‘Castle Rock’ Season 1 Review
Now that the first season of Castle Rock on Hulu has concluded, I thought that I would give my thoughts on the new series.
The series is a new original to Hulu that comes from creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason and produced by J.J. Abrams and Stephen King whose stories the series is based off of. I will admit that when I saw the tease, heard the news about this series coming out, I was beyond excited.
I am a huge Stephen King fan and seeing what Andy Muschietti did with hid adaptation of King’s IT, I was very excited to see what they would do with an actual series. After finishing the series this past Wednesday when the 10th episode season finale aired I will honestly say that I was, left wanting more.
The series that was announced back in 2017 that Stephen King would be producing a series with J.J. Abrams based in the universe of King’s writings, every fan of King rejoiced and spread cheer across the world, myself included. What could be better than a weekly show centered in the Stephen King universe and possibly connect to other stories in the universe? The answer was simply, nothing could be better.
So after waiting for what felt like forever, was about a year, the premier came on July 25, 2018 and it had all the creepy King vibes and right off, left you scratching your head, sometimes in genuine wonder and at other times wondering why the plot was so confusing.
I will admit, there was a slow start to the 10 episode series which was fine. We need background, character info, location info and a little plot to start off with so we know what we are looking at. I had zero complaints. There were so many questions each week, so many times I thought; “Ha, ok, this is what is going to happen.” But no, it didn’t happen. The writers were very good about placing different Easter eggs in random places without being too flashy about it which I loved as well.
I think by the time I was done keeping up with them, I personally knew of maybe 10 that I saw, I started paying more attention to the story. Face it, we all turned it one for two reasons; 1. The show revolved around the Stephen King universe and 2. Bill Skarsgard was in cast so, most were looking to see a Pennywise connection from show to the big screen. When I started paying more attention to the story that is where I started wanting more, maybe 5 episodes in as I was starting to guess the plot very easily.
Five episodes in and after the Easter eggs, you start to notice the story sounding a little familiar as if you knew what was coming almost. The most interesting episode of the 10 episode season was episode 9. Episode 9 either answered or confirmed your plot suspicions, it confirmed mine, and left you with the thought of, “ok, this is only episode 9, I cannot wait to see episode 10, it is going to be great.” Well, I really hate to let anyone down or speak of disappointment when Abrams and King are working together but, the last episode felt as though it was a step in reverse.
It felt as though where the plot was in the season finale, it should have been maybe in the middle of the season. I just felt as though there was disconnection between episodes 1-9 and the season finale itself. I was left wanting a few more answers and I understand it is Stephen King but mainly I throw the feeling of wanting more right into the face of Abrams, he is very well known for it but here, it just didn’t work. Let us know what you thought about the inaugural season of Castle Rock and remember there is no right or wrong answer just opinion and conversation.
Covering superheroes, anything dark, horror, and more! Lead writer for Fan Fest
