Deluded by the dome

Under the Dome
Tuesdays, 8.30pm, Channel 10
The biggest mystery of Under the Dome is why I’m still watching this dud show.
And yet, I haven’t missed a week – most weeks, I tape it. If you work out why, let me know.
Much-hyped and fast-tracked from the US with a Stephen King pedigree, Under the Dome is designed to appeal to the Gen Y slacker mystics who make Channel 10 their spiritual kibbutz.
It’s the only thing I “watch” on the channel.
Like a soapie, watching five minutes or so each half-hour of this melodrama will be enough to keep you in touch.
So a mysterious clear, Perspex-like force field descended on the small fictional American town of Chester’s Mill. And that’s about it.
The characters aren’t particularly engaging – save despotic mayor Big Jim (Hank from Breaking Bad, whose bald head is like a dome replica) a species recognisable to all devotees of local government anywhere.
Things got really weird when some kids found an “egg” in the bush, with a hatching butterfly – the monarch will be born, whatever that means.
It’s a show that plays on America’s post-9/11 fear and paranoia, tapping into the same rich vein as shows like Homeland and Jericho.
And we just got a glimpse of who might be behind the dome – when one of the kids’ dead mothers re-appeared (understandably much to their concern).
I’m still tipping aliens or ghosts – the usual suspect, the United States Government, seems as puzzled by this tosh as everyone else.
The hint seems to be that the aliens have whacked the dome in to protect the town from some outside catastrophe. Nice of them.
Oh, and “pink stars are falling” – except they seem to be going up.
Makes about as much sense as anything else in this weird-ass show.
Memo Stephen King, you false prophet. I want my life back.
– Jason Beck