Stephen King has told a multitude of stories over the last few decades. Many of those stories have been adapted into either films or television shows, the latest TV show Castle Rock is slightly different. The series isn’t actually based on King’s book, but rather on the fictitious town of Castle Rock, a place that is mentioned in several stories by the master of horror. The show begins as lawyer Henry (André Holland) is called back to Castle Rock to aid a mysterious man (Bill Skarsgård) who has been discovered inside Shawshank prison. When back in the place once he fled, Henry begins to unravel a mystery, one that he himself may very well be a part of.
Warner Bros
The series begins rather slow and doesn’t really start to pick up pace until the latter end of the ten-episode run. In many ways, Castle Rock is comparable to the first season of Lost, which should come as no surprise given J. J Abrams is involved as a producer. There’s a lot of information to collect and it takes a while before the puzzle finally starts to make sense. If you can hang in there, there’s a very interesting story at the heart of the series, it just takes a little bit of patience to reach. Things begin to turn around episode six, with episode seven The Queen being a standout of the series, placing Sissy Spacek’s character at the heart of events.
Given the slow pace, it’s important that the cast of characters are interesting enough on their own to keep the audience engaged and luckily there are plenty here. It helps that the cast includes the likes of Sissy Spacek, Scott Glenn, and Terry O’Quinn, the trio always put on a good performance, and in Castle Rock they are great. Bill Skarsgård is also worthy of praise as the mysterious young man simply referred to as ‘The Kid’. He is creepy and haunted all at once, and a lot more restrained than the other Stephen King character he is better known for playing.
In today’s climate, it seems all anybody ever wants to do is race through a series as quickly as possible, but given the slow pace, Castle Rock is a less desirable binge-watch candidate. The episodes don’t end with a cliffhanger that leave you wanting more instantly; this is a show that you need to decompress after each episode to make sure that you’re taking everything fully on board. That being said, the show does benefit from watching each episode close together, if for no other reason than you’ve got all the information and clues that you need fresh in your memory.
The other thing that people often want to know when a new series starts, is whether or not it’s something that they’ll have to commit a lot of time to. So for those wondering whether Castle Rock is something they’ll have to commit long-term, the answer is, maybe. Season Two is due to air in October in the US, but the season one story is relatively self-contained. It does, however, leave the door open, especially allowing room for some of the supporting characters to expand out. With characters including Annie Wilkes teased on the IMDB page, it might be worth another trip to town.
Castle Rock is a treasure trove for avid Stephen King fans. Each episode is loaded with Easter eggs and references to his entire body of work. Your familiarity with King will obviously infer how many you pick up on, but with some as in your face as a character called Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy), even the most lament in King can find something. Others that we picked up on our initial watch include Stand By Me, The Shining, Cujo and Under the Dome to name a few.
If you liked Lost, and are a fan of Stephen King, then Castle Rock is likely to become your new favourite show.
Extras
In addition to the full ten episodes, the home entertainment release of Castle Rock also includes a series of behind-the-scenes featurettes for each episode. They add a nice bit of extra detail, but at barely three minutes apiece, they’re over too soon. There are also two slightly longer featurettes: Blood on the Page and A Clockwork of Horror, which looks at the works of Stephen King and how they inspired the show as well as a look at how the show-runners merged the storytelling styles of Abrams and King. Just make sure you watch the larger featurettes after the series as they contain some spoiler-heavy conversations.
Castle Rock is available to own on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital Download now.
