''Lisey's Story'' is a 2021 American

psychological horror Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequently overlaps with the related subge ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

miniseries based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Stephen King. The series is written by King, directed by

Pablo Larraín Pablo Larraín Matte (; born 19 August 1976) is a Chilean filmmaker. He has directed nine feature films and co-directed one television series, including the Academy Award-nominated films '' No'' (2012), '' Neruda'' (2016), '' Jackie'' (2016) an ...

, and produced by

J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...

. It stars

Julianne Moore Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, ...

in the title role. ''Lisey's Story'' premiered on

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

on June 4, 2021.

Premise

Lisa "Lisey" Landon is the widow of famous fiction author Scott Landon, who died two years prior to the start of the series. Lisey is still mourning Scott, and fending off parties who are interested in obtaining Scott's unpublished manuscripts. While sorting through Scott's possessions, Lisey discovers that Scott has left her a treasure hunt, which has her revisiting memories of their marriage, especially suppressed memories of unusual abilities that Scott had. While Lisey pursues this treasure hunt, she gains a dangerous stalker who believes that she is selfishly keeping Scott's genius from the world.

Cast

Main

as Lisa "Lisey" Landon (nee Debusher) * Clive Owen as Scott Landon *

Jennifer Jason Leigh Jennifer Jason Leigh (born Jennifer Leigh Morrow; February 5, 1962) is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough as Stacy Hamilton in '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982). Sh ...

as Darla Debusher *

Dane DeHaan Dane William DeHaan ( ; born February 6, 1986) is an American actor known for his roles as Andrew Detmer in ''Chronicle'' (2012), Lucien Carr in '' Kill Your Darlings'' (2013), Harry Osborn / Green Goblin in ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'' (2014), ...

as Jim Dooley *

Joan Allen Joan Allen (born August 20, 1956) is an American actress. She began her career with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1977, won the 1984 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for '' And a Nightingale Sang'', and won the 1988 Tony Aw ...

as Amanda Debusher

Recurring

* Ron Cephas Jones as Prof. Roger Dashmiel *

Michael Pitt Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor, model, and musician. Pitt is known in film for his roles in '' Murder by Numbers'' (2002), Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Dreamers'' (2003), Gus Van Sant's '' Last Days'' (2005), and M ...

as Andrew Landon *

Omar Metwally Omar Metwally is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Dr. Vik Ullah in the Showtime television series '' The Affair'', as well as for '' Rendition'' (2007), ''Munich'' (2005), and ''Miral'' (2010). He has also appeared in the ...

as Dr. Hugh Alberness *

Sung Kang Sung-Ho Kang (born April 8, 1972) is an American actor. His first major role was as Han Lue in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise, a character he first portrayed in ''Better Luck Tomorrow'' (2002). Kang also played John Mak in the television serie ...

as Officer Dan Boeckman *

Peter Scolari Peter Thomas Scolari (September 12, 1955 – October 22, 2021) was an American actor. He was best known for his roles as Michael Harris on ''Newhart'' (1984–1990), Henry Desmond on ''Bosom Buddies'' (1980–1982) and Wayne Szalinski on ''Hone ...

as Dave Debusher * Will Brill as Gerd Allen Cole

Episodes

Production

Development

In August 2017, Stephen King expressed an interest in seeing his novel adapted as a television series: "''Lisey's Story'' is my favorite of the books and I would love to see that done, especially now that there's a kind of openness on the streaming services on TV and even the cable networks. There's more freedom to do stuff now and when you do a movie from a book, there's this thing that I call the sitting on a suitcase syndrome. That is where you try to pack in all the clothes at once and the suitcase won't close. So it's tough to take a book that is fully textured, and do it in two hours and 10 minutes. But as a TV show you have 10 hours." In April 2019, it was announced that

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

had acquired the rights to the novel and gave it an eight-episode straight-to-series order to air on

, with all episodes scripted by King, to be produced by

and

Bad Robot Productions Bad Robot is an American film and television production company founded on May 27, 1999 and led by J. J. Abrams and Katie McGrath as Co-CEO. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series ''Alias' ...

. In August 2019,

had signed on to direct the miniseries. In February 2020, it was announced that

Darius Khondji Darius Khondji ( fa, داریوش خنجی; born 21 October 1955) is an Iranian-French cinematographer. Khondji has worked with a number of high-profile directors, including David Fincher, Woody Allen, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Gus Van Sant, Roman Po ...

had joined the series as cinematographer.

Casting

was cast in the leading role of Lisey. In October 2019, Clive Owen was added to the cast, with

and

joining in November, and

joining in December. In January 2020,

was revealed to be in the cast. When Apple announced a first look of ''Lisey's Story'' in February 2021, it was also revealed that Ron Cephas Jones was in the cast.

Filming

Filming began in October 2019 at the historic Van Liew-Suydam House in

Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey Franklin Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. It is centrally located in the Raritan Valley region, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 62 ...

. In December 2019, filming took place in the village of Tuckahoe in

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...

. In mid-March 2020, filming was shut down due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Larraín said that "a few weeks" of shooting were left before the shutdown occurred. In September 2020, Julianne Moore shared that filming for her character was complete.

Release

On January 6, 2021, Apple announced that ''Lisey's Story'' would premiere in 2021. The following month, Apple revealed a first look of the series, where it was announced that ''Lisey's Story'' would have a mid-2021 premiere. In a first look with '' Vanity Fair'' in April 2021, it was announced that ''Lisey's Story'' will premiere on Apple TV+ with the first two episodes releasing on June 4, 2021, and new episodes each Friday after. On May 11, 2021, Apple released a trailer for the miniseries. On June 4, 2021, the series debuted on Apple TV+ with the release of the first two episodes.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Lisey's Story'' holds an approval rating of 54% based on 69 reviews, with an average rating of 5.92/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Despite an admirable performance from Julianne Moore, ''Lisey's Story'' is weighed down by an overreliance on its source material and a sluggish pace." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, the miniseries has a score of 48 out of 100 based on 24 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{Media based on Stephen King works Television shows based on works by Stephen King 2020s American drama television miniseries 2020s American horror television series 2021 American television series debuts 2021 American television series endings Television series by Bad Robot Productions Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Apple TV+ original programming Television shows written by Stephen King Television productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television shows filmed in New Jersey Television shows filmed in New York (state)