Castle Rock Season 2: Could’ve Been Worse

Castle Rock is the definition of a “just okay” series. It starts off with an interesting look into the different characters in the Stephen King multiverse, but, in the end, there are a lot of open ends and character arcs that don’t get fully resolved. But, they weren’t major enough for anyone to say definitively that the series is bad, just that it was “just okay”.

As far as the positives go, the cinematography is excellent. The lighting, specifically, really works within the narrative, and adds a haunting atmosphere. You can definitely tell that the series had a good budget and they utilized it in a very impactful way. And, the series was genuinely scary. This is partially due to the incredible performances from all of the actors. Paul Sparks, for example, does a chillingly good job with Ace Merril. When he’s scary, he’s terrifying, and made me incredibly uneasy. The supernatural elements also worked really nicely within the series, and was developed just enough for it to be believable. While the explanation of the supernatural elements could’ve been developed a little bit more, overall, it worked pretty well.

Also, there’s the character of Annie, the main character of this season. Overall, Lizzy Caplan did an incredible job with her character. She knew exactly how to play Annie, and she was very good at portraying her character. Even in the moments in which Annie wasn’t properly portrayed, Lizzy Caplan was still able to give a proper performance.

Unfortunately, especially as the episodes progressed, there were plenty of moments in which she wasn’t properly portrayed. They both tried to make her a somewhat, but not a completely, sympathetic character with a dark side, and a malignant sociopath. The series’ writers didn’t choose which version they went with, leaving me as the audience not sure with how to take her in the end. It would’ve been fine if they went with either option, but they chose neither, leaving me conflicted with her character. I didn’t love her, yet I didn’t hate her. And it’s not that she’s an antihero. All of her actions are cruel, some of them being unnecessarily so; the cruelty that was necessary made me not hate her, but it certainly wasn’t strong enough to make me like her at all.

Furthermore, and this is a spoiler, so if you don’t want spoilers, skip to the next paragraph, there was one particular moment that was particularly poorly handled, and that was the treatment of Rita Green. In the fifth episode, it’s revealed that Joy is actually Annie’s half-sister, and Rita, Annie’s teacher, is Joy’s mother. This is quite a big surprise, yet it’s only discussed briefly before being pushed under the carpet. It seems that the only reason this plot point is there is to fill space, as the plot line takes place over a few episodes in the dryer middle of the series and is resolved rather quickly.

Unfortunately, there are a few moments in which the series is somewhat problematic. For example, two half siblings, Nadia and Chris, have a romantic relationship in the series, which is regarded as something that’s completely normal and never comes up as something that’s at all problematic, which it obviously is.

The character of Joy is treated very well earlier on in the season, and there’s an inkling that she might become a well-developed character. Unfortunately, while we do see depth, as the series progresses she’s pushed under the rug, which is a huge disappointment, as she plays an important role in the series. Yet, we only care about her so much. There’s a relationship that starts to be developed in the beginning, for example, but never goes anywhere as time progresses, and is never even mentioned in the later episodes.

Furthermore, the handling of the Merrils had both its positives and negatives. There was a major reveal in the fourth episode that completely changed everything for the characters, and changed the way that the patriarch of the family, Reginald, or “Pop”, was viewed throughout the rest of the series. What’s actually revealed, while it is upsetting for the some of the major characters, didn’t actually make me dislike “Pop”. Basically, “Pop” accidentally does something which upsets some of the other characters. But, the cruelty that’s given towards “Pop”, while understandable at first, seems excessive towards the ending of the series, and ends up making characters, that are supposed to be likeable, less likeable because of their poor treatment towards “Pop”. Granted, they do try and further demonize “Pop” at one point in the series, but we’re told about some of his poor behavior with it never being shown, so it isn’t really impactful.

Furthermore, the ending, while giving further insight into Annie Wilkes, doesn’t leave me completely satisfied, as the other characters don’t get the resolutions that they deserve. For example, we never find out what happened to Nadia and Abdi Omar, even though they played important roles in the series. They have these character arcs and these relationships that go completely unresolved. For example, Nadia’s relationship with her brother Chris, while problematic, is an important part of the series, and there’s no satisfying conclusion to it.