I caught this on Netflix due to the lack of interesting programming. I have watched more B movies than ever before since I signed up for Netflix but I usually finish the movies I watch since they are mostly background noise. This was one of the few shows that annoyed me so much that I had to turn it off after 60 minutes since it was going nowhere. Slow and painful with a cliché plot and stiff acting. Most of King's stories are derivative but at least are written sufficiently well. Almost all of his work for film and TV was borderline unwatchable. The review is now over but IMDb requires at least 1000 words. Seriously? Anyway. Here it is again: I caught this on Netflix due to the lack of interesting programming. I have watched more B movies than ever before since I signed up for Netflix but I usually finish the movies I watch since they are mostly background noise. This was one of the few shows that annoyed me so much that I had to turn it off after 60 minutes since it was going nowhere. Slow and painful with a cliché plot and stiff acting. Most of King's stories are derivative but at least are written sufficiently well. Almost all of his work for film and TV was borderline unwatchable.

I won't bother to list the cast, as others have done that. I will say that the cast was excellent, and did their jobs admirably.I have not read "The Book", so I can't compare. The series as it stood, though, was rather good. That is, it had promise. I understand that the original intent was to make a full series but for reasons unknown it was cut short. The ending leaves much to be desired as it causes more questions than it answers. I would very much like to see a continuation of "Golden Years" to see where Mr. King intended to go with the story. I wish the Sci Fi channel would pick this show up and run it again. I have not seen it since the summer the Sci Fi channel premiered and they ran a number of short run shows.

DVD version: A SciFi movie with a truly original premise and glimpses of real people.I've not really enjoyed a Stephen King horror movie since Firestarter. Just so you know my bias I like Stephen King horror books but not his horror movies. I do enjoy his non-horror films. Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, Apt Pupil, The Green Mile, and Dead Zone (both TV show and movie).Golden Years is on the slow side, as is to some extent every movie I listed above. Golden Years succeeds like the above movies when it explorers characters in ways we are not used to exploring them.Golden Years is about relationships, about the love and relationship of an elderly couple. Rarely in any movie or book do we see two characters this rich a history and depth of love. The action in Golden Years is not a lab experiment gone wrong, it is about the world of two people suddenly shaken to its foundation as they both come to realize that they have no control over their future. Golden Years is the story about the fear of leaving someone behind and the story of being afraid of being left behind.The movie works well when the characters are connecting, unfortunatly not all the characters connect well. All in all there is much to be admired here. All in all this is simply a made for TV mini-series of the type often slapped together in the 80s-early 90s.Both the TV version and Video version are greatly flawed due to rather odd editing choices. The ending of all three versions is still a bit weak, due I suspect to the last two episodes being written by Josef Anderson. The old age makeup for the lead character Harlen Williams leaves a lot to be desired and is often just plain distracting.I am saddened that Stephen King feels he doesn't have anything to write about any more. Golden Years deserves to have many of its ideas fully realized in a novel.

This was a good little movie, the version shown on tv was not quite the version you can rent at the video store. Overall, it's worth watching, as it has quite a few plot twists. The ending is a little weak, but still a good movie. If you didn't like "Insomnia" (book), you probably won't like Golden Years. Any true 'King fan will love this movie.