Castle Rock
Jun. 24th, 2022 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakCourtesy of my three months of Starz which brought me Gaslit, I moved on to Castle Rock, which is to Stephen King novels what the tv series Dickensian is to Charles Dickens novels - part multi crossover, part original stories set in the Kingian universe. S1 and S2 have each their own storyline and ensemble, though the advertisement as an anthology series where every season is independent from each other isn't quite true; there are some connections across the two seasons. (Honestly, I think they're the show's weaker points.)
Speaking as someone who likes her share of Stephen King novels - not all, I don't think that's humanly possible? - , I thought it's an overall well done show which did more for me than, say, the IT movies, with some standout performances in both seasons especially by the female characters. It delivered on the tropes I was expecting in a way that for the most part made them the show's own. The horror and gore quota was what you'd expect given the source inspiration; more importantly, so were the characters in their three dimensionality. (There are Stephen King novels where I didn't care for the characters, but these were really very far and few. In both seasons of Castle Rock, I found myself caring as well.) It even achieved that ultimate goal of fanfiction, rewriting the headcanon you have of a character based on the original work to adjust to the new take - I'll never see Annie Wilkes (or hear Carly Simon) in the same way again. (Doesn't mean I was on board with all the storylines or characters, I'll get to the spoilery likes and dislikes in a moment.) Given the lack of positive word of mouth (though I may have missed something) about this show, which was cancelled after said two seasons, this was a very pleasant surprise. (Pleasant in a "those stories are heartbreaking" kind of way.)
Season 1 had Melanie Lynskey in it, the first time I'd seen her since her teenage debut in Heavenly Creatures. (The voice threw me a bit, since it sounded to unlike Pauline's.) She turned out to be excellent as one of the few characters in this show to get a happy ending after being put through the wringer. Her character, Molly Strand, has telepathic abilities, aka the Shining in Kingian terms, which made me immediately concerned for her, along with her being messed up when introduced, but lo! Molly survives and succeeds. Which is more than you can say for most of the other players in season 1. She's not the lead, btw; that's Henry Deaver (André Holland), who gets introduced twice, as a child turning up after a mysterious 11 days dissappearance, and as an adult where he's a lawyer specializing on capital punishment cases before being called back to Castle Rock, where simultanously the big season mystery has kicked off: the old Warden of Shawshank Prison has committed suicide (no, not that one, it's an oc character named Warden Lacy, played by Terry O'Quinn who I thought was wasted by being killed off in the opening, but there are a a few flashbacks), and in the aftermath, the new Warden finds out there's a nameless mysterious prisoner kept in a cage in an otherwise empty section of the prison. Referred to as "The Kid" in the credits, the guy has two possible identities in this season, and is the reason why Henry Deaver the lawyer returns to his unloved and unloving hometown where most people resent him, blaming him for his father's death. Molly is one of the few who don't, but then she knows some things about him he can't remember himself. Also very important to the unfolding tale: retired Sheriff Alan Pangborn (perhaps the most prominent actual Stephen King character in season 1, where most of the main characters are otherwise OCs - Alan Pangborn is from the novels The Dark Half and Needful Things and Henry's mother (by adoption), Ruth, played by Sissy Spacek, and while early on she has only a few scenes so I was wondering whether they cast Spacek just for the Carrie homage, later in the season she comes close to walking away with the show. Ruth, who is a brilliant woman plagued by Alzheimer, has what becomes the season's most moving storyline together with Alan (they are long term lovers, which I suppose means either Polly from Needful Things is dead by now or doesn't exist in this part of the multiverse), and Episode 7 (of 10), The Queen is a brilliant tour de force by Sissy Spacek and also by the script, as the specifiic nature of Ruth's illness collides with the present day horror; especially remarkable for the way it showcases Ruth's intelligence, the way she keeps finding her way back to the present through the onset (and loss) of memories through a method of her own invention, until...
On the downside, there's also an episode featuring a newly arrived at Castle Rock couple that just feels like cheap horror for the sake of it. And unfortunately the ambiguous ending of the season the show thinks it does isn't what I saw, and that's leaving aside what s2 makes of said ending. Our hero, Henry, goes through the season discovering more and more disturbing things about the town and his own past, and what the show does in the finale, or wants to do, is end it on a note where he's either doing something monstrous and has become all he once fought against, or he's (temporarily) saving the town the only way he knows how from a terrible evil. Which one it is depends on whether or not you believe "The Kid"'s explanation of his own identity, delivered in the previous episode. My problem here, independent from later s2 addenda, is that a) in visual media, it's very hard to claim "unreliable narrator" when you present an entire backstory episode, and b) if Henry is right, that means said episode was pointless. I like ambiguity in (some of) my fiction, but that's annoyance-triggering in me instead.
Season 2, set a not too long while later, still has some OCs in important narrative positions but in its ensemble goes for two very prominent King novels as main inspirations: Misery and Jerusalem's Lot. I would say I suspect it started by someone in the writing team what would happen if Annie Wilkes arrived in Salem's Lot at the wrong time, but this actually isn't a Aliens vs Predator type of monster match. S1 had hinted at some 400 years old Castle Rock backstory, but only very briefly. In s2, it gradually becomes a main theme, as the folks who start consuming the town aren't vampires, they're more ghostly bodysnatchers getting themselves a new turn of life by infecting a recently murdered human being, something that has been set up literally centuries ago. While this supernatural saga provides the outward menace, s2 is at its core a story of two families. One consists presently of a mother and daughter, as a younger Annie (she's in her early 30s at this point) has a car crash that forces her to stay in Castle Rock, just as this town and the neighboring Jerusalem's Lot are preparing for their 400th anniversary. With her is her sixteen-years old daughter Joy. Now, obviously, Joy is not around in Misery, nor is there any sign that Annie ever had a child; this, and the fact the season opener makes two things clear, to wit, a) young Annie has already killed at least once, b) Joy is her anchor to reality and primary motivation, and c) Joy is a sixteen years old who really wants to end the nomad life and form relationships with people not Mom while Annie is panicking at the prospect, it's easy to guess there would be trouble on the way even without the fact Annie and Joy are staying at a cheap residence currently managed by Ace Merrill (who says hello to Stand By Me fans even though he's no longer played by Kiefer Sutherland but Paul Sparks, who actually is playing more than one character this season).
The Merrills are the other family the season focuses on. They currently consist of: Ace (still a louse), brother Chris (aka the good one), their uncle Pop Merrill (played by Tim Robbins in a way unlilke Andy Dufresne role, just like Sissy Spacek was very much not Carrie last season), and two Somali orphans Pop (otherwise not exactly known for good deeds) adopted for reasons revealed in the course of the season, Nadia (currently a doctor) and Abdi (currently Ace's arch rival for Castle Rock business). Pop's secrets and Annie's secrets both inevitably come to light and wreak havoc in intense character drama scenes and storylines that are interwoven with the supernatural goings in really skillful ways. For example: Annie, who self medicates (mostly with medication she steals when working as a nurse) is aware she is mentally ill, and it's realllllly not helping that she's now stuck in a town where dead people walking around might not be a hallucination of hers after all.
Annie, who is played by Lizzie Caplan (and in an episode that's basically the origins of Annie's origins, The Laughing Place, by Ruby Cruz), who is so good I shall now look for her in other roles, makes for an incredibly compelling protagonist who is at the same time her own antagonist. (In addition to various outward menaces.) The second season walks the tightrope of presenting on the one hand a woman who is a believable younger version of one of King's most memorable villains, while on the other hand giving her sympathetic traits as well. She's the season's tragic heroine in the Aristotelian, not the modern version of the term (where "heroine" signifies something different), whose fate comes to pass through a combination of external circumstance and internal flaws (by which I don't just her mental illiness). As I have an ambivalent relationship with Misery the movie (superbly acted by Kathy Bates and James Caan, but it loses a dimension that made the novel so compelling to me, all the meta about storytelling, Paul becoming Sheherazade not just for Annie but for himself as welll, and the changed ending re: which novel he eventual publishes had me mentally yell "missing the point!" the first time I watched it), I was glad the show on the one hand had Lizzie Caplan clearly paying homage to Kathy Bates' performance in body language, voice etc, but otoh did give Annie's storyline an extra dimension about writing, the nature of storytelling and stories that trap which ties to the novel. (Also: the series doesn't forget Annie is actually a good beta reader. The beta-reader from hell, sure, in Misery, but Stephen King cleverly had her make a point when refusing Paul's easy retcon of Misery's death by declaring said death a dream, and her demand that he needs to do better and find a way to resurrect Misery that doesn't negate what happened before makes for a better novel. In the series, she's not at that point where she kidnaps her favorite writer yet, but we see her provide feedback to one in quite different circumstances that still make an iimportant point about her.)
This is the season for subtitled dialogue, as Nadia and Abdi now and then talk in their original language instead of English, and later on an increasing number of characters converses in French for main plot reasons. I remember how unusual it still felt when Lost did it in its first season and am positively impressed it's now possible for American tv shows to let important characters talk in languages not English for more than a sentence when it's logical they would. (One complaint, though: how likely is it a French settler would have the first name "Amity"?)
The season also does well by its supporting minor characters. The first season had Diane "Jackie" Torrance (who named herself after her infamous relation to piss off her parents), who mostly was quirky comic relief; the second season by contrast improved on this with Georgia "Chance" LaChance, whose full name drops only in 2.06., at which point the audience already cares about her and her relationship with Joy in her own right, which is directly tied into the main plot lines, and that she might be related toStephen King Gordie LaChance from The Body/Stand By Me is just an easter egg.
Lastly: both seasons are really good with treating family ties via adoption as intense and valid as blood relations. Doesn't mean these are necessarily happy relations, but they are very strong, and at no point does the series imply these are less real relationships than the biological ones, or that a parent who raised a child isn't the real deal compared to the blood parent.
Now, considering shows with horror on the agenda and with a guarantee not all characters you care for will make it out alive, I wouldn't reccommend Castle Rock if you're not willling ot put up with either. But it suited me, and I'm glad to have watched it. Even if it makes me even more amazed that the Aged Parents and myself made it out of Maine alive when we went there over twenty years ago....
Speaking as someone who likes her share of Stephen King novels - not all, I don't think that's humanly possible? - , I thought it's an overall well done show which did more for me than, say, the IT movies, with some standout performances in both seasons especially by the female characters. It delivered on the tropes I was expecting in a way that for the most part made them the show's own. The horror and gore quota was what you'd expect given the source inspiration; more importantly, so were the characters in their three dimensionality. (There are Stephen King novels where I didn't care for the characters, but these were really very far and few. In both seasons of Castle Rock, I found myself caring as well.) It even achieved that ultimate goal of fanfiction, rewriting the headcanon you have of a character based on the original work to adjust to the new take - I'll never see Annie Wilkes (or hear Carly Simon) in the same way again. (Doesn't mean I was on board with all the storylines or characters, I'll get to the spoilery likes and dislikes in a moment.) Given the lack of positive word of mouth (though I may have missed something) about this show, which was cancelled after said two seasons, this was a very pleasant surprise. (Pleasant in a "those stories are heartbreaking" kind of way.)
Season 1 had Melanie Lynskey in it, the first time I'd seen her since her teenage debut in Heavenly Creatures. (The voice threw me a bit, since it sounded to unlike Pauline's.) She turned out to be excellent as one of the few characters in this show to get a happy ending after being put through the wringer. Her character, Molly Strand, has telepathic abilities, aka the Shining in Kingian terms, which made me immediately concerned for her, along with her being messed up when introduced, but lo! Molly survives and succeeds. Which is more than you can say for most of the other players in season 1. She's not the lead, btw; that's Henry Deaver (André Holland), who gets introduced twice, as a child turning up after a mysterious 11 days dissappearance, and as an adult where he's a lawyer specializing on capital punishment cases before being called back to Castle Rock, where simultanously the big season mystery has kicked off: the old Warden of Shawshank Prison has committed suicide (no, not that one, it's an oc character named Warden Lacy, played by Terry O'Quinn who I thought was wasted by being killed off in the opening, but there are a a few flashbacks), and in the aftermath, the new Warden finds out there's a nameless mysterious prisoner kept in a cage in an otherwise empty section of the prison. Referred to as "The Kid" in the credits, the guy has two possible identities in this season, and is the reason why Henry Deaver the lawyer returns to his unloved and unloving hometown where most people resent him, blaming him for his father's death. Molly is one of the few who don't, but then she knows some things about him he can't remember himself. Also very important to the unfolding tale: retired Sheriff Alan Pangborn (perhaps the most prominent actual Stephen King character in season 1, where most of the main characters are otherwise OCs - Alan Pangborn is from the novels The Dark Half and Needful Things and Henry's mother (by adoption), Ruth, played by Sissy Spacek, and while early on she has only a few scenes so I was wondering whether they cast Spacek just for the Carrie homage, later in the season she comes close to walking away with the show. Ruth, who is a brilliant woman plagued by Alzheimer, has what becomes the season's most moving storyline together with Alan (they are long term lovers, which I suppose means either Polly from Needful Things is dead by now or doesn't exist in this part of the multiverse), and Episode 7 (of 10), The Queen is a brilliant tour de force by Sissy Spacek and also by the script, as the specifiic nature of Ruth's illness collides with the present day horror; especially remarkable for the way it showcases Ruth's intelligence, the way she keeps finding her way back to the present through the onset (and loss) of memories through a method of her own invention, until...
On the downside, there's also an episode featuring a newly arrived at Castle Rock couple that just feels like cheap horror for the sake of it. And unfortunately the ambiguous ending of the season the show thinks it does isn't what I saw, and that's leaving aside what s2 makes of said ending. Our hero, Henry, goes through the season discovering more and more disturbing things about the town and his own past, and what the show does in the finale, or wants to do, is end it on a note where he's either doing something monstrous and has become all he once fought against, or he's (temporarily) saving the town the only way he knows how from a terrible evil. Which one it is depends on whether or not you believe "The Kid"'s explanation of his own identity, delivered in the previous episode. My problem here, independent from later s2 addenda, is that a) in visual media, it's very hard to claim "unreliable narrator" when you present an entire backstory episode, and b) if Henry is right, that means said episode was pointless. I like ambiguity in (some of) my fiction, but that's annoyance-triggering in me instead.
Season 2, set a not too long while later, still has some OCs in important narrative positions but in its ensemble goes for two very prominent King novels as main inspirations: Misery and Jerusalem's Lot. I would say I suspect it started by someone in the writing team what would happen if Annie Wilkes arrived in Salem's Lot at the wrong time, but this actually isn't a Aliens vs Predator type of monster match. S1 had hinted at some 400 years old Castle Rock backstory, but only very briefly. In s2, it gradually becomes a main theme, as the folks who start consuming the town aren't vampires, they're more ghostly bodysnatchers getting themselves a new turn of life by infecting a recently murdered human being, something that has been set up literally centuries ago. While this supernatural saga provides the outward menace, s2 is at its core a story of two families. One consists presently of a mother and daughter, as a younger Annie (she's in her early 30s at this point) has a car crash that forces her to stay in Castle Rock, just as this town and the neighboring Jerusalem's Lot are preparing for their 400th anniversary. With her is her sixteen-years old daughter Joy. Now, obviously, Joy is not around in Misery, nor is there any sign that Annie ever had a child; this, and the fact the season opener makes two things clear, to wit, a) young Annie has already killed at least once, b) Joy is her anchor to reality and primary motivation, and c) Joy is a sixteen years old who really wants to end the nomad life and form relationships with people not Mom while Annie is panicking at the prospect, it's easy to guess there would be trouble on the way even without the fact Annie and Joy are staying at a cheap residence currently managed by Ace Merrill (who says hello to Stand By Me fans even though he's no longer played by Kiefer Sutherland but Paul Sparks, who actually is playing more than one character this season).
The Merrills are the other family the season focuses on. They currently consist of: Ace (still a louse), brother Chris (aka the good one), their uncle Pop Merrill (played by Tim Robbins in a way unlilke Andy Dufresne role, just like Sissy Spacek was very much not Carrie last season), and two Somali orphans Pop (otherwise not exactly known for good deeds) adopted for reasons revealed in the course of the season, Nadia (currently a doctor) and Abdi (currently Ace's arch rival for Castle Rock business). Pop's secrets and Annie's secrets both inevitably come to light and wreak havoc in intense character drama scenes and storylines that are interwoven with the supernatural goings in really skillful ways. For example: Annie, who self medicates (mostly with medication she steals when working as a nurse) is aware she is mentally ill, and it's realllllly not helping that she's now stuck in a town where dead people walking around might not be a hallucination of hers after all.
Annie, who is played by Lizzie Caplan (and in an episode that's basically the origins of Annie's origins, The Laughing Place, by Ruby Cruz), who is so good I shall now look for her in other roles, makes for an incredibly compelling protagonist who is at the same time her own antagonist. (In addition to various outward menaces.) The second season walks the tightrope of presenting on the one hand a woman who is a believable younger version of one of King's most memorable villains, while on the other hand giving her sympathetic traits as well. She's the season's tragic heroine in the Aristotelian, not the modern version of the term (where "heroine" signifies something different), whose fate comes to pass through a combination of external circumstance and internal flaws (by which I don't just her mental illiness). As I have an ambivalent relationship with Misery the movie (superbly acted by Kathy Bates and James Caan, but it loses a dimension that made the novel so compelling to me, all the meta about storytelling, Paul becoming Sheherazade not just for Annie but for himself as welll, and the changed ending re: which novel he eventual publishes had me mentally yell "missing the point!" the first time I watched it), I was glad the show on the one hand had Lizzie Caplan clearly paying homage to Kathy Bates' performance in body language, voice etc, but otoh did give Annie's storyline an extra dimension about writing, the nature of storytelling and stories that trap which ties to the novel. (Also: the series doesn't forget Annie is actually a good beta reader. The beta-reader from hell, sure, in Misery, but Stephen King cleverly had her make a point when refusing Paul's easy retcon of Misery's death by declaring said death a dream, and her demand that he needs to do better and find a way to resurrect Misery that doesn't negate what happened before makes for a better novel. In the series, she's not at that point where she kidnaps her favorite writer yet, but we see her provide feedback to one in quite different circumstances that still make an iimportant point about her.)
This is the season for subtitled dialogue, as Nadia and Abdi now and then talk in their original language instead of English, and later on an increasing number of characters converses in French for main plot reasons. I remember how unusual it still felt when Lost did it in its first season and am positively impressed it's now possible for American tv shows to let important characters talk in languages not English for more than a sentence when it's logical they would. (One complaint, though: how likely is it a French settler would have the first name "Amity"?)
The season also does well by its supporting minor characters. The first season had Diane "Jackie" Torrance (who named herself after her infamous relation to piss off her parents), who mostly was quirky comic relief; the second season by contrast improved on this with Georgia "Chance" LaChance, whose full name drops only in 2.06., at which point the audience already cares about her and her relationship with Joy in her own right, which is directly tied into the main plot lines, and that she might be related to
Lastly: both seasons are really good with treating family ties via adoption as intense and valid as blood relations. Doesn't mean these are necessarily happy relations, but they are very strong, and at no point does the series imply these are less real relationships than the biological ones, or that a parent who raised a child isn't the real deal compared to the blood parent.
Now, considering shows with horror on the agenda and with a guarantee not all characters you care for will make it out alive, I wouldn't reccommend Castle Rock if you're not willling ot put up with either. But it suited me, and I'm glad to have watched it. Even if it makes me even more amazed that the Aged Parents and myself made it out of Maine alive when we went there over twenty years ago....
