Carrie
Glenn Weldon and Jordan Cruciola discuss Mike Flanagan's new Prime Video series adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie," praising how it updates the classic story for the digital age with nuanced character development, standout performances from Summer H. Howell and Samantha Sloyan, and thoughtful exploration of contemporary themes like social media bullying and the parents' rights movement.
Summary
On NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, hosts Glenn Weldon and Jordan Cruciola examine Mike Flanagan's eight-episode reimagining of Stephen King's "Carrie." Both reviewers came in skeptical but emerged impressed by how Flanagan expands the familiar story beats—the shower scene, prayer closet, prom, and pig's blood—into a character-driven drama with supernatural elements rather than pure horror.
The hosts highlight the exceptional casting and performances, particularly praising Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White and Alison Thornton as the bully Chris Harisson. Sloyan brings psychological complexity to Carrie's overbearing mother, portraying her not as a religious fundamentalist in the traditional sense, but as someone influenced by modern conspiracy theories (QAnon, chemtrails, etc.), allowing the character to evolve across eight episodes in ways the original film couldn't explore.
Alison Thornton's Chris Harisson is positioned as the true horror of the series, embodying modern teenage cruelty through her management of a vicious meme account called "Carrie Redd." The hosts note this represents a meaningful update that avoids the cliché of "sad backstory excuses bad behavior" by instead showing how social media amplifies and facilitates bullying. Thornton's performance is particularly praised for conveying "baleful hate" through a composed, conventionally attractive face rather than obvious expressions of evil.
The reviewers discuss how Flanagan uses eight episodes to give Carrie genuine agency and character development, allowing the mother-daughter relationship to ebb and flow naturally rather than following the "beeline" of the original novel. The series also incorporates contemporary themes like the parents' rights movement, showing how well-intentioned advocacy can become corrupted, and explores the limitations of school administration in addressing systemic cruelty.
Finally, both hosts note the possibility of a second season that would move beyond the "Carrie" story into a broader Flanagan universe, with both expressing cautious openness to the concept, particularly given the stellar ensemble cast (including what appears to be a "Battlestar Galactica" reunion) and Flanagan's proven track record.
About this episode
The new series <em>Carrie</em> updates the Stephen King book for the digital age, and plays with what we think we know in some surprising ways. Streaming on Prime Video, it follows a young Carrie who has led a sheltered life with her overbearing mother. But as Carrie enters high school, she has a rough go of it. The signposts are familiar – the showers, the prayer closet, the prom, the pig’s blood – but showrunner Mike Flanagan (<em>The Haunting of Hill House</em> and <em>Midnight Mass</em>) builds out the world around those events.<br /><br /><strong>Looking for more TV and movies inspired by Stephen King? Check out these episodes:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/11/14/nx-s1-5608037/glen-powell-is-the-running-man-in-the-latest-stephen-king-adaptation" target="_blank">Glen Powell is ‘The Running Man’ in the latest Stephen King adaptation</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/11/03/nx-s1-5591373/a-new-generation-is-down-to-clown-in-it-welcome-to-derry" target="_blank">A new generation is down to clown in ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/09/12/nx-s1-5538136/the-long-walk-is-a-long-walk-to-nowhere" target="_blank">‘The Long Walk’ is a long walk to nowhere</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/06/17/1254291431/dance-with-tom-hiddleston-through-the-life-of-chuck" target="_blank">Dance with Tom Hiddleston through 'The Life of Chuck'</a><br /><br />Connect with Pop Culture Happy Hour:<br /><a href="https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/" target="_blank">Letterboxd</a> / <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pchh" target="_blank">Facebook</a><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture" target="_blank">Our weekly newsletter</a><br />Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at <a href="http://plus.npr.org/" target="_blank">plus.npr.org</a>.<br /><br />See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>
Key Insights
- Flanagan's approach to character backstories avoids the trap of justifying cruelty through trauma by instead giving characters more emotional registers and psychological depth without slapping trauma labels on everything, distinguishing his work from typical 2000s remake era storytelling.
- The Carrie Redd meme account run by Chris Harisson functions as the narrative vehicle for modern bullying horror, making the show's digital update feel like a meaningful value-add rather than an unnecessary modernization, because the technology directly enables the cruelty rather than just existing as window dressing.
- Samantha Sloyan's Margaret White operates as a QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theorist rather than a traditional religious fundamentalist, allowing her character to believably engage with the contemporary world (getting a job, attending school meetings) while maintaining an equally unhinged sensibility that feels grounded in present-day American anxieties.
- The series uses eight episodes to build out the emotional complexity of the mother-daughter relationship, allowing for genuine moments of reconciliation and ebb-and-flow dynamics that the original novel's linear narrative structure and film adaptations cannot accommodate.
- The show explores how parents' rights advocacy movements can begin with genuine good intentions around school accountability but gradually become corrupted into tools of control, demonstrating how well-meaning activism can lose sight of its original purpose.
Topics
Transcript
This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's FlexPath learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace, without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu. If you appreciate the nuance and context we bring you here at Pop Culture Happy Hour, look into NPR+. When you join, you're supporting the kind of deep-dive storytelling that makes shows like Pop Culture Happy Hour possible. You also get perks like early access and bonus episodes for a wide variety of NPR shows. Join us at plus.npr.org. You look at this particular King novel, right, which was published when the guy was very, very young and the beats are so familiar.…
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