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Tripwire Reviews AMC’s Joe Hill’s NOS4A2
Be Careful What You Wish For
Tripwire’s contributing writer Tim Cundle takes a look at AMC’s NOS4A2, based on the book of the same name by Joe Hill…
NOS4A2
Starring: Ashleigh Cummings, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Jahkara Smith, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Virginia Kull, Zachary Quinto
Producers: Shana Fischer Huber, Henry Bronchtein, Joe Hill
AMC
I’ve never read any of Joe Hill’s books or short stories, and all that I really know about him is that his father is Stephen King. It’s clear that the writing team responsible for adapting Hill’s book for AMC capitalised on Joe’s familial connections, because N0S4A2 feels very much like his dad’s hand is on the tiller. Of course, that is not stretching credibility much – aping your dad’s canon when you’ve grown up inside his closeted world is bordering on the inevitable, and of course trying to emulate the quality of his brilliantly crafted stories certainly qualifies as ambitious.
N0S4A2’s protagonists are known as the Strong Creatives, who can transcend the barriers that separate reality and imagination. The lead characters are Charlie Manx, a near immortal child predator who whisks his victims away to a place in his imagination (his Inscape) called Christmasland and Vickie McQueen, an eighteen year old artist hell-bent on stopping Manx’s terror. McQueen is a classic outsider character, her desperate attempts to escape the failed relationship of her parents while pursuing her quest very much relatable. With a beguiling, if barely explained mythology that underpins the lives of Vickie, Manx and other members of the ensemble, the series succeeds in balancing the banal horrors of suburban America with the ghouls and malefactors at its unseen margins.
That said, there’s no way to ignore the debt that N0S4A2 owes to Christine, The Dead Zone, Needful Things and Salem’s Lot as it liberally borrows from all of them. At times N0SFA2 feels almost like a Marvel What If tale, in which Stephen King created the X-Men in the mid ‘80s as a horror series. And it doesn’t help that it was filmed in a similar location to Castle Rock, which significantly adds to the increasing feeling of déjà vu and over-familiarity. However, there are far worse writers that a show could be indebted to, and thanks to being overwhelmed by all manner of King tropes and the excellent performances of Zachary Quinto and Ashleigh Cummings, N0S4A2 has an immediacy that captures the imagination from start to finish. Just make sure that the doors are locked and that you leave the lights on before you start watching. You have been warned… Tim Cundle
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