Under the Dome Season 2 Episode 1 Recap/Review

By lance wall Jul 03, 2014 12:10 PM EDT

(Photo : Season 2 Episode 2 - Under The Dome - CBS.com)

Under the Dome Season 2 Episode 1 Recap/Review

The CBS adaptation of the Stephen King book Under the Dome left King fans feeling empty after Season 1, despite having good ratings last summer. Fans held out hope that Season 2 would bring answers to the many unresolved mysteries that are prolific in the show. With King writing the first episode of this year's show viewers tuned in with a renewed hope for this season.

That hope quickly dissipated when the same rigmarole and shear drudgery that encumbered last season's storyline, continued to be apparent. The diminutive Dean Norris who plays Under the Dome's primary antagonist "Big Jim" once again finds himself reeking havoc on the townspeople of Chester's Mill. Much to the dome's chagrin, because the dome immediately magnetized itself and that subsequently locked Big Jim in his own cellar; with the ghost of Dodee (Jolene Purdy) whom he killed in Season 1.

The town's bumbling Deputy Sheriff Linda Esquivel (Natalie Martinez) gets crushed by the aforementioned magnetized dome, when a truck slams into her while rescuing Barbie (Mike Vogel). But Under the Dome is like a poor man's Lost because the dead don't stay dead they continue to come back as visions for the living and so Linda later implores Big Jim to kill himself.

Meanwhile despite the town being surrounded by a dome where nobody can escape, somehow new characters emerge. Were they hiding for weeks? Are they visions too? Do we really even care? Junior's (Alexander Koch) uncle Sam Verdreaux (Eddie Cahill) makes his first appearance on the show. Once again Junior is confounded with the proposition of whether or not to kill his villainous father Big Jim. This is like the third or fourth time young Junior has been in this position in the show's 14 episode run. I'm not exactly going out on a limb when I predict that this seasons big reveal will be when Uncle Sam informs Junior (or his dead mother's ghost tells him) that Big Jim is the one that killed his mother. Maybe this will FINALLY be the impetus Junior needs to off his old man?

I honestly don't know why or how this show got high ratings last summer; the Stephen King name perhaps? Or possibly it's a testament to the malaise that is the television landscape of the summer? Whatever the reason, based on the first episode of Season 2, I would say that the prognosis is negative for that trend to continue.