Castle Rock (new Abrams/Stephen King series)

[chveik]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXsKCQenpt0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Rock_(TV_series)

I'm really looking forward to this. The cast is pretty solid, with Sissy Spacek (!), Scott Glenn and Terry O'Quinn. And even if I don't like Abrams' films, his series have always been very good (Alias, Lost, Fringe).

[bgmnts]

Is that the one that was an Ed Harris film?

[Mister Six]

That's Needful Things, which was set in Castle Rock, yeah. There are actually a bunch of books and short stories set in the town (of which Needful Things was supposed to be the last, although King's done a couple since). I guess this will pilfer from them all but be more of a general "various spooky things occurring" kind of thing.

Remember American Gothic? Like that, I reckon, only a but crap.

[Desirable Industrial Unit]

There's so many ways this could work, but that trailer's a bit deflating.  It was never going to be an actual Steven King mash-up because of the rights issues, but if you can't use something don't sodding use it rather than go 'ooh, bunch of balloons, right?  headline about a rabid dog, right?  Bit like that other thing, isn't it?'  Just work with what you can use.

What seems to be the main plot isn't that compelling.  A surface version of Lost Highway, that you know they haven't got an explanation for yet.  'You have no idea what's going on here!'  Neither do the writers, most probably, until they know how long this will run.

I may be a little jaded, but nothing about this suggests they have a story to tell, just that they've got a vehicle to move it.

[Shaky]

Wait... Bill Skarsgård is in this? What's that all about?

[Mister Six]

Did anybody watch this in the end? I just caught a couple of episodes on a flight, and while the pilot was pretty dull, the second episode showed a bit of promise. It's doing the Lost thing of dribbling out the plot, though, when it ought to be full of incident. And other than a spooky lad who might be possessed (or worse) there's not much going on in a supernatural vein. Some references to Cujo and Needful Things having occurred prior to the show's beginning but that's about it.

Also the intro sequence, which features snippets of pages from King's books, includes fragments of The Shining and It, which is a bit of a pisstake.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I stuck with it, and thought it was okay, with some episodes being better than others, but then felt disappointed by the ending and I'm not sure I'll bother with the second season.