Comic-Con 2013: ‘Under the Dome’ Live-Blog

This is an odd one. In terms of pure ratings, CBS’ “Under the Dome” is certainly one of the most watched TV shows to hit Comic-Con this year. And yet here it is, squished into a mid-sized ballroom on the last afternoon of Comic-Con when everybody is either scurrying around on the floor looking for bargains or else celebrating the return of Dan Harmon to “Community” over in Hall H.

Weird.

Let’s see if there’s any enthusiasm at all from the Comic-Con faithful for CBS’ summer smash.

2:12 p.m. There are more people in this room than I might have guessed. I’m betting Brian K. Vaughan has something to do with it…

2:16 p.m. Oh. We’re watching this week’s episode. I guess I’ll start the live-blog afterwards.

2:59 p.m. I’ve been coming to Comic-Con for a decade, but this is my favorite so far,” Brian K. Vaughan says.

2:59 p.m. “When we’re writing the show, we want to know what’s coming next,” says Neal Baer, explaining that audiences are feeling the same way.

3:00 p.m. Brian K. Vaughan calls it a “surreal journey” to get to adapt the character who name-checked him in the book.

3:01 p.m. Rachelle Lefevre says that her character and Barbie “have a lot to talk about,” but that there’s chemistry between them.

3:03 p.m. “It just complicates things even more throwing the Julia of it all into the mix,” Mike Vogel says, noting that other characters will have to reconcile the good Barbie has done with the less-than-good he may have done previously.

3:05 p.m. “Don’t be judgmental. He’s just misunderstood. He’s a sweet kid,” Dean Norris says of his on-screen chip-off-the-old-block. 

3:05 p.m. “It’s terrifying, because I love the guy, but I knew we wanted to do something different,” Vaughan says of the conversations with Stephen King about changing things. King apparently wanted “Under the Dome” to follow these characters over years, but the book got too long, so he encouraged them to play with the characters. “We’re just so grateful to have him on board and for him to be that thoughtful of a collaborator is just a dream come true.”

3:06 p.m. “Television needs a lot of strong female characters who aren’t just reacting to the male characters around them,” Lefevre says of Julia.

3:07 p.m. Baer promises we’re going to learn more about the propane. “There’ll be some mysterious women coming to town… Well, they’re not coming to town. They’re trapped there was well,” he says, promising these “mysterious women” will be central to unfurling the mystery.

3:07 p.m. “It’s all sweet and poetic after this,” Norris says, responding to the Very Bad Thing his character does in tomorrow’s episode.

3:08 p.m. The first question is a misunderstanding of the show’s former version at Showtime. “CBS has been great. They’ve said, ‘No, we want to compete with cable,'” Vaughan says, promising that while there have been fewer naughty words, everything else has remained. WHEW.

3:09 p.m. How deep is the Dome? Or is it actually a sphere? “I don’t know whether or not it’s a sphere, but it’s not something that our characters are going to be digging out from any time soon,” Vaughan says. Baer promises that we’ll learn more about the shape of things in Episode 7.

3:10 p.m. “Playing a good guy takes a lot out of you. It’s a lot easier to play a bad guy,” Norris says of the transition from “Breaking Bad.”

3:12 p.m. “We’re going to give you more secrets that will then be uncovered,” Baer says of the finale, teasing that the complete first season will be released on DVD in November. He promises there are lots of Easter Eggs. “It ends with a hell of a cliffhanger, so if we’re not lucky enough to come back for another season, you guys are just screwed,” Vaughan says.

3:13 p.m. “We don’t know all of the powers of the Dome yet, do we?” Norris says of the possibility that Jeff Fahey might come back in some form.

3:13 p.m. Have any of them read the book? “I love it,” Vaughan says. “Even if you’ve read the entire novel and you think you know where the Dome comes from and what it’s about, you don’t,” he teases.

3:14 p.m. What would be the first thing they would do if they were trapped under a Dome. “I’d certainly find this guy if he were here and make sure he was the first to go,” Vogel says, looking at Dean Norris. “I guess I’d find a lot of guns,” Norris says.

That’s… All? Yeah. That wasn’t a great use of my time. But at least I don’t have to watch tomorrow’s episode!

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