I liked the first season of Stephen King’s Under the Dome TV adaptation well enough and I stuck with the show even though it deviated a lot from the book (I only saw the first half of the book. I’m still working on it) but after I saw the premiere of the new season, I am sure that I will like watching this series more now. Here are just some of the reasons why:

1. Two of my most hated characters are dead. Yes, it might sound insensitive to some of their fans but there are just some characters that you couldn’t wait to just get rid of and for me, these two are part of that category. I’m not going to divulge who they are (in case you haven’t seen the episode yet) but here’s a hint. They can be found on this list.

2. New characters. I am liking the new characters who have appeared in the first episode — Sam Verdreaux, Big Jim’s estranged brother in law, the mysterious girl from Junior’s mom’s sketchpad, Junior’s mom, who is apparently alive on the other side of the dome, and Rebecca, the Science teacher, who’s kind of quirky, which I like. It ought to be fun to see how well they play with the other residents of Chester’s Mill.

3. Its all a mess. Nobody really knows what’s going on. Weird things are happening and Angie keeps wanting to kill Big Jim while Big Jim is having issues with the dome himself. The first episode raised tons of questions like why are all the dead people walking around town and making appearances, or why the dome suddenly became magnetic,  and a ton of other questions– which I hope they will be able to answer in the following episodes. I read that the show will be departing from the book a lot more because they never expected to have a second season and basically covered the major stuff in the first season, so we’ll see how it goes. Good thing is, the possibilities are endless. Bad news is they might drop the ball as they go along. For now, its too early to tell.

4. Stephen King’s cameo. In case you missed it, Mr. King makes a very short appearance at Sweetbriar Rose as one of the diner’s patrons who asks Angie for a coffee refill after the drama with Big Jim, Julia and Barbie.

So for starters, I’m on board with this new direction for Season 2. Basically, the show is less dark and a lot less engaging than the book but it does have its good and bad moments, so I’m still willing to stick it out and see this through.