The Mist Review: Pilot (Season 1 Episode 1)

The mist! The mist! There’s something in the mist!

What it is and why it is we don’t exactly know yet, because The Mist Season 1 Episode 1 focuses more on the characters we’ll get to know this season rather than the mysterious mist rolling into the small town of Bridgeville, Maine.

That’s a good thing as different groups of characters are going to be stuck together in various places throughout town while the mist broods outside waiting. And it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Spike’s The Mist isn’t a literal interpretation of the Stephen King story it is based on. Instead, creator and showrunner Christian Torpe mixes it up with different characters and situations yet keeps the spirit of King’s story intact.

The mist is scary, and so are the people trapped in its grasp.

We first meet the mist when Bryan wakes up in the woods not knowing where or who he is.

His dog is there with him, which provides him with some sort of comfort. That is until the mist comes — and whatever monsters are creeping around in it brutally kill the poor pup.

The aftermath is disturbing, but it quickly lets us know how vicious the mist can be. We know what it can do, and so does Bryan, but when he arrives in Bridgeville with a warning, no one takes him seriously.

Instead, the cops lock him up, and everyone goes about their business.

And that’s all we see of the mist until the very end of the hour.

Until then, we are introduced to other characters and their drama like nature freak Natalie, mysterious Mia, and the Copeland family.

Eve Copeland is an interesting character full of conflict. She’s just been put on administrative leave for teaching sex education without board approval, yet she’s overprotective of her daughter, Alex.

There are too many bad things out there that she doesn’t want Alex to fall into. She wants to save Alex’s reputation by keeping her from the things that destroyed Eve’s own reputation.

She’s trying to be a good mom, she really is, but stifling Alex isn’t the way to go.  Or is it? Alex’s dad, Kevin, tries to get Eve to loosen up, but she’s not willing.

When Alex is drugged at raped at a party she wasn’t supposed to go to, Eve is furious at her husband who had gone behind her back and allowed Alex to go.

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare to see their child hurt, and sometimes families don’t recover from such tragedies.

The police get involved, but the prime suspect is the police captain’s son, Jay. In a small town like Bridgeville, that’s going to be a little touchy.

The only other witness willing to talk is Adrian, Alex’s sexually fluid BFF, which makes you wonder why he didn’t do anything to stop it.  Or what exactly he was doing when it all happened.

Eve’s way of dealing with the situation is to leave town with Alex. She doesn’t want Kevin with her which is understandable. Had it not been for Kevin none of this would have happened.

But Eve’s other way of dealing with things is via Valium which is why they stop at the mall on the way out of town.  By the time she picks up her prescription, the mist rolls in, and they’re stuck with no way out.

There’s a nice nod to the original story when Mrs. Carmody makes an appearance. In this version, she’s the one who instigated the temporary firing of Eve, and just like the original, she’s not a nice person.

It was nice to see Eve stand up for herself when Mrs. Carmody made her snarky remark. Someone needed to put that woman in her place.

Sure, we only met her for a few moments, but who didn’t feel a bit of satisfaction when Mrs. Carmody went out into the mist and was promptly attacked?

It’s interesting that it was her jaw that was torn off — maybe the mist was punishing her for her nasty mouth.

The mist has enveloped the entire town.

Over at the police station, one of the cops gets attacked by huge, ugly bugs while standing in the mist. Why did he feel the need to take a selfie with the mist while everyone else went inside? What was the point?

Is this a social commentary on people’s need to take selfies everywhere they go? If he had been more aware of his surroundings he would have seen those ugly bugs coming for him.

Poor choice,  Mr. Police Officer.

But this is a horror story and that’s what people do. They make poor choices. It makes it a lot more fun, right? How boring would it be if everyone made the right choice, like Mia, for example?

Mysterious Mia got herself locked up for breaking and entering. We don’t know much about her other than she tried to dig up a bagful of money before she got caught.

We also know she’s pretty she’s handy with a gun because she saves Kevin’s life when the bug-eaten police officer comes back into the station.

There was no hope for the guy, so Mia just put him out of his misery, but it did look like he was ready to consume Kevin’s face.

It’s starting to get crazy all over Bridgeville. Even nature lovers aren’t immune to the terrors inside the mist.

Nature lover Natalie already experienced a little strangeness earlier when a bunch of toads jumped out of the lake and stared at her. This should have sent her running, but she went to the library with her husband instead.

Her hubby dies when they leave the library, but what did they know? It just looked like a thick fog.

Still, why did they think they could ride their bikes home?

Wouldn’t it have been dangerous to bike through something so thick you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face?

Once again, poor choices.

But, then again, what was causing the guy who killed her husband to be so erratic? Is the mist messing with people’s minds?

The mist has taken over the town and people are trapped in the mall, the church, and the police station. Everyone has seen what the mist is capable of and it’s incomprehensible to them.

They’re scared, and they should be.

What will they do, and how will they survive? What monsters are lurking in the mist? Will it ever go away? Why is it here?

These are all questions sure to be answered as the series progresses.

The Mist might be full of small town stereotypes, but the situation in which the characters are now placed is rather intriguing.

Will they be able to put the past behind them and work together to save themselves?

This is a horror story and it’s meant to a bit cheesy. Characters are going to do things that don’t make sense because that’s what horror stories do, but like any good horror story, there’s a good amount of tension to keep us on the edge of our seats.

What did you think of this episode of The Mist? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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The Mist airs Thursdays at 10/9c on Spike.

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