On the newest episode of CBS' Under the Dome, a former deputy goes rogue; Big Jim recruits Barbie to join the manhunt to keep the town safe; and Junior is determined to escape the dome by going underground.
Under the Dome premiered with a fantastic and intriguing first episode and followed that up with a very lackluster second episode. It featured a man clumsily starting a house on fire and another shooting a gun at the dome only for the bullet to ricochet off it. So, all eyes were on tonight's episode to see whether or not the series could return to what made it so great in the first place. Unfortunately, the series continued to underwhelm. The problems that were made clear in the second episode continued to be over-emphasized - Junior, people doing idiotic things and the utter lack of urgency and panic in the community.Of the main plots featured, the manhunt for the rogue police deputy was perhaps the most interesting (albeit slightly) simply because it largely focused on the characters I want to learn the most about - which is different than the characters I care about the most -- which honestly is none of them. Linda is bland but she also seems like the only pure person in this town. She's always trying to do her best even though she is naive and makes some stupid decisions. Like falling for Deputy Paul's sick act as his prison escape and then going straight for the kill shot instead of popping a knee to disarm him. Mike Vogel and Dean Norris can handle very meaty material and their characters have the potential to be wonderfully engaging. The show is simply not allow them to stand out and be great instead trying to touch on each character with each episode.
Another week, another hour of Britt Robinson being trapped down in that fallout shelter. Sigh. She, too, is a talented actresses and is doing the absolute best she can with the material she has. It's just not a great storyline especially when the show wants to be more focused on the mental state of Junior - which is just wrong. He is simply crazy. The show's writers may counter that with saying he's "misunderstood." But that facet simply is not coming through on screen. Failing to understand how an audience views a certain character or a plot is a fatal quality. But it's also one that probably won't be course-corrected due to the those big premiere numbers. And those offer a direct correlation to quality, right?
