Why is it in most science fiction stories (especially stories that feature the fall out from a scientific experiment gone wrong) when everyone is telling the main scientist that the experiment is going dangerously wrong, the lead scientist demands they continue with the experiment? And then, I repeat AND THEN, they go ahead and let the experiment continue knowing what is going to happen! Well, I guess I don’t really have to wonder; the answer is simple: If they stopped we wouldn’t have a story now would we? So, Dr. Toddhunter is performing “agricultural” experiments at a lab, but is he really? He ignores all warnings from his assistants and the lab is rocked by an explosion. Everyone in the lab either dies at the moment of explosion or they die in the hazmat unit at the hospital. Toddhunter seems fine.
There is one other person that was exposed in the explosion and that is the seventy year old janitor Harlan. Prior to the explosion Harlan is told he is being fired because he has failed his most recent physical due to failing eyesight. Harlan, along with those that die in the explosion all exhibit green glowing eyes shortly after the exposure. After leaving the hospital Harlan goes to get his eyes rechecked to prove his eyesight is just fine. He passes with flying colors. Eventually, Harlan realizes he is aging in reverse. At the same time, a secret government agency called The Shop is investigating the accident and Harlan goes on the run. The Shop just happens to be the same government agency that appears in Stephen King’s story Firestarter.
After watching Twin Peaks on TV Stephen King said “Hey, I could write something like that.”. and he did and Golden Years is what he wrote. Originally the idea was for the miniseries to be the jumping off point for a regular series. That series never happened unfortunately, and the show ended on a cliffhanger. Thus, leaving the story without any sort of resolution. Luckily with the help of some extra scenes that were never shown during the original TV run that were added in for the DVD release it gives Golden Years a proper ending. So besides Stephen King who wrote the screenplays for the first five episodes and an outline for the final two who else gives us Golden Years? Starring as Harlan is Keith Szarabajka (A Perfect World and The Equalizer TV series) and Harlan’s wife Gina is played by Frances Sternhagen (Misery and The Mist making her a Stephen King veteran).
Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives and Transamerica) is Terry Spann one of The Shop’s operatives assigned to investigate the explosion as well as the character that Gillian Anderson based her X-Files agent on; at least I can only assume but watch just the first hour of Golden Years and you’ll see what I mean. Stephen Root (Office Space and King of the Hill) as Major Moreland who is in charge of the shady lab where the explosion occurs, and R.D. Call (Waterworld and Murder By Numbers) is Jude Andrews who is also from The Shop however he is not there to help Harlan and Gina but to capture him and kill her.
Man I wish I liked this more than I do. Of course for that to happen I would need it to be a little shorter and a lot more interesting. Originally a series of seven one hour episodes (about 40 minutes after commercials and credits are taken out) I can’t imagine more than two or three of the episodes would be considered good or better. Most of them I would suggest are boring and pointless containing little more than filler in order to stretch it out. Other than to see Felicity Huffman who is the main star here, I don’t care who the show was about she is the main attraction, and unlike that college admissions office, she didn’t pay me to say that. I have to face reality here and give this just two Benjamin Buttons out of five.
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