"Baseball happened."

[icepixie]

*sporfle* Um, at least the Fox promo monkeys are demonstrating a sense of humor about the baseball preemption? (Spoilerphobes, there is a scene in there that wasn't in the preview, but if it's integral to the episode, I'll be damned if I can figure out how. This is almost certainly less spoily than the regular preview they aired after the most recent episode.)

Also, there is this entertaining graphic.

*

In completely other news, have a scary link for Halloween. Reading that at two in the morning last night was...a mistake.

(I'm also quite fond of the Russian parodies.)

Comments

[icepixie]

I recently got King's Full Dark, No Stars and Skeleton Crew out of the library. I made the mistake of reading the stories from Full Dark first, and they gave me the most disturbing dreams I've ever had. I returned Skeleton Crew to the library unread and vowed to avoid King for a while. I really like his not-quite-horror stuff--everything in Different Seasons, for example, is excellent--and I enjoy stuff like 'Salem's Lot, but something about the ones in Full Dark just hit every deep, dark DO NOT WANT space in me. I can well imagine autocannibalism doing the same...

[nocturnalrites.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Full Dark, No Stars, but I can only imagine. I may give it a try, though. I can handle King's best horror if I read it slowly and give myself time to digest. Also, I liked most everything pre-Insomnia. After that, not so much. There have been exceptions - The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Bag of Bones, for example - but most, I haven't. I'm not quite sure why.

It's hard for me to tell which of his books or stories are actually horror and which are just macabre. My favorite of all his books was The Stand, for example, but I've never been certain just where to place it category-wise. My next after that was probably Rose Madder, which I don't think was one of his better sellers. Following that, probably The Talisman.

Even when I get scared or (most often) just plain squicked, I have to admire his characterization, dialogue and description.

And I liked Different Seasons also.

[icepixie]

I actually haven't read much King--just the three I mentioned, Carrie (so-so) and Bag of Bones, which I also liked. (I also tried the first book of The Dark Tower, but couldn't get into it.) He has such a huge back catalogue, and apparently it varies so much in quality, that it's hard to know which to pick next.

[nocturnalrites.livejournal.com]

A lot of his early list is kind of so-so to me. IIRC (and it's been some years ago) the book that really got me into King was Firestarter. I read The Stand shortly after that and was hooked. Carrie was a so-so for me, too, although the characterization was good, in a brutally honest kind of way. (Comes as no surprise that King taught in high school, does it?)

I never got into The Dark Tower series, either, and I did try. Nor did I like the sequel to The Talisman, and that really disappointed me.

I recommend the ones I mentioned earlier that were my favorites (obviously). There's also Dolores Claiborne, which is far more interesting as a book than as a movie. And please, for the love of Pete, don't bother with the miniseries of The Stand; there might be worse picks for the character of Fran than Molly Ringwald, but I'm not sure how many there could be. Must admit, though, they did a good job picking Gary Sinise as Stu.

'It' is another you might like. Definitely horror, and I'm not utterly thrilled about the character of Bev, to be honest, but it's an interesting concept. The Dark Half had its moments, but again, I probably liked the concept more than the story itself.

The Green Mile and The Eyes of The Dragon (which is a total departure from his usual stuff, being almost traditional fantasy, but very well done) were among my favorites also. Actually, IMO, The Green Mile is well worth seeing as a movie, too - one of the few that lived up to the book, and that's rare for me to say. Also, Misery and The Shining. Both were made into movies (as many of his books have been), and both were very well done, but the books were still a bit better. That said, Kathy Bates was perfect as Annie Wilkes in Misery and Jack Nicholson was incredible as Jack Torrance in The Shining.

Coincidentally, a friend just lent me the miniseries 'Stephen King's Rose Red', and I'm about to start watching it while doing mindless chores. I figured it was perfect for setting a Halloween mood, and besides, it has Matt Keeslar in it!

[icepixie]

Thanks for all the recs! I think I actually saw that Rose Red miniseries way back when it aired, but I don't remember anything about it but that it involved a house with a rose window.

[nocturnalrites.livejournal.com]

I'm still watching it. I notice a re-use of a lot of themes in King's earlier stories - TK gifted young girl, stones falling from the sky and so on.

It's not bad so far, although dedicated horror film fans would probably give it a miss, since it's not really overly gory. However, that makes it watchable for me, so I'm not complaining!