* UNDER THE DOME. 10 tonight, CBS3.
A SMALL Maine town, cut off from the outside world, sounds like a glorious vacation.
Trust Stephen King to see the downside.
The master of horror brings his peculiar worldview to CBS today with the launch of a 13-episode series, "Under the Dome."
Based on King's 2009 novel, it chronicles what happens when a transparent, soundproof dome comes slamming down over the town of Chester's Mill, flattening houses, slicing livestock in half - yes, that's the money shot - and trapping neighbors and strangers alike with all kinds of problems they won't be able to run away from.
So, sort of like CBS' other summer series, "Big Brother," but with better special effects. (One not-so-special effect that reportedly was cut from the pilot after it was sent to critics: the voice of President Obama, repurposed from remarks he made at the American Red Cross during Hurricane Sandy last year.)
Dean Norris ("Breaking Bad") stars as "Big Jim" Rennie, a local politician who may know more than he's telling about the town's sudden isolation.
Natalie Martinez ("CSI: NY") plays a deputy sheriff, and Rachel Lefevre ("A Gifted Man") a local journalist who befriends a stranger in town (played by Abington native Mike Vogel) while her doctor husband's away, somewhere on the other side of the dome.
That small towns aren't immune from the same problems that plague big cities isn't an original idea, and having the people living in them face some overwhelming menace isn't new territory for King.
But the dome's a little different, and certainly a welcome break from zombie apocalypses.
And 13 weeks seems just about right for a claustrophobic conspiracy tale that, come fall, might begin to feel tiresome.
Yes, they can
If we all woke up tomorrow to a world without pageants, I, for one, wouldn't miss them a bit.
So I was skeptical about "Miss You Can Do It," a documentary about a pageant for girls with special needs that premieres tonight (9 p.m., HBO).
Do we really need even more little girls parading around in gowns and makeup?
But in creating her nonprofit event, Abbey Curran, who has cerebral palsy and in 2008 broke ground as a competitor for Miss USA, has come up with a model that might make all child pageants a little more palatable.
And I'm not just talking about the part where everyone goes home with a trophy.
As depicted in the film, it looks like a fun, unpressured weekend for the girls and their families, several of whom are profiled.
The mothers seem to have a healthy sense of proportion, and so do their kids, who aren't being asked to be anyone but themselves.
Curran, whose car's license plate reminds us that she was Miss Iowa, hopes that these pageant parents will learn to let their kids take a few more chances, just as she has, rather than shielding them from even the possibility of rejection.
If you need an antidote to the horror that is "Toddlers & Tiaras" (not to mention its benighted spin-off, "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo"), here it is.
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