Line #15 YMMV/UnderTheDome


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3	[[AC:Both series and book]]
4	* FanNickname: The ''Television Without Pity'' forums tend to refer to Junior as "[[IdenticalStranger Evil]] Creator/AndySamberg".
5	* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: A common criticism against the book and series is that Creator/StephenKing merely ripped off ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' when Stephen King claims to have never even seen the movie and was only informed of the fact by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aSYaVo_Fpo his sister-in-law after he finished writing it]]. In actuality, [[OlderThanTheyThink stories about domed cities have been told for decades]] and Stephen King had originally come up with the idea in 1976. If those people leveling the accusation had bothered to actually read the book, they'd realize that it really isn't anything like the film anyway.
6	** ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' even referenced these criticisms in a 2010 episode. Mr. Burns threatens to trap Springfield under a dome, but when he's told it's been done before, he is surprised because he thought the idea came from King's book.
7	** Parodied in the third episode, where Joe's friend says people are streaming ''the Simpsons Movie'' continuously and calling it "prophetic".
8	** Creator/CartoonNetwork's ''WesternAnimation/{{Mad}}'' even pointed this out in their parody of the show:
9	--> '''Homer''': Hello, this has been done, it was the whole premise of ''The Simpsons Movie''!
10	** The idea of a dome suddenly appearing over a city pops up in 1965, with Creator/CliffordSimak's ''All Flesh is Grass'', and in 1988, with Creator/RobertRMcCammon's ''Stinger'', so it's hardly a ripoff, but truly a trope: DomedHometown.
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12	[[folder:The Series]]
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14	* AlasPoorScrappy: [[spoiler: Mostly-reviled officer Esquivel [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices herself to save Barbie's life]] in the season 2 premiere]].
15	* AngstWhatAngst: Granted, it may not have sunk in yet but aside from the single cop freaking out in the second episode, these people seem to be taking the fact they're trapped like spiders under a mug surprisingly well - this continues on through season 2, when the discovery of a way out of the dome doesn't lead to people screaming it in the streets and a stampede to get out.
16	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Ben the stoner is proving quite popular among some reviewers.
17	* HilariousInHindsight: Dean Norris is part of a massive meth ring? [[Series/{{Breaking Bad}} Kind of ironic when you consider...]]
18	* MagnificentBastard: [[AffablyEvil James "Big Jim" Rennie]] is the most cunning, devious man inside Chester's Mill when the dome comes down, and desires to [[WellIntentionedExtremist secure the town's safety no matter what]]. Using his position as Councilman to [[VillainWithGoodPublicity charm his way into leading the town]], Jim routinely faces down natural disasters and selfish townsfolk to keep Chester's Mill prospering, all while ruthlessly covering up any proof of his involvement in a local drug ring. Taking down rivals, dealing with his unstable son and overcoming emotional turmoil of his own, Jim faces down the military occupation inside Chester's Mill by playing them to his advantage, then escaping imprisonment from them with nothing but sly words and a soup can. Jim winds up [[EnemyMine allying with his longtime rivals]] Julia and Barbie to take down the alien invasion force known as the Kinship, and though forced to kill his own son in the process, Jim uses his experience inside the dome to secure himself a position as a [[CorruptPolitician beloved congressman]] once free, ending the series in the best spot he's ever been with all the power he wants.
19	* MoralEventHorizon: Christine talking a woman into suicide and arranging for Barbie to kill a man in "Alaska".
20	* {{Narm}}:
21	** Junior's dead mother, Mrs. Rennie, has a studio full of terrible paintings that viewers are supposed to take seriously. As one reviewer put it, a drunk baby could do better.
22	** Barbie and Julia's relationship can become this if you remember it's been going on for only three weeks (and after he [[spoiler: killed her husband]], yet is portrayed as some kind of epic romance.
23	* SeasonalRot: Oh, it went downhill ''fast''. The most popular online reviews of the series are entirely comedic, and ''nobody'' seemed to know why it kept getting renewed.
24	* SoBadItsGood: For some, this is the funniest comedy on CBS.
25	* {{Squick}}: The cow sliced in half by the dome.
26	* SpecialEffectsFailure:
27	** Look at Barbie's handprint remaining on the dome. Now look at the dome area surrounding the [[LudicrousGibs cow]]. Nice and clean, isn't it? Made all the more strange by how, in other scenes, we see tree limbs cut in half by the dome even though they aren't the focus of the scene.
28	** The cow itself as well. [[MadeOfBologna It has nothing inside it but]] ''[[MadeOfBologna meat]]'' -- no apparent skeleton or internal organs to speak of. Then again, given that this is network television, it's hard to imagine how they could've gotten away with more than just meat.
29	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Many changes to the characters are not well received by readers of the book, such as changing Barbie from a former Army captain and resident of Chester's Mill and a heroic figure into an outsider [[spoiler:who also killed Julia Shumway's husband]].
30	** Some reviewers, however, have said that some of the character changes -- particularly Big Jim and Junior being less in-your-face horrible -- are for the better. Even Barbie's change makes him a more interesting character.
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32	[[/folder]]
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34	[[folder:The Book]]
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36	* AllForNothing: After all the manipulations and close calls, [[spoiler: it's revealed that the town was a ticking time bomb all along thanks to meth-addict Chef Bushey. All of the meth lab and the propane was wired to explode and Chef was just waiting for the right moment to "start the apocalypse." No matter who came out on top in the town power struggle, the bomb was going to go off.]]
37	* CompleteMonster: [[IOwnThisTown Selectman James P. "Big Jim" Rennie]] is the ringmaster of a massive drug ring, apparently one of the biggest suppliers of meth in the whole country, and killed his wife—already suffering from terminal cancer--by smothering her with a pillow. To ensure that he remains absolute master of the town, he covers up the various murders and rapes committed by his son, Junior, and the gang of thugs he's commissioned as a police force. He kills several people who threatened to reveal to his subjects what kind of a monster he is; purposefully causes a riot over supplies just so he can claim a need for greater control; and frames the main protagonist, Dale Barbara, for everything that he and his gang has gotten away with. Then, because he had his gang steal huge amounts of propane--the only fuel source in tow-- just so he could make more meth, he sets the stage for the massive explosion that consumes almost everything in the town, turning the atmosphere into little more than an assortment of poisonous gases, and then gets away with it, hiding away in a fallout shelter. He [[NeverMyFault refuses to accept fault]] for anything that either he did or happened because of his decisions, even so far as to excuse his multiple murders as "[[HidingBehindReligion sending them into the arms of Jesus]]", his faith allowing him to dismiss any of the multiple atrocities he does.
38	* FanonDiscontinuity [[spoiler: Hundreds of sympathetic townspeople being wiped out by a meth lab explosion]] in the final act can come across as a DiabolusExMachina that sets up an imperfect climax some fans would rather ignore.
39	* FetishRetardant: Two men [[spoiler: ,Andy Sanders and Chef Bushey, kiss and profess their love for one another before dying in each other's arms. One is a skin-and-bones maniac in urine-stained frog pajama pants, the other is a middle-aged pharmacist. Both are tweaked out of their minds. And their last act is to blow up a barn full of gigantic tanks of propane.]] Still an oddly touching moment.
40	* {{Squick}}: Junior Rennie's "girlfriends." Two girls he kills. Then he stuffs them in a pantry. And then has sex with their dead, decaying, dead, corpses. Repeatedly. And later on he makes plans to rescue two children for whom he feels love and responsibility to the same pantry. Just to keep them safe, obviously.
41	* TakeThat: Jim Rennie's name and policies make him a pretty obvious take on an [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment evil Dick Cheney.]]
42	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Not as strong as most examples, as the final act of the book is well-respected, but it still might have been interesting to see Andrea Grinnel's HopeSpot actually come to fruition, preventing the visitors day disaster, but perhaps causing a Civil War among the townspeople and their factions for the rest of the book.
43	* TheWoobie: Poor Ollie Dinsmore. By the end of the book [[spoiler:his whole family is dead, from one accidental suicide and two quite purposeful ones. He even witnesses his brother's accidental suicide, and sees the aftermath of his mother's and father's.]]
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Context YMMV / UnderTheDome