Advance Review

: Developed for the intimate screen by Brian K. Vaughan (Lost, Y: The Last Man, Runaways), Under the Dome is bit of a serialized genre break for CBS. Their summer fling, if you will. Based on a novel by Stephen King, who also serves as an executive producer with Vaughan, the story centers on the sleepy Maine town (King's go-to "hellmouth") of Chester's Mill - which gets mysteriously separated from society by an invisible, energized dome that appears out of nowhere and rips apart those caught in its path (humans, animals, homes).

5 Things You Need to Know About Under the Dome

Loading

A cool premise for sure, but one that also comes with the "fool me twice (or more)" knowledge that King stories don't always successfully translate well to movies and TV. Okay, let me be more specific. The endings to King stories don't always work well visually. It's just been one of those things. They tend to come off well enough on paper, where the reader can envision whatever they'd like in place of the actual creature/alien/villain, but, for some reason, on screen they feel tacked on, out of place or rushed.There's also the problem of having an awesome gimmick or premise that doesn't really come with a satisfying ending or answer. Because that happens too. In fact, Lost springs to mind. Because it's no coincidence that Lost showrunners Cuse and Lindeloff decided, by the end, to focus more on the human stories and resolutions than the specifics of the Island itself; infuriating many, but also totally understandable. Because there just might not have been an explanation, after six years, that wouldn't have made most people facepalm.And that's what I see here, in Under the Dome. It's a good pilot episode, that really does remind me more of Lost than any other Lost-clone series that tried to instantly capture the serialized, supernatural mystery audience. Vaughan comes from Lost, and so does director Jack Bender, who's on board here as an EP as well. And the show's slow, steady revealing of information, where the audience discovers confounding things right alongside the characters, makes me want to continue on. Plus, for those wanting to cut to the quick here, there's a book. Sure, the show's been tweaked for TV, but you can read the King novel if you'd like faster answers.But, having not read the book (and touching on my previous point), I can't think of or predict an actual answer for the dome that'll satisfy me, so the point here is most definitely going to be the journey. Plus, Vaughan has already said the King-approved end he has in mind for the series is different from the one in the book. My hope though is that I'll wind up caring more about the dangers caused by the dome than the cause of the dome itself.Under the Dome is basically the study of how people react to being shut down and cut off. It's as if there was an End Times apocalypse, but just in one town. A town that is now unable to communicate with the rest of the country. A town without power, which eventually run out of food. This pilot episode follows the first day, when most everyone freaks out about being isolated by a giant force field.So now I'll get to the characters, which also tend to run hit-or-miss in King novels. There are clear heroes in Julia the reporter (Rachelle Lefevre), Deputy Linda (Natalie Martinez) and drifter Dale "Barbie" Barbara (Mike Vogel, fresh out of another creepy town on Bates Motel). Then there are shadier characters like Dean Norris' Councilman "Big Jim" Rennie (I miss Breaking Bad already!) who will most definitely pose a problem as time passes. Then... there are the annoying characters. Like Alexander Koch's "Junior," who fills the role of the town psycho, but also acts comically disturbed and looks strangely retro - as if he was one of the returning leather-jacketed greasers from King's Sometimes They Come Back. Again, he probably comes off better, or at least more understandable, on the page. There's also a trio from California; a lesbian couple (how L.A.!) played by Aisha Hinds and Samantha Mathis, and their rotten-as-hell teenage daughter, Norrie (Mackenzie Lintz).It's a hard balance, of course, to introduce us to a large ensemble in a pilot episode, especially on a show like this where you also don't want to take too much away from the big event that's going down. But as we've seen with other sci-fi shows in the past, strange and annoying characters who, for whatever reason, aren't reacting to the big, world-changing even like everyone else become almost instantly un-watcheable. Like teenagers and weirdos. It's one thing for characters to have secrets, as most of the players here do, but if they purposefully drive us away from the larger problems, they wear on me.Despite not every character being a home run, Under the Dome is still an intense ride that stands a good chance of sucking you in. Colin Ford and The Secret Circle's Britt Robertson round out the cast as siblings who discover that both of their parents were outside of the dome when it hit, leaving them to fend for themselves; although Robertson's Angie makes more than her fair share of questionable decisions in this first episode which I hope I'll get more answers to down the line.

Stephen King on TV: Salem's Lot to Under the Dome

There's also an extra layer added to Under the Dome when you consider when it's airing. With mistrust in our own government at an all-time high, there's a secondary scare-factor at play here when you consider that the people trapped in Chester's Mill are hoping that the rest of the country, and the government, will be there to support them. All the citizens can see when they look through the barrier are masked, faceless soldiers and it's Vogel's Barbie who suggests that, if it comes down to it, the entire town will get written off and/or wiped out.I'd say, for those looking for the closest thing to a Lost-surrogate, Under the Dome is your play. It's smartly done paranoia.

Under the Dome premieres Monday, June 24th at 10pm on CBS.Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler , IGN at mattfowler , and Facebook at Facebook.com/Showrenity