TV Review: Castle Rock (Season 2)

October 15th 2019, 9:46am

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Plot: A feud between warring clans comes to a boil when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes, Stephen King's nurse from hell, gets waylaid in Castle Rock.

Review: As much as I enjoyed the concept of Castle Rock's first season, I was disappointed in the end. A lifelong fan of both Stephen King and J.J. Abrams, I was excited to see an original exploration of the fictional setting of so many of the author's stories. While we saw the return of some of King's creations like Alan Pangborn and Shawshank Prison, the story itself fizzled with an ending that felt rushed and did not quite live up to the promise of the elaborate mystery the season had set up. A little over a year later, Castle Rock is back with a new story set in the same town but with an all new cast and more references to Stephen King's creations. The result is better overall with an excellent performance from Lizzy Caplan as one of King's most iconic characters.

Serving as a prequel of sorts to MISERY, this version of Annie Wilkes deviates from King's novel and Rob Reiner's film. Here, Wilkes is a single mother to Joy (EIGHTH GRADE's Elsie Fisher) who moves from state to state and working as a nurse long enough to steal the pills to deal with her psychotic disorders. While King hinted that Wilkes may have been bipolar, we get a definitive answer here that she does suffer from that diagnosis. After a crash lands them in Castle Rock, Wilkes and her daughter try to settle down as best they can. But, that is where the secondary plot of the season comes into play.

The Merril family, led by dying patriarch Pops (Tim Robbins) and his son Ace (Paul Sparks) are at odds with Pops' adopted son Abdi (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS' Barkhad Abdi) who is opening a shopping plaza and business park for the numerous Somali refugees living in town. The mall, being built on a supposedly haunted site in Jerusalem's Lot, serves as a rift between the adopted Abdi and his sister Dr. Nadia Omar (Yusra Warsama) and the Merrils. Without giving anything away, Annie Wilkes fragile mental state and a criminal past involving the birth of her daughter collide with the feuding Merrill clan in a very violent fashion.

While the Annie Wilkes storyline and Merrill clan narrative could have been more than enough to makes this a dark and psychological thriller, there is another thread tied to the urban legends surrounding Jerusalem's Lot and the decrepit Marsten House. In SALEM'S LOT, the Marsten House carries many horrible stories and is where Kurt Barlow, the vampire, takes up residence. Here, it serves as the source of a very different type of monster and one that is far more horrific than anything encountered in the last season of this show. In fact, this season seems to be a very balanced combination of supernatural threats reminiscent of King novels like The Tommyknockers and Salem's Lot with the psychological terror of Misery and The Shining. In short, this season works better as an homage to Stephen King without as many overt callbacks to his writing.

While I enjoyed seeing Sissy Spacek return to King's world in the first season, the overall cast here is better suited to the material. Tim Robbins returns to the geographic proximity of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION but plays a man haunted by his past and trying to make amends. Barkhad Abdi gets his meatiest acting role since CAPTAIN PHILLIPS and nails it. Even Elsie Fisher shows her work in EIGHTH GRADE was no fluke as she plays the tormented daughter of Annie Wilkes. But, the prize here goes to Lizzy Caplan who plays on Kathy Bates' legendary performance but makes this Annie her very own. She uses the same language like "dirty bird" and "number one fan" in her lexicon and makes deliberate character choices like never swining her arms to give Wilkes some more humanity, but Lizzy Caplan is also able to capitalize on the backstory crafted for the character here.

While it was never necessary to get an origin for Annie Wilkes, Castle Rock manages to give her one that is both a perfect compliment to Stephen King's creation but one that adds a layer of depth to rewatching/rereading MISERY. Even though only the first five episodes were made available for review, I am easily convinced at how much better this season is compared to the first. Eschewing the alternate dimensions and timeline conceits that convoluted the first season, Castle Rock season two feels like peak King and is a far superior homage to the work of the author. Since the two seasons are completely independent experiences, I highly recommend you watch this season whether you were disappointed by the first or not. I wish I could tell you about all of the twists and turns this season takes, but that would ruin what is shaping up to be one of the best seasons of television this year.

Castle Rock's second season premieres October 23rd on Hulu.