Fone Bone
Matt Zimmer
Castle Rock "Severance"
Spooky and mysterious, but also a bit slow and boring. The massacre at the prison at the end livened things up, but we had to wait an episode to see the fall-out from that (and it was a fake-out).
Scott Glenn is an interesting casting choice as an aged Alan Pangborn. Not who I would have picked, but an interesting choice nonetheless.
I'm seen numerous Stephen King projects that started off slow (Kingdom Hospital springs immediately to mind) but not too much J.J. Abrams stuff that does. The tone is a lot less frenetic and more low-key than the rest of the Bad Robot stuff.
Interesting premiere, if a bit dull. ***.
Castle Rock "Habeus Corpus"
I am disappointed they bought back the prison massacre at the beginning. But perhaps the notion that the kid is the Devil is even better.
I was unaware exactly how young Bill Skarsgard was in It. That much clown make-up meant you couldn't tell his age. But he's practically a kid himself.
I like Dennis saying he wouldn't be working at a prison if there were a Walmart within 50 miles of Castle Rock. I totally get why he didn't want to lose his job, as crappy as it is.
This was much better than the first episode. ***1/2.
Castle Rock "Local Color"
The killer was Molly as a little girl! Surprising way to kick the episode off.
She is such a hot mess as an adult. My theory is that she is 100% insane. I have yet to see anything disprove that idea that she isn't just nuts.
Those kids in the masks in the courtroom were so freaky because I couldn't tell what was going on. Seriously unnerving.
The episode was scary in places in a way the first two episodes were not. ***1/2.
Castle Rock "The Box"
Wow, why did Dennis go on the killing spree at the end? Was that because he touched the kid? Yikes.
The stuff with Henry and the old man in the woods was creepy too.
Speaking of Henry and old men in the woods, I liked him confronting Alan believing he had the high ground. But when Pangborn reveals what he does, Henry realizes he DOESN'T have it and never did.
The agent threatening the kid with eating his own teeth also quickly realized that conversation was not going the way he wanted it to go.
The series is still very slow but I can sense it building towards something, which is good. ***1/2.
Castle Rock "Harvest"
So Jackie Torrance is related to Jack Torrance from The Shining. Given her proximity to the kid, that's concerning.
Speaking of which, him walking into that family's house and then them all starting to kill each other was horrifying.
That was a great ending between Pangborn and the kid. Whatever the kid is, if he's the Devil I suspect he doesn't choose to be or want to be. Which is almost worse. I would feel a lot better about taking this kid who causes evil all around him out if he weren't probably innocent himself.
Best episode so far. ****.
Castle Rock "Filter"
When Henry tells Molly she is effing crazy I was like, "I agree."
Speaking of which, Otis and Willie freak me out. Does the schizma idea mean that Otis is hearing a level of the Stephen King Multiverse? Maybe.
Another dire ending that I feel completely unsatisfied with. Good thing I'm binging the show or I would be very frustrated. ***1/2.
Castle Rock "The Queen"
I was confused by that. I could not tell the linear progression of things, or what was and wasn't real by the end.
I love that Ruth used the magic trick Alan taught her all those years ago to palm her pills. In the books Pangborn was an amateur magician, and I like that that's a facet to him here too.
The Timewalker thing is another favor in the idea that the Multiverse exists.
This episode was another whose ending raised a lot of unanswered questions. I couldn't tell what was going on. ***.
Castle Rock "Past Perfect"
Molly's dead? I thought she was just nuts.
The episode opening on and focusing on that crazy murderous couple is something American Horror Story would do. Except this was way better than that because it didn't go too far or over-the-top. I also completely buy a couple who set up a murder bed and breakfast going mad. That is not something sane and healthy people cook up.
Jackie Torrance with the axe in the back! Fun fact: In The Shining novel it's not an axe, it's a roque mallet, and it doesn't actually kill Halloran. But everyone is more familiar with it being an actual murder with an axe in the movie, so they channeled that instead. It's interesting Stephen King is an executive producer on this show, because he was never crazy about that movie.
So Pangborn is definitely dead, which was not made clear at the end of the last episode. I'll live with that.
I like that after she makes that racial remark, Henry asks for the cop's badge number and she gives it to him unashamedly and without fear. Whatever else Henry is, he's bad news, and he also should understand no cop would ever get in trouble for talking smack to the guy who sprung a potential mass murderer from prison. It was Henry using his lawyer privileges, and the cops being thoroughly unimpressed.
Later in the season makes the idea that Henry is a bad luck charm after all doubly interesting.
Speaking of the racism of the cops at the beginning, them drawing their guns on Henry was a Black Lives Matter moment. Henry lives in that house, and they drew on him as if he were the criminal. On one level I understand after Pangborn is dead why the cops resent Henry always being at the scene of these deaths. On the other hand, the racism grates precisely because of that moment. I'm not sure whose side I'm actually on here.
That was pretty good. ****.
Castle Rock "Henry Deaver"
That was quite an origin story.
I have to say, this is unlike any other Stephen King story. That's not necessarily a compliment. This goes into J.J. Abrams Westworld / Lost territory with ambiguous things happening that you don't understand what they mean, and things happening that make you question the reality of the story itself (which is also very David Lynch). And I like those kind of stories. But I don't know if they are the right kinds of stories to base a Stephen King series that adapts all of his works in one setting on. Why?
Well, Stephen King will occasionally do an inexplicable mindscrew story in one of his short story collections. But as far as his novels and novellas go, he is one of the most straightforward authors I have ever read. He sort of has to be since he doesn't plan the endings, and comes up with them as he writes them, and is often as surprised as the reader at how his books end. I don't know if his settings are the right place for a thick and complex mythology. Stephen King's writing is accessible because it has to be for him to keep the story straight himself. It's never planned ahead of time. I get that that isn't how J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot operate, but this is supposed to be about Stephen King, not Bad Robot.
Ironically, Haven, a far superior series, also did a lot of complex and planned mythology, but King has pretty much disavowed it (it is not listed as an adaptation of his works on his website) I suspect because it took the liberties with The Colorado Kid it did. This series seems far less interesting than Haven, far less accessible, and with far less likable characters. It bugs me this has King's stamp of approval and Haven doesn't. And say what you will about Haven, but like the rest of Stephen King's stuff, it was pretty easy to follow as it was happening. A lot of the supernatural mysteries were unexplained, which is the same as many of his books, but you still understood what was happening as it was happening. This is dreamlike, and ambiguous in a way that Bad Robot loved to do on Westworld without understanding WHY Stephen King's stuff is so popular to begin with. It's because it's easy to read and not avant garde. I don't feel like a dope as I'm reading it, and it's easy to follow. That's just apparently not what this show is, which is weird.
Maybe King himself wanted to branch out into that kind of storytelling and simply didn't have the chops to tell it himself. That's plausible. But it also doesn't feel like the right idea for something sold as a definitive adaptation of the whole of his canon. If Stephen King wanted to executive produce a mind-screw sci-fi series, he didn't have to trade so heavily on his own brand and give people the wrong idea about what to expect. This is a Bad Robot show more than a Stephen King show. I get that it's actually both, but they were selling the Stephen King part of it to me. I like Bad Robot fine. But that's not why I bought the Blu-Ray to get into the series.
We'll see how all this shakes out. ***.
Castle Rock "Romans"
I suspected the season wouldn't work by the time I got to the last episode, and yeah, this fell apart.
Why? Because I suspect the season will NOT hold up to a rewatch. Henry II's evil smile at the end is provocative, but I think the idea that Henry II was sane in his world and is simply trying to get back, and not really the Devil will not hold up. For one reason. If he isn't evil, and is an innocent in the way the last episode said he was, why did he enter that family's house earlier in the season during the kid's birthday causing his parents to kill each other? He and Our Henry have the exact same bad luck powers when they are out of their Universes. But Our Henry didn't seem to use his to deliberately kill a bunch of people for no reason.
One good thing was learning this is an anthology after the season was over. That's a very good thing for a show this complex. Streaming is still a pretty new thing, and Amazon could decide to cancel it at any season because I don't know how long Amazon Prime will actually last, or if they can afford to keep their biggest shows for the long term (The Tick was already canceled after two years). As long as the show does a season long arc with a beginning, middle, and end, Amazon can pretty much cancel it at any point without the audience feeling ripped off.
There were a lot of questions left for me which is why the series will probably not be worth a rewatch. But why is Henry II referred to as a kid the entire time when it's clear in his Universe he's supposed to be Molly's contemporary? His actor Bill Skarsgard, Pennywise or not, IS clearly a kid, and it doesn't make sense to give him a middle-aged wife in the last episode. I actually thought she was his mom at first. The logic of the mystery does not hold up at all.
What about the Jackie Torrance tag? It was cute, but I don't expect it will ever be followed up on, so screw it. It was funny though.
Since this IS an anthology I'm not writing off this series. Next season (which I haven't seen and I don't own on Digital yet) may have turned out great. What I can say is that THIS season failed, and was a disappointment, and felt like a far cry from the works of Stephen King. Better luck next year. I hear Annie Wilkes show up. That should be fun. **1/2.
Spooky and mysterious, but also a bit slow and boring. The massacre at the prison at the end livened things up, but we had to wait an episode to see the fall-out from that (and it was a fake-out).
Scott Glenn is an interesting casting choice as an aged Alan Pangborn. Not who I would have picked, but an interesting choice nonetheless.
I'm seen numerous Stephen King projects that started off slow (Kingdom Hospital springs immediately to mind) but not too much J.J. Abrams stuff that does. The tone is a lot less frenetic and more low-key than the rest of the Bad Robot stuff.
Interesting premiere, if a bit dull. ***.
Castle Rock "Habeus Corpus"
I am disappointed they bought back the prison massacre at the beginning. But perhaps the notion that the kid is the Devil is even better.
I was unaware exactly how young Bill Skarsgard was in It. That much clown make-up meant you couldn't tell his age. But he's practically a kid himself.
I like Dennis saying he wouldn't be working at a prison if there were a Walmart within 50 miles of Castle Rock. I totally get why he didn't want to lose his job, as crappy as it is.
This was much better than the first episode. ***1/2.
Castle Rock "Local Color"
The killer was Molly as a little girl! Surprising way to kick the episode off.
She is such a hot mess as an adult. My theory is that she is 100% insane. I have yet to see anything disprove that idea that she isn't just nuts.
Those kids in the masks in the courtroom were so freaky because I couldn't tell what was going on. Seriously unnerving.
The episode was scary in places in a way the first two episodes were not. ***1/2.
Castle Rock "The Box"
Wow, why did Dennis go on the killing spree at the end? Was that because he touched the kid? Yikes.
The stuff with Henry and the old man in the woods was creepy too.
Speaking of Henry and old men in the woods, I liked him confronting Alan believing he had the high ground. But when Pangborn reveals what he does, Henry realizes he DOESN'T have it and never did.
The agent threatening the kid with eating his own teeth also quickly realized that conversation was not going the way he wanted it to go.
The series is still very slow but I can sense it building towards something, which is good. ***1/2.
Castle Rock "Harvest"
So Jackie Torrance is related to Jack Torrance from The Shining. Given her proximity to the kid, that's concerning.
Speaking of which, him walking into that family's house and then them all starting to kill each other was horrifying.
That was a great ending between Pangborn and the kid. Whatever the kid is, if he's the Devil I suspect he doesn't choose to be or want to be. Which is almost worse. I would feel a lot better about taking this kid who causes evil all around him out if he weren't probably innocent himself.
Best episode so far. ****.
Castle Rock "Filter"
When Henry tells Molly she is effing crazy I was like, "I agree."
Speaking of which, Otis and Willie freak me out. Does the schizma idea mean that Otis is hearing a level of the Stephen King Multiverse? Maybe.
Another dire ending that I feel completely unsatisfied with. Good thing I'm binging the show or I would be very frustrated. ***1/2.
Castle Rock "The Queen"
I was confused by that. I could not tell the linear progression of things, or what was and wasn't real by the end.
I love that Ruth used the magic trick Alan taught her all those years ago to palm her pills. In the books Pangborn was an amateur magician, and I like that that's a facet to him here too.
The Timewalker thing is another favor in the idea that the Multiverse exists.
This episode was another whose ending raised a lot of unanswered questions. I couldn't tell what was going on. ***.
Castle Rock "Past Perfect"
Molly's dead? I thought she was just nuts.
The episode opening on and focusing on that crazy murderous couple is something American Horror Story would do. Except this was way better than that because it didn't go too far or over-the-top. I also completely buy a couple who set up a murder bed and breakfast going mad. That is not something sane and healthy people cook up.
Jackie Torrance with the axe in the back! Fun fact: In The Shining novel it's not an axe, it's a roque mallet, and it doesn't actually kill Halloran. But everyone is more familiar with it being an actual murder with an axe in the movie, so they channeled that instead. It's interesting Stephen King is an executive producer on this show, because he was never crazy about that movie.
So Pangborn is definitely dead, which was not made clear at the end of the last episode. I'll live with that.
I like that after she makes that racial remark, Henry asks for the cop's badge number and she gives it to him unashamedly and without fear. Whatever else Henry is, he's bad news, and he also should understand no cop would ever get in trouble for talking smack to the guy who sprung a potential mass murderer from prison. It was Henry using his lawyer privileges, and the cops being thoroughly unimpressed.
Later in the season makes the idea that Henry is a bad luck charm after all doubly interesting.
Speaking of the racism of the cops at the beginning, them drawing their guns on Henry was a Black Lives Matter moment. Henry lives in that house, and they drew on him as if he were the criminal. On one level I understand after Pangborn is dead why the cops resent Henry always being at the scene of these deaths. On the other hand, the racism grates precisely because of that moment. I'm not sure whose side I'm actually on here.
That was pretty good. ****.
Castle Rock "Henry Deaver"
That was quite an origin story.
I have to say, this is unlike any other Stephen King story. That's not necessarily a compliment. This goes into J.J. Abrams Westworld / Lost territory with ambiguous things happening that you don't understand what they mean, and things happening that make you question the reality of the story itself (which is also very David Lynch). And I like those kind of stories. But I don't know if they are the right kinds of stories to base a Stephen King series that adapts all of his works in one setting on. Why?
Well, Stephen King will occasionally do an inexplicable mindscrew story in one of his short story collections. But as far as his novels and novellas go, he is one of the most straightforward authors I have ever read. He sort of has to be since he doesn't plan the endings, and comes up with them as he writes them, and is often as surprised as the reader at how his books end. I don't know if his settings are the right place for a thick and complex mythology. Stephen King's writing is accessible because it has to be for him to keep the story straight himself. It's never planned ahead of time. I get that that isn't how J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot operate, but this is supposed to be about Stephen King, not Bad Robot.
Ironically, Haven, a far superior series, also did a lot of complex and planned mythology, but King has pretty much disavowed it (it is not listed as an adaptation of his works on his website) I suspect because it took the liberties with The Colorado Kid it did. This series seems far less interesting than Haven, far less accessible, and with far less likable characters. It bugs me this has King's stamp of approval and Haven doesn't. And say what you will about Haven, but like the rest of Stephen King's stuff, it was pretty easy to follow as it was happening. A lot of the supernatural mysteries were unexplained, which is the same as many of his books, but you still understood what was happening as it was happening. This is dreamlike, and ambiguous in a way that Bad Robot loved to do on Westworld without understanding WHY Stephen King's stuff is so popular to begin with. It's because it's easy to read and not avant garde. I don't feel like a dope as I'm reading it, and it's easy to follow. That's just apparently not what this show is, which is weird.
Maybe King himself wanted to branch out into that kind of storytelling and simply didn't have the chops to tell it himself. That's plausible. But it also doesn't feel like the right idea for something sold as a definitive adaptation of the whole of his canon. If Stephen King wanted to executive produce a mind-screw sci-fi series, he didn't have to trade so heavily on his own brand and give people the wrong idea about what to expect. This is a Bad Robot show more than a Stephen King show. I get that it's actually both, but they were selling the Stephen King part of it to me. I like Bad Robot fine. But that's not why I bought the Blu-Ray to get into the series.
We'll see how all this shakes out. ***.
Castle Rock "Romans"
I suspected the season wouldn't work by the time I got to the last episode, and yeah, this fell apart.
Why? Because I suspect the season will NOT hold up to a rewatch. Henry II's evil smile at the end is provocative, but I think the idea that Henry II was sane in his world and is simply trying to get back, and not really the Devil will not hold up. For one reason. If he isn't evil, and is an innocent in the way the last episode said he was, why did he enter that family's house earlier in the season during the kid's birthday causing his parents to kill each other? He and Our Henry have the exact same bad luck powers when they are out of their Universes. But Our Henry didn't seem to use his to deliberately kill a bunch of people for no reason.
One good thing was learning this is an anthology after the season was over. That's a very good thing for a show this complex. Streaming is still a pretty new thing, and Amazon could decide to cancel it at any season because I don't know how long Amazon Prime will actually last, or if they can afford to keep their biggest shows for the long term (The Tick was already canceled after two years). As long as the show does a season long arc with a beginning, middle, and end, Amazon can pretty much cancel it at any point without the audience feeling ripped off.
There were a lot of questions left for me which is why the series will probably not be worth a rewatch. But why is Henry II referred to as a kid the entire time when it's clear in his Universe he's supposed to be Molly's contemporary? His actor Bill Skarsgard, Pennywise or not, IS clearly a kid, and it doesn't make sense to give him a middle-aged wife in the last episode. I actually thought she was his mom at first. The logic of the mystery does not hold up at all.
What about the Jackie Torrance tag? It was cute, but I don't expect it will ever be followed up on, so screw it. It was funny though.
Since this IS an anthology I'm not writing off this series. Next season (which I haven't seen and I don't own on Digital yet) may have turned out great. What I can say is that THIS season failed, and was a disappointment, and felt like a far cry from the works of Stephen King. Better luck next year. I hear Annie Wilkes show up. That should be fun. **1/2.
