YMMV / The Stand (1994)

• Complete Monster: "The Dark Man", Randall Flagg, is a diabolical emissary of evil who helps orchestrate the unleashing of the Captain Trips virus and its subsequent decimation of humanity. Causing suffering everywhere he goes, Flagg establishes his own fiefdom in Las Vegas where he encourages utter depravity while torturing and executing anyone who opposes his rule. Flagg arranged the bombing of the town hall of peaceful, rival community Boulder, and he plans to use nuclear weapons to wipe out all life in Boulder, then hold any other pockets of humanity hostage under similar threat if they don't cow to him. Willing to cripple, mutilate, and murder his own minions for the pettiest reasoning, Flagg oversees the cruel deaths of multiple lead characters, and personally rapes Nadine so viciously that she becomes an Empty Shell whom Flagg hopes to use as nothing but a broodmare.
• Hollywood Homely: The miniseries casts Corin Nemec as Harold. As a result, the whole arc about how Harold started out universally hated for being fat and ugly with a personality to match, and later begins losing weight and taking better care of himself as he becomes more accepted and valued by his peers, suffers a bit when he's actually a quite handsome guy who just has a slightly nerdy hairdo and outfit before a subtle attack of The Glasses Gotta Go.
• Ho Yay: The scene where Larry is leaving Stu in the desert with his broken leg in the miniseries. They come off as intimate lovers, with Stu comforting a crying Larry and holding him to his chest.
• Narm Charm: Basically the entirety of the original mini-series falls very hard into classic 90s TV acting and special effects, combined with Stephen King's penchant for already writing rather over-the-top characters, but the actors are cast so well and put so much effort into each performance that they manage to raise what could be standard narm into authentically moving and emotional characterization.

---