Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lisey’s Story’ On Apple TV+, A Stephen King Story Where Julianne Moore Plays The Widow Of A Mysteriously Dark Author

Lisey’s Story is a novel that’s close to Stephen King‘s heart, because it was generated from a vision of what his office would look like after he died, something that almost happened 22 years ago when he was hit by a van in his home state of Maine. So, any adaptation of the show for television would have likely not gone forward unless King himself adapted it. Enter Apple; it was able to use its massive resources to bring in King as well as J.J. Abrams and a top cast on the project. But how well does it bring one of King’s favorite novels to life?

LISEY’S STORY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A young redheaded girl swings on a swing set in front of her family’s station wagon. Then we see a somewhat older girl or woman swinging under a colorful tree in autumn.

The Gist: It’s been two years since Scott Landon (Clive Owen), best-selling author of dark thrillers, died, and his widow, Lisa “Lisey” Debusher Landon (Julianne Moore) is still reeling from it. She has disjointed dreams about being with him, about the day he was shot by a deranged fan, and about swimming in their cold, lead strewn pool. When she wakes up in his basement study, she’s surrounded by boxes and boxes of manuscripts and other papers of Scott’s.

She gets a call from her older sister Amanda (Joan Allen); she talks about someone abandoning her, then Lisey hears a cup shatter over the phone; she knows that the next step is Amanda cutting herself. She calls her younger sister Darla (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who was on her way over to Amanda’s for lunch, and alerts her. But when Lisey tries to leave, she’s blocked by Professor Dashmiel (Ron Cephas Jones), a colleague of Scott’s; he has been trying to get Scott’s papers since his death, and Lisey won’t let them go. He’s now resorting to confronting her in person and insulting her claim to his work. She angrily drives around him then backs into his car before leaving.

When she gets to Amanda’s she’s in the middle of a severe break, close to catatonic. The only person that knew how to bring Amanda out of this was Scott, and in Amanda’s vision of it, he seems to be sucking water out of her lungs. Scott has told Lisey on different occasions to “find the clues, and win a prize.” Since she’s desperate to figure out how to bring Amanda out of her state, she does start looking for clues.

Part of that is thinking back to the hospital after Scott was shot (no, that’s not when he died), and then seeing the ceremonial shovel she used to injure the shooter. It has a tag with a clue on it. That clue leads her to the number of a doctor Scott contacted; he already paid for inpatient treatment for Amanda, and she could go whenever she was too far gone.

In the meantime, Dashmiel gets in touch with a demented former student named Jim Dooley (Dane DeHaan), who is obsessed with Scott’s life and career and also feels that Lisey isn’t fit to carry on his legacy. He threatens her over the phone, and she simply tells him to “go fuck yourself.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? In tone, Lisey’s Story has the feel of another Apple TV+ series, the M. Night Shyamalan-produced series Servant. Though it’s certainly weirder than that show.

Our Take: Lisey’s Story, based on Stephen King’s 2006 novel, has a lot of huge names in front of and behind the camera, not the least of which is J.J. Abrams and King himself; he wrote the teleplay for each episode. Director Pablo Larraín has created a dreamy-but-creepy mental hellscape for Lisey to navigate (some of which was shot not far from where my family lives in New Jersey).

In the hands of different writers, actors and director, the first episode might have been a disjointed mess. But with Moore at the center, with Leigh, Owen and Allen in support, the first episode of Lisey’s Story hangs together reasonably well. We’re not given much of a clue about just what demons were torturing Scott, how he died, and how he’s communicating this information to Lisey from beyond the grave. We have no idea which memories of Lisey’s actually happened or are manufactured, though near the end of the episode, when we see the couple frantically dancing to “Good Love” at their wedding reception, it becomes a bit more evident.

But because King is so capable of writing creepy scares, and because of Moore’s ability to convey the roiling emotions within Lisey with just a quizzical-bordering-on-distraught look, the first episode is able to rope you in, despite the lack of any real information it gives viewers about Lisey, Scott or virtually any of the other characters.

One thing we’re not sold on yet is DeHaan’s character Jimmy. He seems like the standard-grade deranged lunatic that King has been giving viewers and readers since at least The Shining. Perhaps he’ll deepen as the show goes along. But in a first episode that deals with a lot of inner trauma, the threat of this external trauma from the crazed Jimmy feels like a distraction.

Lisey’s Story is the definition of a slow burn series; because it doesn’t impart a ton of information at its start, it’s fully reliant on visuals and performances to hook viewers. Because of the cast and the Larraín’s visuals, we’re interested. But something needs to progress as we go along for us to remain interested.

Sex and Skin: Maybe some lingering scenes of Scott and Lisey staring at each other, but that’s it.

Parting Shot: As we see Jimmy psych himself up to confront Lisey, we see a memory of Scott, on the ground bleeding from the gunshot wound, telling Lisey about “Long Boy.” Then Lisey, in the morning light, walks out into the yard of their farm and tries to see what’s there.

Sleeper Star: We’ll watch Ron Cephas Jones read the phone book, so we hope to see more of him as the not-so-nice Professor Dashmiel.

Most Pilot-y Line: An extended scene where Jimmy intimidates a librarian into displaying one of Scott’s favorite children’s books on the top of a shelf. It’s supposed to show how intimidating and weird he is, but it also goes on for far too long.

Our Call: SKIP IT. While acting and visuals in the first episode are excellent, and we have some hope that Lisey’s Story will go beyond just imagery and symbolism and give us an actual story, it feels like it will ultimately end up being a bit too frustrating to follow week-to-week.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Lisey's Story On Apple TV+