11.22.63

Our Review

James Franco goes back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination, and the past pushes back. Adapted from Stephen King’s best novel of the 2010s, this eight-episode Hulu limited series is a slow-burn period piece: a modern teacher slips through a closet portal to 1960 and falls in love with a Texas schoolteacher (Sarah Gadon, luminous) while stalking Lee Harvey Oswald (a genuinely creepy Daniel Webber). The conspiracy is the MacGuffin — the show is really about whether time travel is a moral act, and King’s answer (the past is obdurate; it doesn’t want to be changed) becomes the engine of dread.

Franco does career-best work playing both the weary present-day man and his hopeful past self, and the period fidelity makes the nostalgia feel dangerous — the meatloaf and slow dances are all seduction. The finale makes the choice the book made, and it’s a heartbreaker. Eight hours, complete story, no season 2 necessary.

Verdict: Watch it. King adaptations this faithful and this well-cast are rare birds.