The Latecomers

Episode Notes Welcome to our 200th episode! We are excited to bring you a mostly regular show with a little baby celebration at the top. But soon enough we get into the meat of this episode wherein it is confirmed that there ARE vampires in Preacher’s Corners – and maybe even more in Jerusalem’s Lot where are hero has been bidden. Loa is tempted by her first cousin twice removed (once by a generat...

Episode Notes The mysteries deepen and the fear gets more visceral this week in Episode 3 of 2021’s Chapelwaite. The worms are coming from inside the brain, but also from inside the walls and inside the fruit. Really, worms are coming from everywhere and that’s the least of our hero’s problems as he is accosted in his home by an angry mob. The town is solidifying against the Boones and it appears...

Episode Notes The plot continues to be front and center in episode 2 of Chapelwaite as we get a birth, a death, and a wandering corpse. Shades of The Scarlett Letter come to the forefront with a cheating pastor and a disfigured baby. Girls who don’t understand quarantine are doomed to fail it while towns who are unable to overcome will be overrun. Finally, we learn the age old lesson that racists...

Episode Notes It’s a whole new world that we have maybe seen before! We are embarking on the 2021 adaptation of “Jerusalem’s Lot” called Chapelwaite. Starring Adrien Brody and Emily Hampshire and set over a hundred years before the versions of Salems’ Lot we have already visited, this is a rich and moody and gasp plotty gothic horror. So far its mostly questions and intros but we have high hopes....

Episode Notes Here we are at the end – episode 8 of 2021’s Lisey’s Story – and if you thought we were clear of the child abuse, I have bad news for you. Lisey and Jim are in Booya Moon and it’s time for him to make his final stand – by declaring his importance to a people monster, something that appears to be a personification pain. It doesn’t go well, and Booya Moon can’t even be useful with hidi...

Episode Notes We get some answers here in the penultimate episode of the series, “No Light, No Spark,” – what happened to Scott? Well, we get one answer. Lisey and her sisters continue to make bad choices as the devolve to their juvenile selves. Jim Dooley is full of bad faith and impotent rage which gets him the upper hand for a bit. We tear apart Lisey’s decision making and hear much cat input....

Episode Notes Amanda’s awake and we are so thrilled to see her. This week we relish some sister bonding as Lisey is able to help Amanda and Darla starts believing in – well, something anyway. Jim is lurking but he’s now up against a sister murder pact and that’s a tough win any way you slice it. We only got about 8 hours of progress, but since it’s likely the last two episodes are going to encompa...

Episode Notes This week we got 40 minutes of child torture, 10 minutes of Lisey mad at her husband, 2 minutes of Jim and Dashmeil talking past each other, and not a partridge or a pear tree to be found. We talk through the episode quick but it leads to some discussions of wigs and in media res and some great recs for the week. We’re over half way through and maybe we’ll get some kind of light next...

Episode Notes As we guessed last week, things pop off this week – in the form of some torture of our heroine. We discuss the influence and loveliness of Clive Barker, the taxing nature of solving a mystery of a fantasy, the state of our antagonist, and how memory even works in this story. We are a bit more engaged and looking forward to more momentum (fingers crossed).   Recommendations: Equinox (...

Episode Notes We are still patiently waiting this week for the plot to pop off. More flashbacks, bad supervision both past and present, the trouble with publicly funded security, a soupçon of  arson and a treasure trove of oreos punctuate the third episode of Lisey’s Story. No dead birds this week, but we do get some pretty heinous abuse from Scott’s dad and a lovely comingling of memory – a sweet...

Episode Notes We get further into the puzzle of Lisey’s Story this week. We are confronted with childhood desires for boyfriends and gold and decent parents and adult desires for forgiveness. We learn a bit more about Lisey and Scott and their history while falling further into the depths of Jim Dooley/Dandy. Keep your pet corvids close and your wives closer, because he’s here to take out either o...

Episode Notes Fresh new story hot off the presses – we are starting Lisey’s Story – a 2021 adaptation from AppleTV+. Julianne Moore is our eponymous heroine, Clive Owen is her deceased husband, Joan Allen and Jennifer Jason Leigh are her troubled sisters, Ron Cephas Jones is the professor after her treasure, and Dane DeHaan is the weapon he chooses to use. So far so beautiful as we are learning ho...

Episode Notes This week, we experience the re-imagined ending of The Stand in the finale episode of 2020’s adaptation, penned by the man himself. And both of us have punch up suggestions, first for this episode and then for the whole of the series. Amity is mad and turns Frannie southern, bless her heart. We discuss racism, classism, ablism, law and order, social and societal responsibility and mo...

Episode Notes Glen coming into his own; Lloyd taking a turn; the return of the Trashcan Man and a re-imagined hand of God brings New Vegas to it’s knees. Nadine realizes she’s been used, Lloyd comes to terms with his non-murderous heart, Flagg does a jig, and Larry will fear no evil. The story we know comes to a close with the emergence of Tom from a cloud of dust and Frannie swearing into labor....

Episode Notes Excellent news – it’s the best episode yet with plenty of the best character (it’s Glen) and the death of the worst character (it’s Harold) and there’s makeup issues and accidents and a big nuke hug – everything you could possibly want.   Recommendations: Child’s Play (1972) [On Paramount+] Next up: The Stand Episode 8 “The Stand” (2021) (Paramount+) Email us at latecomers@gmail.com...

Episode Notes We are entering the home stretch of 2021’s adaptation of The Stand, and you can tell because we are starting to kill off characters we barely know. To be fair, we barely know anyone, but that won’t stop the momentum and this episode takes out Nick, with whom we have spent perhaps 10 minutes. It’s a good thing we got some good hugs between him and Tom or what even would be the point?...

Episode Notes We are seated firmly in the after time in this center episode of the 2021 adaptation of the Stand. We also are in a world that has veered away from adaptation and into complete rewrite and that world is Las Vegas where instead of all work and no play, we have a class of all play and a seeming slave class. Cocaine, sex and violence seem to permeate every aspect of the so-called societ...

Episode Notes This week not much happens, but also we have a lot to talk about. Nadine and Harold’s messed up dynamic, Dayna’s Walking Dead style entrance, a second-rate Julie Lowry, allowing our heroes some agency, a Stephen King cameo, poor Teddy, whether this show is trying to be The Joker, and so much more!     Recommendations:  The Vigil (Hulu); Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)     Next up: The...

Episode Notes This week we get more Glen and less Nick than we thought (the hazards of trying to guess what this adaptation is going to do). We discuss the scariest scene so far, the location of crucifixion, whether Amber Heard is the most beautiful woman in the world, and the problem of Tom Cullen.   Recommendations:  The Tomorrow War (Amazon Prime); Of Mice and Men (1939 adaptation available on...

Episode 2 of the 2020 adaptation of The Stand starts with a reveal that’s barely a reveal and a title card to center us in time, so progress is being made. Larry, Rita, Nadine and Lloyd are introduced in increasingly gory scenes. An indecent proposal is made. Rats should be first billed in the credits, but get short shrift and Harold gets one scene that doesn’t make us instantly uncomfortable. We...

Episode Notes We begin at “The End” – episode one of the Paramount miniseries The Stand. Buckle in for an amorphous temporal romp with everyone favorite incel Harold Lauder. We meet our Franny and Stu. We glimpse our Mother Abigail and Randell Flagg. But mostly we get a face full of Harold, much to our chagrin. This is going to be a good series of conversations if not a good miniseries itself.   R...

Episode Notes It is with a heavy heart we come to the end of The Outsider this week. Half of our beloved team gets taken out by one sharpshooter with Jack Daniels and rattlesnake venom pulsing through his veins because sometimes a man who threatens not to shut up, doesn’t in fact shut up. Which of our intrepid heroes makes it out? How to the women reconcile? Is there hope for the Maitland family?...

Episode Notes We’re putting all the pieces into place for the coming endgame this week on The Outsider. Our intrepid detectives pair off and come to terms with their relationships and requirements and finally have an offensive plan. Jack is at the whim of a growling monstrosity with Claude’s face, Andy comes for his lady, and finally Ralph sees the light. We’re heading into the final climax and Am...

Episode Notes Entering the third year of our Stephen King coverage, we get into the creepy center of 2020’s The Outsider. Holly has some news to share and it’s quite a doozy. Ralph backslides into the 1800s in his dismissal of his wife, while said wife makes some alarming and not particularly well thought out decisions for Glory’s family. We learn of international boogeymen and give our outsider a...

Episode Notes We slow down on plot and pick up on detecting this week in the second block of The Outsider. We are reintroduced to Holly Gibney in a new and fascinating form. We witness Jack getting what he deserves after he literally pisses on a crime scene. We follow Ralph as he continues to work off book and around the edges. And we meet poor Heath and Maria – both doomed by the same predicament...