Mr. Mercedes: Are Du Driven to Watch Mehr of the Stephen King Adaptation? 

in gear this Wednesday night, premiering its adaptation of the 2014 Stephen King detective novel. Did it leave you ice screaming for more?

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opened with the titular character’s masterstroke massacre, in which someone donned a clown mask before putting the pedal to the metal and running over… and over…

… a crowd of people who were camped out for a job fair, 16 of them, a baby included, left dead.

‘s Brendan Gleeson) — one of the detectives who unsuccessfully worked that case — is struggling with the (forced) retirement life. He drinks a lot, sleeps a lot, doesn’t bathe a lot, exercises none. And when he isn’t puzzling over what to do about the left-handed compliment-based overtures made by his spry-for-her-age neighbor Ida (

‘s Holland Taylor), he’s chiding the neighbor kids for lobbing their street hockey balls into his untended landscaping.

Bill’s quiet world is roused by a strange email titled “MISS ME,” which when opened unleashes a video that sports the same smiley face sticker associated with the “Mr. Mercedes” crime scene and taunts the detective with gory and whorey imagery, usually at the detriment of the many victims. Bill enlists Jerome (

‘s Jharrel Jerome), the computer-savvy lad who mows his lawn, to try to uncover the sender’s identity, as well as not-very-subtly picks the brain of his former partner Peter Dixon (Scott Lawrence), still an active detective. He even sneaks into the evidence lot to get a fresh look at the dusty Mercedes that caused so much loss.

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Concurrent with all this, we get a peek into the sad world of Brady Hartsfield (

‘s Harry Treadaway), an off-putting employee at Supreme Electronix. There, he and coworker Lou (

‘s Breeda Wool) toil under the overly watchful eye of Robi (Robert Stanton), their geeky boss who seems to regularly catch Lou, a lesbian, confronting customers about their homophobia. At home, the premiere barely scratches the surface of Brady’s special relationship with his trashy mom Deborah (

‘s Kelly Lynch), who despite keeping her boy…

… remains oblivious to that which he works on behind a locked door in their basement, where he crafts the videos with which he is taunting Detective Hodges.

At episode’s end, Bill pays Supreme Electronix a visit to outfit his home with security cameras. His path does not cross there with Brady’s, and as the hour comes to a close there is another uncomfortably close call, when Bill finds a “smiley face” tennis ball on his lawn, while Brady in his second job — as the neighborhood ice cream man — grins from across the sidewalk…..

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Definitely coming back for more. First episode was fantastic, has hooked me.

I loved the books! So I really bummed that I can’t watch it since I don’t have direct TV

I feel the same way! I’m a HUGE King fan, and I think this is one of his best books.

It can be watched via the DirecTV app; I am unsure of the price point.

Never been a Stephen king fan but I will watch anything with a Gleeson in it.

I would if I could get the channel (or had ever heard of it before this)

Would love to watch Brendan Gleeson – brilliant actor. Shame I don’t have the channel.

Borrow from library when they get it (sometime next year).

Loved Mr. Mercedes!!! Looking forward to more! Love the character choices!

This was one of the best pilots I have seen in a long time!

Dreadful. Badly written, acted, directed. Shows are good when the story or people are interesting (even better when both are interesting!); this one has neither.

I am a huge Stephen King fan and usually disappointed with the movies made from his books.But I thought last nights episode was very good. I will watch the whole series. I had to bail out of The Mist. I thought it was dreadful.

I am a HUGE fan of the book, and while I usually don’t like changes…I LOVE the addition of Holland Taylor as an amorous neighbor. I was a little disappointed with how Jerome was treated as a fringe character, but, it was ONLY the first episode. Jerome’s character is so important to this story! And I LOVED the Easter Eggs….the It reference with the “turtle” (excuse me, TORTOISE) …and the song “Pet Sematary” by the Ramones playing on Brady’s car radio. Cute!

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