Warning: Spoilers are ahead for The Stand miniseries.

Despite its promise, The Stand miniseries on CBS All Access sadly misses the point of Stephen King's classic horror novel and what it was that made it such an iconic work. The previous adaptation of The Stand was the 1994 miniseries, which stuck, more or less, to the book. The newest adaptation takes quite a few liberties, and while creator and showrunner Josh Boone can be commended for trying it, not all of the changes work because they undermine the central core of the story.

The Stand follows two groups of survivors in the wake of a global apocalypse, an eerily relevant plague, known as Captain Trips, that wipes out most of humanity. The survivors are called to in their dreams by two figures: Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg), a righteous, God-fearing old woman representing the side of good, and Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård), a.k.a. the Dark Man, representing the side of evil - or so the series wants the audience to understand. Mother Abigail's followers set up a new democratic community known as the Boulder Free Zone in Colorado; Flagg's matriculate to Las Vegas, which has been turned into a totalitarian carnival of hedonism.

Related: The Stand Theory: Randall Flagg Is He Who Walks Behind The Rows

But outside of getting the framework right, the new miniseries fundamentally misunderstands what makes Stephen King's book tick, what makes it resonate: At its core, it was an epic battle of good versus evil, and the simplicity of the story was deepened by the rich cast of characters King assembled. The characters are what made readers get invested in the story. Sadly, CBS's version of The Stand misses that point entirely, focusing on the wrong characters while diminishing the ones the audience needs to connect with most. Secondary antagonist Harold Lauder was certainly a pivotal character in the book, but the show focuses on him to an unnecessary degree, essentially making him the main character of the entire miniseries. While Owen Teague has been absolutely brilliant in the role, it's at the expense of other, equally as essential characters getting far less character development.

henry zaga the stand

The most damaging of these diminished characters is Nick Andros (Henry Zaga). Nick was, if not the heart of King's original novel - that honor arguably goes to Stu Redman and Frannie Goldsmith - then he was certainly the soul of it, the deaf-mute character acting as the moral compass for the entire leadership team of the Boulder Free Zone. Yet in the miniseries, he's not much more than a sketch of a character, an outline barely filled in. The death of Nick Andros, so tragic in the book, elicits little more than a shrug in the miniseries. Despite Zaga's eloquent non-verbal communication and expressive eyes doing a lot of work, he's given very little to do.

The same could be said for Stu Redman (James Marsden), the heart to Nick's soul. Stu is the quintessential good guy and everyman. While those elements certainly come through in Marsden's portrayal, the weight he carries in trying to lead the town does not as the miniseries simply doesn't spend much time with him in favor of refocusing on Harold. Likewise the two moral poles of the story in Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg. Despite being God's vessel on Earth and Stephen King's incarnation of the devil, they're not so much fully-realized characters as concepts.

So many vital characters being underdeveloped in the miniseries negates the epic scale of the battle of good versus evil. It's hard to say what the point of the miniseries even is, where it's going. In the novel, it was clear: One side was making their stand for the light, the other for the dark and they were on a collision course. More, it made it clear why it was happening. Sadly, the 2020 adaptation of The Stand seems to miss the fundamental core of the book entirely, no longer anchoring it firmly in Stephen King's simple story of good vs. evil, but choosing instead to fix a story that was never broken in the first place.

Next: The Stand Theory: Flagg & Mother A Are Connected To Gan (& The Multiverse)