Under the Dome 1.03 “Manhunt” Review: Judging Junior

Well, tonight’s episode of Under the Dome did not do anything to assuage the fears I had from last week. After a pretty solid pilot, it appears that Under the Dome will simply be a lazy, cliche-ridden, and, worst of all, boring summer show that wastes the time of some of its more talented cast members (sure, let’s keep Britt Robertson stuck in a cellar for three episodes!) and instead focuses on characters that are uninteresting and actors that are, quite frankly, not very good. This is really a shame, because with the record-breaking numbers that Under the Dome is raking in this summer, it should be providing more solid, intelligent, and fun entertainment for its viewers.

For all my complaints about Under the Dome (and there’s an endless list of them), one reason I am always happy to tune in every week is to see Dean Norris and Mike Vogel doing some great work in each episode. While most of the characters and actors on Under the Dome are problematic, Norris and Vogel instill life into Big Jim and Barbie, making them feel like actual people. The scenes between the two of them, while they were out on the manhunt, were by far the best parts of tonight’s episode and the only thing I enjoyed watching.

However, since Norris and Vogel were the only parts of tonight’s episode that I actually liked, let’s get into the several issues that plague Under the Dome. The show’s lazy writing continued tonight, whether it was Rachel randomly spelling out her backstory for Junior (in a failed attempt to get us to care even a little bit about either of these two characters) or using painfully cliche dialogue from Carolyn (“Welcome to the 21st century!”) to make a point about gay marriage to two awfully written, ignorant, homophobic stereotypes. Under the Dome also suffers from poorly written characters (Julia, Joe, newly appointed Sheriff Linda) and extremely poor acting from much of its cast, especially its younger cast members, although I was less irritated with Colin Ford as Joe this week than I have been in the past two episodes (The actor who plays Joe’s friend, Ben, though; don’t even get me started on how painful it is to watch that kid “act”).

The biggest problem that Under the Dome has, however, can simply be stated in one word: Junior. The character of Junior is a walking, talking disaster. Every action he takes is either laughably melodramatic (his punching of the dome, yelling out “I hate you” to it, or pouring his glass of milk down the drain after Big Jim tells him to drink it. What a badass, am I right?) or just completely unlikable (he keeps telling everyone in this episode that Barbie attacked him for no reason, he’s still keeping Angie locked up down in the cellar). Alexander Koch’s lackluster performance only adds more fuel to the fire, solidifying Junior as one of the most irritating TV characters in recent memory.

Although Under the Dome is now a huge summer ratings hit for CBS, it has a lot of kinks it really needs to work out. I really want Under the Dome to become a show that deserves the type of audience numbers that it is bringing in, but in its past two episodes, the show hasn’t given me even the faintest glimmer of hope that there’s a chance of that happening. And when a character like Junior is dominating screen time for most of an episode, let’s be honest: your show is pretty much destined for trouble.

What does everyone else think about Under the Dome? Are you still enjoying it? Why or why not?