Few shows are as ambitious as The Stand. Not only is it attempting to adapt an 1,100-page book (plus an additional coda) into an eight-episode miniseries. It’s trying to do that while paying tribute to Stephen King’s legacy and tell a pandemic survival story while the world’s in the middle of a real pandemic. But there’s one person who has not only risen to this challenge; he has excelled at it. Ezra Miller‘s depiction of the Trashcan Man is one of the most unhinged, unnerving, and oddly sympathetic performances in recent King history.
The Trashcan Man, also known as Donald Merwin Elbert, is one of the most memorable characters in King’s vast lore. He’s also one of the saddest. By the events of The Stand, the Trashcan Man is already neck deep in his own mania and possible schizophrenia. As a boy, he was the only surviving child of his father’s murderous rampage, but the trauma left him with a bizarre coping mechanism that involved setting things on fire. Once that leveled up to burning down a house, his mother sent him away to get help. But that only made things worse. It’s never explained whether Trashcan Man’s mental illness was something he was born with, something triggered from his past trauma, or if it came from the medieval electroshock therapy of the mental facility he was sent to, but it left him as a husk before he was able to fully develop into a person. The only things that the Trashcan Man cares about are fire and destruction, two hobbies that Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgard) cheerfully exploits.
Simply put, Miller’s performance of this iconic character is the best of this miniseries. The first part of “The Vigil” follows the Trashcan Man through his own apocalyptic walk through abandoned cities. Yet instead of trying to find anyone else or look for supplies, his only goal seems to be to make the biggest fire possible.
Miller plays the Trashcan Man’s excitement as honestly as possible. The episode’s first moments are dominated by his broad smile, and underneath his anxious twitching you can feel a sense of freedom. Even his movements seem freer. Multiple times you can see Trashcan cautiously walking and guarding himself before taking off in a burst of energy, as is he just remembered that he doesn’t have to listen to anyone’s rules anymore. And that’s horrifying. The end of the world should be a source of mourning and regret, yet for Trashcan it’s nothing but open roads and happy days filled with flames. Miller’s uneven duality beautifully captures King’s work.
King’s stories are so haunting because he’s mastered the art of unsettling juxtapositions: A fan so obsessed with an author she’s ready to kill him. A clown who feeds off children’s fear. An idyllic winter retreat that becomes a waking nightmare. Taking the expected and twisting it to the point where it’s barely recognizable is King’s specialty. Miller clearly understands this. What makes Miller’s Trashcan Man so haunting isn’t that you think he’s going to hurt you. It’s that you truly have no idea what he may do.
New episodes of The Stand premiere on CBS All Access on Thursdays.
Watch The Stand on CBS All Access