NEXT STOP, `THE STEPHEN KING ZONE'.Byline: David Kronke Television Critic Pity the beleaguered be·lea·guer tr.v. be·lea·guered, be·lea·guer·ing, be·lea·guers 1. To harass; beset: We are beleaguered by problems. 2. To surround with troops; besiege. anthology series An anthology series is a radio or television series that has a different story and a different set of characters in every episode. Typically, the only constant is the host, who introduces and concludes each program. , which once was a television staple but lately has found it rough going. Audiences these days are too conditioned to latching onto characters they know and love -- or think they know and love -- to do the heavy lifting required of watching a show where the characters and situation change from episode to episode. With ``Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King <noinclude></noinclude>
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror and ,'' TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. makes a bold and intelligent foray into Verb 1. foray into - enter someone else's territory and take spoils; "The pirates raided the coastal villages regularly" raid encroach upon, intrude on, obtrude upon, invade - to intrude upon, infringe, encroach on, violate; "This new colleague invades my the realm of the anthology series. By keeping the series to a manageable length, by focusing on one of America's most popular authors, by luring a number of well-known performers (William Hurt William Hurt (born March 20, 1950) is an Academy Award-winning American actor. Biography Early life Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Claire Isabel (née McGill), who worked at Time, Inc.,[1] and Alfred McCord Hurt, who worked for the U.S. , William H. Macy, Richard Thomas Richard Thomas is the name of:
Early life Mason was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Edward Marion Mason, Jr. , Kim Delaney, Claire Forlani, Henry Thomas, Steven Weber, Samantha Mathis, Jeremy Sisto and others) and by trumpeting it as an event during the generally somnolent som·no·lent adj. 1. Drowsy; sleepy. 2. Inducing or tending to induce sleep; soporific. 3. In a condition of incomplete sleep; semicomatose. summer viewing season, TNT could well resurrect the anthology series -- for four weeks, at least. As is to be expected, quality varies from episode to episode. Tonight's installments are both pretty strong. ``Battleground,'' which kicks off the series, is probably its best entry, a unique hour in which a hit man has just offed a toy magnate, only to return home to open a box of toy soldiers with intentions far more murderous than the Army men in ``Toy Story.'' More intriguingly, the episode comes with no dialogue whatsoever (except for the occasional ``AAAARRRGH!''), a gambit that hasn't been attempted since a celebrated episode of ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'' ``Crouch End'' follows, a spooky saga of a pair of American newlyweds honeymooning in London who find themselves fighting for their lives against the demented denizens in an outlying suburb. Other episodes worth catching include ``The End of the Whole Mess,'' a melancholy treatise on one man's ultimately disastrous efforts to eradicate evil from the world (but which features a scene involving wasps that's almost as creepy as anything else in the series), and ``You Know They've Got a Hell of a Band,'' about another couple as damned as the one in ``Crouch End,'' but more amusingly so: They wind up in Rock 'n' Roll rock 'n' roll: see rock music. Heaven, Ore., where they're tormented by Elvis, Jimi, Janis and other late, lamented pop icons. OK episodes include ``The Road Virus Heads North,'' in which a famous horror writer buys a painting that more than haunts him, and ``The Fifth Quarter,'' about an ex-convict who pursues a treasure in order to compensate his (not-quite-so) loyal wife, which ends -- well, not so great, for him, at least. ``Umney's Last Case'' feels like a genuine dud, a too-cheeky-by-half tale of a hard-boiled horndog of a detective who meets his maker -- the writer who created him, who forces the two to switch places. Its vaguely clever premise takes too long to set up and doesn't explore all its delectable permutations. The final installment, ``Autopsy Room Four,'' was not made available for review. Make of that what you will. David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke@dailynews.com NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES: FROM THE STORIES OF STEPHEN KING - Three stars What: Anthology miniseries based on the author's short stories. Where: TNT. When: 9 and 10 tonight, repeating 11 p.m. and midnight Thursday; through Aug. 3. In a nutshell: A mixed bag, but mostly entertaining. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: William Hurt stars in ``Battleground,'' the first episode of ``Nightmares & Dreamscapes.'' |
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