This show has dated BADLY and stinks of CHEESE

I agree with you. I saw the original miniseries about 5 or 6 years ago and had the same problems as you have with it. I usually dismiss calls for remakes but when I heard this was being remade I felt it was a great choice of material that could easily be improved upon, from a story I was always intrigued by. They did a good job with the remake. Better developed characters, pacing, cinematography, practically everything over the original.

While I don't disagree with your conclusions, I think it has to be pointed out that the television environment was much different in the late-80s/early-90s when this was produced and aired. We were not yet in the golden age of television and there was a pretty clear line of demarcation in terms of quality between television productions and films that went to the cinema. That doesn't really change much in terms of its quality, but understanding that does help to properly set expectations.

I just watched this for the first time tonight. I had seen clips in the past that looked like they had been recorded off TV to VHS tape and I thought it looked awful. But when SyFy aired it today I decided to catch it, and theirs was a very nice, clean HD transfer. I have to say, this boost in the visuals helped a lot.

It's still not very good--though I'll point out that I felt the first half was much better and more interesting than the second half--but it's better than I expected it to be. The impression I had always gotten in the past was that it was damn near unwatchable, and yet today I watched the whole thing.

Certainly it's quite far from the best Stephen King mini-series, however. It's miles behind what I think is the best of them all: The now largely forgotten Storm of the Century. If you haven't seen that one, you really should check it out. It's very good.

FIRST HALF=9 OUT OF 10...SECOND HALF=4 OUT OF 10.