similar time. Flanagan has stated his “dream state of affairs” is for this present to run three seasons, so it is attainable he may simply get to discover the higher world of psychics that he is arrange right here — one that would deliver different Stephen King characters into the combo as effectively.
Carrie Season 1 teases a complete world of psychics
All through “Carrie” Season 1, we study there have been numerous girls with extraordinary skills, and nearly each single time, it ends in tragedy. This results in the introduction of Thalia Dudek’s Emaline West, one other lady with psychic powers, and what seems to be a complete group of people who monitor down new psychics and hold them secure from a distinct group that wishes to get rid of them. By the tip of the season, Carrie and Emaline are heading off into the sundown, free and able to make the world what they need, whereas the group of psychics searches for Carrie.
Whereas it is a quite huge departure from Stephen King’s authentic ebook, that is additionally the most effective change that Mike Flanagan makes. Within the short-term, it permits him full freedom to discover an alternate ending to this story and presumably give considered one of Stephen King’s saddest protagonists a contented ever after. However within the long-term, this might permit “Carrie” to pave the best way to Flanagan’s “The Darkish Tower” by opening up King’s multiverse and bringing in different characters with powers.
In spite of everything, there are dozens of characters throughout King’s books who’ve both “The Shine” or another kind of telepathic capability, from Danny Torrance and Dick Hallorann in “The Shining” to Jessie Burlingame from “Gerald’s Recreation” and John Smith from “The Useless Zone.” Flanagan may even flip future seasons of “Carrie” into one thing akin to “Fortress Rock,” a present that pulled from a number of of King’s novels whereas telling an authentic story. And let’s not neglect: King’s “Darkish Tower” books characteristic a storyline the place the villainous Randall Flagg rounds up psychics. Simply saying.
Season 1 of “Carrie” is now streaming on Prime Video.
