More of a techno-thriller with surprising characterizations and motivations. It also had to be the least Stephen King thing with his name all over it. Gone were his typical (and often tiresome) hallmarks: supernatural underpinnings, sporadic flashes of bizarre backstories, Lovecraftian everywheres and Gothic everythings. It was more like a James Patterson-meets-Tom Clancy deal with a rural setting.
But then Season Number Two happened. And what a huge steaming Number Two it has been.
The pendulum has clearly swung deep from Ohio all the way back to Castle Rock and beyond. The show becomes needlessly abstract, confusing, slow, slapdash mystical, pretentiously obscure and simply unconvincing. The tone and genre shift is jarring. It is like a completely different show with some of the same actors. But it is not the fun ride we started. All of sudden it's Dead Zone, it's Robin Cook, it's Lawnmower Man (Brady writes and magically disseminates a literal "killer app" from inside his vegetative state!), it's doctors who look like Johnny Depp with preposterous goals with Bradburian drugs. I would hate to keep watching only to find out there is an Ice Age insanity dragon name Rockbar Jeff slumbering in a glacial groove and who will be revealed as the cause of Bridgton's woes. Because that's where this feels like it is shamelessly headed.
I get that the third novel (on which Season Two is based) was more Kingian than Mr. Mercedes or Finders Keepers. But I actually liked the light- vs heavy-handedness that was imparted with Season One.
But then Season Number Two happened. And what a huge steaming Number Two it has been.
The pendulum has clearly swung deep from Ohio all the way back to Castle Rock and beyond. The show becomes needlessly abstract, confusing, slow, slapdash mystical, pretentiously obscure and simply unconvincing. The tone and genre shift is jarring. It is like a completely different show with some of the same actors. But it is not the fun ride we started. All of sudden it's Dead Zone, it's Robin Cook, it's Lawnmower Man (Brady writes and magically disseminates a literal "killer app" from inside his vegetative state!), it's doctors who look like Johnny Depp with preposterous goals with Bradburian drugs. I would hate to keep watching only to find out there is an Ice Age insanity dragon name Rockbar Jeff slumbering in a glacial groove and who will be revealed as the cause of Bridgton's woes. Because that's where this feels like it is shamelessly headed.
I get that the third novel (on which Season Two is based) was more Kingian than Mr. Mercedes or Finders Keepers. But I actually liked the light- vs heavy-handedness that was imparted with Season One.