You just never know — during this time of unpredecented TV access made possible by (too many) streaming services — who’s watching any particular show, and who will show themselves to be a fan and then tweet about it. Last year, I spoke with Freddy Krueger Robert Englund, who revealed himself to be obsessed (after being quizzed on some tweets) with Stephen King’s The Outsider on HBO. Shortly thereafter, I became aware that King also uses Twitter to champion shows that he, too, enjoys quite a bit.
Take Black Summer, for example. That Netflix show is pure zombie adrenaline and also appeals to people who may not even enjoy most contemporary zombie fare on TV or in the movies. In 2019, King declared that the show put the “scare” back into zombies with a “stripped to the bone,” economical, and “very fluid” storytelling approach. King also accurately predicted the Mare of Easttown killer’s identity because the man digs a good mystery and was watching alongside all of us as the show picked up weekly steam.
Maybe, just maybe, Stephen King’s a binge-watcher, too, like the rest of us? It’s totally possible. In related news, someone has casually joined a movement by (seemingly out-of-the-blue) tossing up a #SaveManifest tag.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) August 3, 2021
In doing so, King has aligned himself with a vast legion of fans, who hope that either NBC or Netflix (where the show has remained on the Top 10 Most Popular list for over a month) will have second thoughts and resurrect this sci-fi puppy. Interestingly enough, King did not elaborate upon his reasons for joining the bandwagon. That might seem strange, given that he’s known to go long at times (the uncut version of The Stand spills past 1300 pages), but perhaps King simply wanted to draw attention to the economy of his statement. Like the Black Summer of tweets, if you will.
Whatever the case, I still can’t help but completely imagine that King recently wondered what all the fuss was about before wandering over to Netflix and binging a few Manifest seasons before popping over to Hulu or Peacock to finish the third round. Evidently, he got wrapped up in the time-jumping-plane-ride show filled with supernatural touches and soap-operatic edges. Hey, it happens (and it’s alright to enjoy objectively bad shows, people, if they’re entertaining). It may have happened to yours truly, too.