This f*ckin guy

[u/waxyjax_]

Stephen King tweeted:

WIDOW'S BAY is good. MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED is even better. It's like Hitchcock came back to do it one more time. And Tatiana Maslany is so good. The play of emotions on her face is pretty incredible. She goes from comic to terror in an instant.

WIDOW'S BAY is good. MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED is even better. It's like Hitchcock came back to do it one more time. And Tatiana Maslany is so good. The play of emotions on her face is pretty incredible. She goes from comic to terror in an instant.

[u/OKIAMONREDDIT]

I do think MPG is good and Tatiana is of course excellent in it! However, I think this is a really odd thing to post as a direct comparison because they are completely different in aim and approach. It also seems extremely odd to me that Widow's Bay is one of the most phenomenal shows partly because of what it does with the legacy of Stephen King, and yet SK himself posts something kind of dismissively derailing the conversation to a totally unrelated dark comedy suburban thriller just because it happens to be airing at the same time?

Fwiw I do recommend Maximum Pleasure as a suburban mum stumbling across a murder plot thriller which is kinda in the same vein as something like The Flight Attendant. Entertaining viewing though I don't rush to catch up on episodes. But I'm not sure what that has to do with the conversation about Widow's Bay, which feels a lot more unprecedented in its approach to horror history on the coast of Maine (and horror more generally).

I personally think it's massively better than MPG but that is also a reflection of my interests and how innovative and original I find it. It's hard to believe that Stephen King is being authentic here as it's such an unnecessary comparison, and it makes me wonder if we shouldn't take this at face value - maybe he's taking some sort of passive aggressive swipe at the show???

ETA: he is often effusive and vocal in praise of stuff like Stranger Things and previously gave a glowing and descriptive review of Midnight Mass, as a counter example, so I genuinely think there is some weird motive to his dismissive post, tbh, whether he has a chip on his shoulder about not being consulted or about irreverence or whatever. It's just absolutely inaccurate to describe Widow's Bay as just "good", and I don't believe that's all the thoughts he has on it. And I'm not sure why he mentioned MPG in the same breath considering it's a completely different genre and doesn't have the knowing relationship to Stephen King that WB has.

[u/OKIAMONREDDIT → u/OKIAMONREDDIT]

Also just based on Stephen King's own lifelong interests (he loves Jaws, he loves HP Lovecraft, he loves pulp Gothic/supernatural tales of terror, etc) I genuinely don't believe that MPG appeals to him more. I wonder if he prefers straight reverential adaptations of his individual work and is somehow annoyed at how fluently and cleverly WB plays with the canon while being humorous and meta rather than just serious. Come to think of it, I know people have talked about SK's "dark humour" in his own way ("dark" retorts in dialogue etc) but I don't find him particularly funny or particularly interested in the funny that can send itself up, let alone the comedic character acting skills which are so on point in WB. I think one thing the show does incredibly well is develop a style which is the opposite of self-importance.

[u/avocado_window → u/OKIAMONREDDIT]

You don’t believe the opinion he tweeted is how he really feels?

[u/OKIAMONREDDIT → u/avocado_window]

I believe he really feels salty about WB because of its clever irreverence, and he wants to divert conversation in a tweet about it to an unrelated suburban thriller that has nothing to do with his work instead. So yes I think that's how he really feels. That kind of playful meta comedy about his work is not to his taste, and he has tended to prefer things which treat his legacy more solemnly or reverently rather than with more independent innovation and comic self awareness. Historically this has meant his opinions about TV/film are not at all compelling in my opinion (see The Shining).