As a kid I remember being fascinated by this movie after my parents recorded it on VHS; I'd watch it in bits and pieces when I could and while I have seen the whole thing, it was always in bits and pieces, and never in order. Thanks to youtube, I watched the entire mini-series, all four parts and my overall impression of The Stand is...okay.
First off, this is the first time I've watched this mini-series as an adult so I have a very different perspective and understanding of the story and plot than I did as a elementary school aged kid when I first watched this movie. First off, I really enjoyed part 1 of this series. Part 1 not only introduces and establishing many of the main characters, but also chronicles the release of the deadly flu virus and how it essentially wipes out the vast majority of mankind. Watching the gradual chaos unfold and how society rapidly deteriorated was interesting and reminded me a lot of the early parts of the walking dead, but instead of zombies, massive amounts of people died off from a deadly strain of the flu.
After that, however The Stand takes many twists and turns, most of which I didn't care for. My biggest complaint is that it is ULTRA preachy. At times this mini-series comes more across as biblical, Christian propaganda than a movie based on a novel by Steven King. This is largely due to the whole subplot of people flocking to Mother Abigale, a symbol of God's will for the remainder of mankind, or Randal Flag, the devil incarnate. There are some very preachy lines from some of the characters as well as prayers said in full that within the context of them happening seems to be wanting the audience to believe in god just like the characters do. It just felt very contrived imo, and really, really dampered my opinion of an otherwise great story. To a much smaller extent there was some pretty bad acting a few incredibly annoying and unlikable characters, and a few cringe worthy moments that I'm assuming were meant to be taken more serious.
I doubt I'll ever watch this movie again, but revisiting it was fun for the most part and it's always interesting to get a more mature perspective on anything you experienced as a kid. This one however, did not hold up for me the way it did when I was younger, but it was still decent for what it was.