You Can Binge Watch One Of The Very Best Stephen King TV Shows On Streaming In Under 5 Hours
While 2024’s Salem’s Lot movie adaptation was a disappointment, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper’s miniseries of the same name from 1978 is an endlessly influential genre classic. Similarly, although director Stanley Kubrick’s movie version of The Shining is seen as a masterpiece of horror filmmaking, 1997’s The Shining TV miniseries is a much more divisive effort whose hammy performances and dated effects leave a lot to be desired.
Storm Of The Century Is A Great Stephen King TV Show – And Isn’t Even Based On A Book
The Hulu Streaming Series is A Rare Original King Show
With so many Stephen King TV shows to sort through, it is perhaps best to turn to the man himself to find out which of his small-screen adaptations he likes the most. In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, King said that 1999’s Storm of the Century was his favorite of the many TV shows based on his work. Interestingly enough, Storm of the Century isn’t adapted from an existing King short story or novel. Instead, King wrote the show for television himself, making it uniquely suited to the medium.
Storm of the Century’s iconic Stephen King villain Andre Linoge is a creepy, seemingly supernatural antagonist who has in-depth knowledge of all the town’s secrets.
This miniseries, which is available to stream on Hulu, blends many of King’s best recurring themes into an inventive, unpredictable original story.
Linoge uses this knowledge to pit the community against each other, eventually revealing a terrible demand underpinning his evil deeds. The isolated location calls to mind The Mist, while the supernatural villain is reminiscent of The Stand’s Randall Flagg. The premise of this newcomer knowing all the town’s secrets could bring viewers back to Needful Things, while his gradual infiltration of the community has shades of Salem’s Lot. Thus, this miniseries, which is available to stream on Hulu, blends many of King’s best recurring themes into an inventive, unpredictable original story.
Stephen King Himself Loves Storm Of The Century
King Called Storm of the Century His Favourite Of His TV Adaptations
There are no missing subplots to disappoint book readers, nor is there the unshakable feeling that a larger story has been condensed for the sake of time. On the other hand, there are no extraneous storylines that feel like padding, something many of King’s longer novels are accused of indulging in. Instead, Storm of the Century manages to find a balance and gets the best of both worlds.
2025 Will Hopefully Have A New Contender Among The Best Stephen King Shows
It’s Spinoff Could Outdo Welcome To Derry
Welcome to Derry could be as cinematic and ambitious as the original movies, and could expand the world of the series with its longer runtime.
Since 2017’s It is one of the most financially and critically successful Stephen King adaptations to date, it stands to reason that this prequel could outdo even Storm of the Century upon its arrival. While the horrors of Derry weren’t as effective in the uneven It: Chapter Two, Bill Skarsgard’s return as Pennywise proves this series won’t be a mere cash-in. Instead, Welcome to Derry could be as cinematic and ambitious as the original movies, and could expand the world of the series with its longer runtime.

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If Welcome to Derry lives up to its potential, the show could be even better than Storm of the Century. Both are small-town horror stories, but Welcome to Derry has a sprawling, multi-generational canvas on which to paint its twisted masterpiece. That said, this could result in the Stephen King series feeling more shapeless than the comparatively tight, tense Storm of the Century.