Personally I thought it was absolutely phenomenal. It gave a fresh perspective on one of my favourite stories, and modernized it really well. It explored so many topical themes and gave really good insights on life for school children. I thought the characterization stood out the most to me. The depth these characters were given was amazing. I think choosing to make Carrie's mother a more ambiguous character rather than being flat out evil was a really good choice. It helped explore something different within the story, it focused more on themes like generational abuse, the dangers of conspiracy theories, how religion is abused. It showcased her mother as a victim of manipulation and abuse as well, which helps us further understand her character. Deep down, she just wants what's best for her child, but she is completely blinded by her beliefs. What I think they did was sort of transferer that evil onto Chris. Chris is one of the most hateable characters I have ever seen. She has an insane amount of times to redeem herself and she doesn't take any of them. She is absolute pure evil, and it creates a very clear villain for the story. This evil helps explain her actions more and make them more realistic. Things like the period scene and the prom scene wouldn't typically happen today because of culture shifts, but her evil allows her to take it that step further. It's why she never takes down the account, why she does all of these cruel things to Carrie. She is supposed to be the polar opposite to Carrie. Carrie is presented as an extremely kind and pure person. Even when she has been hurt beyond what she could ever handle, she still thinks Chris' apology would be enough. Carrie perfectly showcases a sheltered child, who just has the purest intentions. This makes her snap even more effective, as we can see all this stuff piling up on her, and it all comes crashing down at once. This juxtaposition between Carrie and Chris works so well. We see two completely different ends of the spectrum, and to see Carrie finally take power over Chris is extremely satisfying for us to watch. All of the other characters are presented and built really well, all of the actors and actresses did a wonderful job. I would go into the themes explored but that would take ages because there is such a wide range of them. One criticism I do have is the whole 'other people' cult there was going on. I felt as though they focused too much on that at times, when it should have been more subtle. That sort of concept could work really well, especially considering it's based off of a Stephen King novel, but they did not execute it as well as they could have. All in all Mike Flanagan did another amazing job at a TV adaption.
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