The James Wan-producedTeacupwas one of my most anticipated 2024 horror shows, but the showrunner’s claim it essentially ignores the source novel makes me nervous. Peacock’sTeacupstars Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman as a couple in Georgia who, alongside their neighbors, find themselves under siege by an otherworldly threat.The trailer forTeacuptakes notes fromLost’splaybook, keeping things very mysterious, but those who’ve read the book it adapts - Robert R. McCammon’sStinger -will have a clearer idea of what’s happening.
Stingerfeels like an unmade sequel toThe Thingand involves an alien bounty hunter trapping a desert town inside an impenetrable dome. This creature can also absorb other lifeforms and make drones of them, with its signature attack being a spiky, barbed tail. I foundStingerto be a pulpy guilty pleasure, featuring both creepy scenes of horror and large-scale action. While I already knewTeacupwould be stripping away most of those elements, I didn’t realize exactly how much until now.
Stephen King Has Big Praise For New Horror Series, Compares It To From & Lost
Stephen King shares praise for an upcoming horror series, comparing it to Lost, citing several reasons why audiences should be excited for it.
I Hate That James Wan’s Teacup Will Ignore “99%” Of Stinger
Teacup will borrow the basic premise and little else from Robert R. McCammon’s book
To be clear, I don’t thinkStingeritself is high art; it reads like a trashyStephen King bookthat suffers from too many characters and subplots. Still, it’s a very entertaining read and is packed with great concepts.Early word onTeacupmade it clear there would be major changes from the novel, including moving the setting from Texas to Georgia and dropping most of the ensemble and action sequences in favor of more intimate horror. It was not until showrunner Ian McCulloch spoke toBloody Disgustingthat I realizedTeacupwould be “99.8” different fromStinger.
It was taking the basic conceit of the book and seeing if it would work. To my mind, the book exists. If you want the experience of the book, go read the book. This is a very different thing. To everybody’s credit, they let us, me and my writers, go as far as we wanted. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find more than two or three things that have survived from the book.
I understand that it’s the central conceit that spoke to McCulloch more so than the story itself, and it inspired him to go in a different direction. That said, it feels weirdly disrespectful to swap the premise fromStinger, then toss the book into the corner and do something entirely different.It sounds likeTeacupcould have just been its own original sci-fi series entirely, which then could have allowed other filmmakers to attempt a more faithful take onStinger.
Luciano Leroux
Nicholas Shanley
It also sounds like the Peacock adaptation is embarrassed to be linked to McCammon’sStinger, and wants to put distance between it andTeacup. I was all for the show being more horror-focused and ditching the more bombastic elements - like a chase between the titular monster and a helicopter - but it sounds likeTeacupis just droppingStingerentirely,
Teacup’s Approach To Stinger Has Made Me Less Excited For The Show
I wanted to see Stinger in live action
Stingerwas published way back in 1988 and very much reads like a 1980s monster movie, such asThe BloborAliens. It’s big and brash and features a showdown with “Stinger’s” horrific true form in the final chapters. When the Peacock version was first announced, I doubted the novel would be faithfully translated, but I was still excited to see what McCammon’s tale would look like in live action.
Since reading about McCulloch’s approach, I’ve found myself far less excited forTeacup. It sounds like it’s reworking the story into a mystery box series in the vein ofLostorFrom. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it’s fundamentally not what the novel was about.I would have been more excited for producer James Wan to have directed a big-budgetStingermovie instead, and one that embraced the B-movie roots of the source material instead of running away from them.
Teacup Could Still End Up Surprising Me
It might be Stinger in name only, but Teacup has some impressive talent
In defense of McCulloch’s approach, he did state that “We talked to Robert McCammon about it before we moved forward, and he read the first script and signed off on it.”IfStinger’sauthor gaveTeacuphis blessing, it’s at least worth a curiosity watchbefore being dismissed. Again, the book itself left room for improvement, and McCulloch’s previous work on series likeYellowstoneandDeputyinspires confidence. I highly doubt performers like Yvonne Strahovski or Kathy Baker would have signed on without feeling the show had merit either.
It sounds like the best approach to take is to put Stinger totally out of my mind and enjoy Teacup for what it is, instead of what I hoped it would be.
I won’t denyTeacuppretendingStingerdoesn’t exist hasn’t cooled my excitement for it, but in a way, that’s made me curious as to what it will actually be. It sounds like the best approach to take is to putStingertotally out of my mind and enjoyTeacupfor what it is, instead of what I hoped it would be. Hopefully, its changes will be justified and its remixing of the plot will result in one of 2024’s best new horror shows; a scorpion monster cameo would be nice too, though.
Yvonne Strahovski previously faced off with unfriendly aliens inThe PredatorandThe Tomorrow War.
Teacup
Cast
Teacup is a horror thriller series that follows a group of people thrust into the middle of rural Georgia who must face off with an unknown threat to stay alive.
