Ever since completing the first season of The Walking Dead on DVD, I've kinda been itching to revisit Stephen King's The Stand. Sure, there are no zombies to be found, but it does take on the same themes and tone with regards to the 'end of the world' apocalypse and trying to survive the onslaught of an imposing entity looking to take out the remaining human's on the planet. Instead of Zombie, the lone survivors must contend with evil incarnate, Randall Flagg, the devil himself.

Before I get to the review, I gotta do a little backtracking here and give out my thoughts regarding the original air date of the mini-series. When this came out back in 1994, The Stand was a HUGE TV event over 4 nights. This was a 'can't-miss' series and I had to watch it. I really liked and enjoyed all of it, even if some of the acting was a bit strained. Overall, I think The Stand delivered and I was satisfied.

I have watched the series a few times since getting The Stand on DVD and it's still a pretty good ride. It's not as good as it once was and a large part of that reason is because the acting is even more strained and forced. In some places it's downright horrible. Also, the budget for the series is slim pickings for sure. The director had to make do with what he had and cheated his way through a lot of shots to cover up the lack of production values. So, even with a lot of problems that have really come to the forefront with the way it has aged, I think the story itself is pretty good. It's good enough to overlook a lot of flaws.

Props to Ruby Dee as Mother Abigail who has always been the backbone of the entire series, along with Rob Lowe as Nick. I thought his performance then and now was pretty good. He was the heart and driving force of the series and it's no surprise that when he meets his demise, the final part of the series does tend to limp a long. Gary Sinise is good in this one too. By the way, this was my first introduction to him and I have followed his career ever since.

Like I said, this isn't without its flaws and some of the actors and their line readings does bring the rating down a notch. Molly Ringwald was off her game here and very inconsistent. Sometimes she would deliver the goods and other times she would drop the ball. Corin Nemec as Harold was the same way. But his character was at least interesting to keep me engaged. But it was Adam Storke as Larry and Laura San Giacomo as Nadine that really pushed the limits of how much I can take from poor acting.

In spite of all the problems, I still watch and enjoy most of The Stand. It's definitely worth a Rent. I hope that one day this will get the Hollywood theatrical treatment with all the bells and whistles of a full-on production to make up for the lack of what we got here.