Yesterday, the Prime Video miniseries Carrie launched. All eight episodes dropped at once. Which, okay, I guess.
Today, we’re just going to talk about episode one, cleverly titled First Period.
We begin our story with a 911 call. Several, actually, all about a fire at a high school. Then about a sinkhole in the middle of Main Street. Then, about the dead bodies littering the ground.
This appears to be the beginning of a documentary. Through the course of the episode, we see clips of Carrie’s fellow students talking about Prom Night.
Bloody, bloody Prom Night.
We’re soon introduced to our main character, Carrie. And by we, I mean the audience and the whole town. Because, before her father died in a grisly accident, no one knew she and her mother even lived in the house. They were found hiding in the closet of their own home after police came to investigate the death of Ralph White.
Family Service gets involved, never a good thing. And the social worker agrees that Margaret White should keep custody of her daughter. Which is great, since she hasn’t done anything illegal yet. But she has to get a job, and she has to enroll Carrie in school.
Carrie is thrilled by this. She’s excited to make friends and learn new things.
She quickly makes friends with a girl named Sue Snell. Sue’s mom was among the people who originally found Carrie and her mom. So, Sue kind of tries to keep an eye out for her.
Unfortunetly, this gets under the skin of Sue’s best friend, Chris.
Chris is having a rough time right now. Her parents are going through a divorce. Her mom’s not home, and her dad is just failing to parent. Worse, despite having a ridiculous amount of money, her parents can’t afford to send her to Duke, the college she was accepted to. So when her best friend starts making a new friend, she takes her anger out on Carrie.
Carrie, on the other hand, doesn’t take her anger out on anyone. She just causes things to explode or break when she’s upset. And there’s a lot that upsets her.
See, the problem is that Carrie’s been incredibly sheltered. She had no idea that school shootings happened. So when there’s a school shooting drill, she thinks the school is actually under attack and is terrified.
Side note. I didn’t have active shooter drills in school. Someone younger than me, can you tell us in the comments if the show depicted what these are actually like?
Of course, this is all sets the stage for the iconic locker room scene. Carrie gets her first period after gym and has no idea what’s happening to her. Chris throws her in the shower, then begins pelting her with tampons and pads. At her encouragement, the other girls start doing the same.
Sue doesn’t participate. She doesn’t stop it either, though.
This leads to Carrie breaking down and shattering the lights. She also manages to get the attention of someone. Someone who I bet is going to become very important as the series goes on.
I’d like to start by making one thing clear. It’s apparent by the end of this episode that we are not dealing with the original story from the 1974 novel. Which is good, because I actually didn’t like that book.
Being the huge King fan that I am, that might be shocking. But I think I’m going to like this one.
That being said, the show does assume you’ve read the novel, or are at least aware of the story. It doesn’t pretend that the fire and blood on Prom Night is going to be a surprise to anyone. We go into this knowing there’s going to be a massacre, and why.
Sue says it best, near the end of the episode. “You’re asking the wrong questions.” And we are asking the wrong questions if we expect this story to have the same twists and gory surprises as the original. No, the last few minutes of this episode made it very clear that we’re telling a different story. One that, I suspect, might have something to do with King’s novel Firestarter.
There was a lot to love about this episode. First off, I like that the high school kids actually look like high school kids. Which is kind of surprising, actually. When the movie Carrie came out, Sue Snell was played by Amy Irving. Irving was 22 at the time. Sienna Agudong, who plays Sue in the TV series, is currently 22. Summer H. Howell, who plays Carrie, is also currently 22. Sissy Spacek was 25.
Maybe people just look younger to me now.
Another thing I really loved was the Right Wing craziness. While the original religious fervor of Margaret White was scary, this feels more modern and even scarier.
Carrie’s mom is the perfect example of what happens when the ‘Trad Wife’ experience goes bad. And it very often goes bad.
There’s an old saying that you can’t plan for the three D’s in life. Death, Disability, and Divorce. Well, Ralph White died, leaving his wife to support their daughter with no money and a huge gap in her job history.
Of course, that doesn’t mean how she treats Carrie is right. Look, I guess some arguments could be made that it wouldn’t make sense to explain school shootings to a homeschooled kid. But how do you have a teenage daughter and not explain what her menstrual cycle is? There’s no way that ends up being a net positive for that kid.
Basically, what I’m saying is that anything Carrie does is actually her mom’s fault.
This episode was a lot of fun. I’m excited to see where the story goes, now that it’s been made clear that we aren’t sticking with the source material. I’ll be back soon with a review of episode two.
Not tomorrow, though. No, Killer Queens, our Coven needs us.
Want more Stephen King adaptations? Check out my favorites here.
My book, Station 86 Volume One, is available now on Amazon! It’s got two dark sci-fi stories about murder and mayhem on the station of First Contact.
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