Imagine if you could travel back in time. Would you be like River Song and try to kill Hitler? Would you turn your dad into a cool dude? How about leap from life to life striving to make right what once was wrong? What if you only had one option for time and location and it was conveniently at the start of one of the nation’s most famous and important assassinations? Would you try to fix time?
The Hulu original series 11.22.63, based on the 2011 book by Stephen King, takes us on this adventure when Jake Epping (James Franco) discovers a hidden time portal in the closet at his friend Al’s diner that leads to the same location at exactly 1:58 a.m. on September 9, 1958. When you return through the portal, only two minutes’ time has passed in the present day, and everything will return to normal and reverse any changes made if you travel through the portal again. After Al discovered this portal he tried several times to fix one major mistake in time – the assassination of John F. Kennedy – but was hindered many times, ultimately becoming sick and needing somebody else to attempt the mission. That somebody else was Jake.
In this 8-part series, Jake compiles all of his friend’s work on the events occurring from September 1958 until November 1963, including cash to live on and the outcomes of all minor sporting events. In the 7 year span of his trip time finds ways to stop his attempts to change history, getting in his way even when he makes minor butterfly changes like picking up a book meant to stay where it was. Ignoring these events, he pushes on, investigating General Edwin Walker, Lee Harvey Oswald, and George de Mohrenschildt.
The TV series differs from the book in that Jake is accompanied by a new friend, Bill, whose sister was murdered by the father of one of Jake’s old students. Bill’s addition to the story allows it to flow better and introduce events at the same time without taking Jake out of what is happening to investigate another historical connection. If you have read the book, you may also remember the yellow-card man. In this series he makes several appearances outside his street side home from the outside of the time portal.
I was never a huge Stephen King fan, often preferring less description of gore as I do not enjoy seeing or imagining these aspects of horror. So when I picked this book up after many recommendations I was amazed at how wonderful it was. Although I had to have fans explain a couple references to other King works found in the story (as King is known to do in all his stories), I breezed through the phonebook-sized novel (kids, ask your parents what a phonebook is and what they used to look like) and loved learning about history through this context. Watching the events play out on screen similar to those in the book, as well as the many Kennedy documentaries and films from the last few years, I cannot wait until the final episode premieres.
11.22.63 is a weekly series on Hulu, with 6 episodes currently available in the 8-episode miniseries. Since you most likely binged Daredevil last weekend, why not binge-watch these 6 episodes to be ready for the final 2 coming up.