A new adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand released on CBS All Access in December 2020, and has found a helpful advantage by putting its superflu in the rearview mirror.
The Stand is one of Stephen King’s most lauded pieces of fiction, but its epic size has made it a difficult property to tackle cinematically. The growing number of new streaming services in combination with the Renaissance of Stephen King adaptations that’s been taking place has provided the perfect opportunity for a modern adaptation of The Stand that can do King’s original novel justice. The novel released in the late '70s, and the first miniseries adaptation was done in 1994, so it's high time to revisit the material, and not just because the pandemic feels more realistic than ever.
The Stand revolves around a worldwide superflu that the remaining survivors nickname “Captain Trips.” This virus wipes out much of the world’s population as the survivors form into factions and plan for the future. It’s rather eerie that The Stand’s production and release would coincide with an actual global pandemic that’s claimed many lives. COVID-19 coverage is ever-present in the world, and has subsequently been incorporated into the storylines of what’s supposed to be escapist programming. Fortunately, The Stand’s approach to its material finds an angle that avoids more pandemic exhaustion by focusing on the rest of the book's material—and bigger storyline—instead.
The superflu is undeniably a large part of The Stand’s narrative, and it acts as the catalyst for the entire story. However, it’s at its most dangerous during the beginning of King’s novel when it’s still more of a mystery and culling the population. What’s more important is that Captain Trips decimates the population so this brewing battle between the good and evil communities feels more personal. Josh Boone’s The Stand breezes through the earlier material so that it can get to these new societies more quickly. This new adaptation understands that the superflu, while scary, is really just a means to an end and the prologue for The Stand’s greater showdown between “The Boulder Free Zone” and the supernaturally evil Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgard).
Boone’s Stand adaptation looks to the complex character dynamics of the characters who have to adjust to life in the aftermath of this pandemic and the husk of a world that’s left behind for them. The Stand tells a very classical story of good versus evil as it explores how easily people can become corrupted and turn into dangers that are far worse than any monster. By making these grander themes its priority, the new Stand adaptation also manages to avoid any virus fatigue resulting from the unpredictable state of the world toward the end of 2020. This new series doesn’t erase the superflu’s importance and it’s definitely the focus of the premiere, but it wisely understands that there's more fulfilling territory to explore from the novel.
This shift also forces The Stand to create new scares from out of other elements of the story and not rely on the horror that comes from a viral outbreak. CBS All Access’ The Stand continues to dig deeper into its characters and explore how humanity gets divided into two extremes with a very malevolent force who tries to take advantage of this chaos, and that's a more palatable story in the long run.
