Lisey’s Story Review

Lisey’s Story has one of the best television casts ever constructed: Julianne Moore, Clive Owen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Joan Allen, Ron Cephas Jones, Dane Dehaan, Michael Pitt. I mean, come on, three of those actors in a show would be incredible, but all of them? It’s an embarrassment of riches! And each one is acting their ass off in the series. It’s just a shame that the writing couldn’t live up the caliber of actors gathered together for this latest Stephen King adaptation, which just happened to be adapted by King himself.

Lisey’s Story is, reportedly, one of King’s favorite novels, and it shows in how meticulously he chose to adapt the novel to the screen. And, unfortunately, that’s the major issue with the show: The story is so bogged down by the script and its tendency to swing between mystical existentialism and serious, life threatening drama quickly and without warning that the performances – and the excellent direction from Pablo Larrain – can get lost in the shuffle. This is a series that absolutely could have benefited from an outside eye taking a look at the complex story (which we’ll get to in a minute) and parring it down to make it more palatable (or, at least a bit less convoluted). The more complex and layered a story is, the harder it can be for an author to have the foresight to kill his darlings and make cuts. And that’s almost certainly what happened here.

So, what exactly is Lisey’s Story? Well, it follows Lisey (Moore), the widow of a successful author, Scott, (Owen). Lisey is trying to deal not only with her grief, but also with her sister Amanda (Allen), who is dealing with mental health issues of her own, and her other sister Darla (Leigh), who thinks Lisey isn’t pulling her weight when it comes to caring for Amanda. Oh, and there’s a professor (Jones) who wants to get a hold of Scott’s unpublished manuscripts and is using a crazed fan (Dehaan) to pressure and threaten her. Also, Scott used to love creating scavenger hunt-style puzzles, and he left one final one for Lisey to solve. There’s also a mystical alternative dimension (the Boo’ya Moon – yeah, I know) that some of the characters visit that is haunted by a terrifying monster. So, yeah. It’s a lot.

Despite all of those stories fighting for dominance, the series manages to feel both overstuffed and overlong. So long as the focus is on playing with the characters’ and the audience’s ideas of reality, it does a great job – largely through Larrain’s stellar direction – of creating a world with the fantastic could, in fact, be real. But it’s when the “real” reality cuts back in – largely with the crazed fan plot – that’s when the wheels start to come off the series. This isn’t a slight at Dehaan – he’s doing exactly what is asked of him – but his character is so thinly drawn and such a caricature that it’s hard to take him at all seriously. Yes, he’s terrifying, but there’s no substance.

And that’s a problem throughout the series as a whole: If you largely prefer one half of a narrative over the other, well, you sit through the less engaging portion in hopes of returning to the one you like (I could make a reference to how this mirrors several characters’ journeys in the series, but I’ll let that one lie). I desperately wanted to like this series more. With a cast this great, you already know the performances should be on point. I also love a great psychological horror story as much as the next person. But this? This wasn’t so much a psychological horror as it was a colossal disappointment. If you are a huge King fan – and especially if you love this novel – I suspect you will find the series much more palatable that I did. But if you’re just looking for an interesting new show to check out? I would give this a pass.

Lisey’s Story premieres on AppleTV+ on Friday, June 4. All eight episodes of the series were provided for review.