Stephen King's Golden Years

The writer’s achievement here is to have provided us with the video equivalent of a good summer read — Golden Years is entertaining and substantial at the same time.

There's a lot to like about the show, even for those who've somehow missed reading his books or attending his movies...It helps, though, that "Years" is good story-telling, unlike "Twin Peaks," which corkscrewed itself into a Nielsen grave with a plethora of space cadets from the Northwest but no fixed address for plot.

Clearly, there are snakes in this fountain. And "Golden Years" promises to have a grand old time, in a fingernail-biting sense, trying to banish them. With the statue of the Blessed Virgin prominently on Harlan's mantelpiece, Mr. King is characteristically likely to find religious significance in all of this.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out this central plot device. But by the time King's script confirms that this character will indeed get younger, the audience has aged by almost two hours, although it might seem like four.