Season 2 of Stephen King’s Under the Dome premiered June 30, and is even more complex, creepy and captivating than last season–and there are so many reasons why.  

The dystopian thriller is set in the near future in the small town of Chester’s Mill, Maine. An all-encompassing, transparent yet indestructible dome suddenly surrounds the town one day, cutting the town and its inhabitants off from the rest of the world–including their friends, family and all communication from phones to Internet to radio and TV. Survival becomes paramount.  Leaders emerge–as do villains–as tensions take hold among the townsfolk. Fear-inspired riots and rampages break out, putting lives at risk.
Season 2 is defined by the iconic king of thrills–Stephen King himself–writing for the show, ratcheting up the drama exponentially. More intrigue? Plus, Under the Dome showrunner and self-described gay-friendly TV writer Neal Baer suddenly came out as gay July 7 in Huffington Post–in his 50s!
And that’s just the behind the scenes excitement. Here are five reasons to get trapped watching Under the Dome: Mondays on CBS.

5. Brave New World
The definition of dystopia is an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. Chester’s Mill goes from bucolic New England town to dystopia overnight. As Stephen King told the Los Angeles Times about writing for season two: "For me, the most interesting idea is this Malthusian concept that there’s too many people and too little space. There’s starting to be this talk about euthanasia and thinning of the herd, and that’s a scary idea. In a fantasy series, you have a chance to tackle some of these hot-button issues, and people will accept it, because it’s only make-believe."

4. Butterflies Aren’t Free
Deputy Linda Esquivel (Natalie Martinez) is forced to step up as sheriff when the sheriff is killed by the dome. But as season two opens, will she be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice  to save others? Esquivel has managed to take control and keep the town from imploding. Is there anyone who could take her place? Meanwhile Angie McAlister (Britt Robertson)–she of the mysterious butterfly tattoo and the one who discovered the mini-dome in the woods–has been found covered in butterflies and....

3. A Clockwork Orange
A tight-knit lesbian couple and their troubled teenage daughter--Dr. Alice Calvert (Samantha Mathis), her wife Carolyn Hill (Aisha Hinds) and Norrie Calvert-Hill (Mackenzie Lintz )–are trapped by the dome as they pass through the town. Alice died at the end of season one, a victim of that culling King is so intrigued by, leaving a devastated Carolyn to raise their daughter alone. But Norrie has a connection to the dome that turns her into one of the most pivotal figures in the town. Does Norrie hold the key to releasing them from the trap?  

2. Hunger Games
Rebecca Pine (played by the gorgeous British actress Karla Crome, a rising star in England who can also be seen on BBC in Prisoner’s Wives) is the science teacher researching the dome who is the first to realize the plethora of Monarch butterflies covering the dome might be magically beautiful, but they also have a down side–thousands of caterpillars ready to eat every bit of food left in the town. Rebecca tells "Big Jim" Rennie, the town’s main power-broker, that soon it might be necessary to "thin the herd." Then she takes a flamethrower to a few of the voracious creepy crawlers.

1. A Handmaid’s Tale
Julia Shumway (played by the always sumptuous and sensual Rachelle LeFevre, our favorite vampire in the Twilight series) is an investigative reporter who is piecing together a strange and sinister story involving some of the town’s top movers and shakers when the dome falls from the sky. Julia’s certain her story and the dome are connected. She runs into a mysterious stranger, Dale "Barbie" Barbara, an Army vet just passing through town when the dome comes down. Soon, Julia begins to suspect a connection between the story she was investigating and the dome. But who can she tell?
　
　
Victoria A. Brownworth is an award-winning journalist, editor and writer and the author and editor of nearly 30 books. She has won the NLGJA and the Society of Professional Journalists awards, the Lambda Literary Award and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She won the 2013 SPJ Award for Enterprise Reporting in May 2014. She is a regular contributor to The Advocate and SheWired, a blogger for Huffington Post and a contributing editor for Curve magazine and Lambda Literary Review. Her literary criticism has appeared in the New York Times, Village Voice, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe andPhiladelphia Inquirer. She was book critic for the Baltimore Sun for 17 years and reviewed for PW for 20. Her book, From Where We Sit: Black Writers Write Black Youth won the 2012 Moonbeam Award for cultural&historical fiction. Her novels, Ordinary Mayhem and Cutting will both be published in late fall 2014. @VABVOX