As I was looking for a series to watch before my holiday trip next week, I wanted to try a new and short one. This one fit that category as it was 2018 series with only 10 episodes. It was said to be based on Stephen King's popular novel series and I thought would be interesting. Well to cut the story short, here we go with more details.
Brief Story Line
A criminal attorney lawyer Henry Weaver (Andre Holland - Selma, The Knick TV series etc) was drawn back to his childhood hometown Castle Rock when he got a strange call about a possible client needing his help. The person who later on was referred to as The Kid (Bill Skarsgård - the clown in 2017 It etc) had a really mysterious background but Henry was adamant to help him.
At first Henry was really reluctant to return to Castle Rock as he himself had a dark history. But he decided it would be nice to see how his adoptive mother Ruth (Sissy Spacek - Coal Miner's Daughter, The Good Old Boys TV series etc) doing. Henry also met with his old neighbor Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey - Heavenly Creatures, Hello I Must Be Going etc) who had become a Real Estate agency owner with her assistant/writer Diane Torrance (Jane Levy - Don't Breathe, Office Uprising etc).
As things became even weirder with anything involving The Kid and when the past started to haunt him, Henry had to deal with things he thought he had forgotten about. So how would the story conclude and what was the real mystery behind The Kid and Henry? Find them all in this really heavy psychological thriller series.
End of Brief Story Line
As a person who never read any of Stephen King's novels and only knew his works through the various adaptations of his successful mystery/horror novels, I ended up watching this as a casual audience. To me this felt just like any other series which was happening in a fictional town created by Stephen King and mentioned in few of his works, with few characters from those novels appeared or were referenced here.
Due to this reason, I was not able to relate with those references and only watched this like when I watch other similar type of psychological thriller. To be honest, this one was really more challenging to enjoy due to its complexity and slow pace in the early episodes. It was probably my own fault for not concentrating enough while I was watching this, as it really need your full attention to properly understand it. After few episodes though, things started to get better for me, especially when I was more accustomed with the rhythm plus the multiple twists that surprised me few times.
Of all the 10 episodes which had duration of 43 minutes to almost 1 hour, I was really amazed by the 7th episode which to me was truly awesome. It was an episode that really captivated me and was so great that made me re-think the previous episodes from a totally different perspective. It was sometimes confusing but in an amazing way. Something that I never thought to ever see in an episode of TV series. And this episode was so special due to the fantastic performance of Sissy Spacek who managed to pull it off. And apparently, even critics were in awe with her performances and she gained positive recognition from them. Aside from that episode, I also thought that the 9th episode was wonderful. Something that blew my mind especially with the revelation that I had after that episode. And the finale was pretty great as well, with an ending that I should have guessed but still entertaining.
As a psychological thriller series with some bits of jump scare (which successfully shocked me each time), plus the eerie feeling in the early part, I thought this one was interesting enough. I am not sure I can say for Stephen King's hard core fans who tend to be very critical, but I thought this one was pretty exciting. However, this kind of genre usually had a specific audience target. From what I understand, this one had a good critics rating and successful enough that it was renewed for a second season. Btw, this is an anthology series, which would mean that the second (and subsequent seasons) would have different story and main characters, with the only connecting part definitely the town itself. It was a Hulu original series produced by Bad Robot Production (led by J.J. Abrams).
Oh, even though only 5 main cast were shown in the opening credit scenes, there were few recurring characters whom I thought were very crucial to the story development, such as ex-sheriff Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn - Daredevil TV series, Backdraft etc), Shawshank's correctional officer Zalewski (Noel Fisher), Shawshank's previous warden Lacy (Terry O'Quinn) and Henry's adoptive father Reverend Matthew Deaver (Adam Rothenberg). There were also few more guest stars whom I recognized somewhere but it would be too many if I mentioned all of them here.
Overall this was an interesting series. Something that fans of this genre would love, whether or not they are fans of Stephen King's works. But audience who prefer to watch full action or full of suspense & thrill series, this might not be their cup of tea and possibly difficult to enjoy. So if you are looking for this kind of series, give it a try but do it when you have the time and are in the mood, so you can properly watch & enjoy this.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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