Just started to watch Castle Rock, a Stephen King adaptation available on Hulu. Surprisingly nuanced and slow paced through the first two episodes, though it begins to add intensity thereafter.
Episode One: Severance
The warden of Shawshank prison commits suicide, leading to the installation of a new supervisor. She wants to know why a whole section of the privately held and operated prison has been unused for decades. A guard's investigation of the closed section reveals the answer. Deep in the bowels of Shawshank a man has been caged and kept from everyone else and off the books. The young man refuses to respond to any attempts to communicate with him, except for the utterance of one name, Henry Deaver, in response to a request for his name.
One of the guards says, "One thing's for sure. He ain't Henry Deaver."
Meanwhile, Deaver is a defense attorney on the recent losing end of a death row case. Reeling from that loss, he gets the call to return "home" to Castle Rock, Maine, and Shawshank prison. The caller, the same prison guard who made the discovery, won't identify himself to Deaver, but relates the rough sketch and the prisoner's declaration while communicating a fear of what might happen to the man without some assistance. Deaver reluctantly returns.
As a boy, an adopted Deaver disappeared for 11 days from the home of a prominent member of the community, his adopted father and a popular local preacher, prompting a manhunt that ends with a deputy named Pangborn finding the impossibly unharmed (given the cold) boy standing in the center of a frozen lake, claiming to have no memory of anything that transpired during his absence. One of the things that inarguably did? The injury of Deaver's father, who later succumbs from the exposure leading many in the town to blame Deaver, some suspecting the boy of somehow causing the harm and secreting himself, as the two had a contentious relationship.
Other characters we meet in the opening episode include Deaver's mother, played by Sissy Spacek. The two had a close relationship, but it's obvious that there's an enormous strain in it, likely over that same period of time, though we see a relieved Mrs. Deaver rushing to the boy in flashbacks. It is clear in short order that Deaver has been away for some time without a great deal of contact. Mrs. Deaver is suffering from encroaching if sporadic dementia and her son is surprised to find the caregiver service he put in motion didn't make it past a brief opening period. A second shock is the discovery of a much older Pangborn semi-ensconced with the mother (and played by Scott Glenn). Add to the mix a psychic childhood friend named Dale Lacy, who appears to be inextricably bound to the thoughts and feelings of Henry and who may have played a role in the elder Deaver's death and you have the foundation of the piece.
Episode One: Severance
The warden of Shawshank prison commits suicide, leading to the installation of a new supervisor. She wants to know why a whole section of the privately held and operated prison has been unused for decades. A guard's investigation of the closed section reveals the answer. Deep in the bowels of Shawshank a man has been caged and kept from everyone else and off the books. The young man refuses to respond to any attempts to communicate with him, except for the utterance of one name, Henry Deaver, in response to a request for his name.
One of the guards says, "One thing's for sure. He ain't Henry Deaver."
Meanwhile, Deaver is a defense attorney on the recent losing end of a death row case. Reeling from that loss, he gets the call to return "home" to Castle Rock, Maine, and Shawshank prison. The caller, the same prison guard who made the discovery, won't identify himself to Deaver, but relates the rough sketch and the prisoner's declaration while communicating a fear of what might happen to the man without some assistance. Deaver reluctantly returns.
As a boy, an adopted Deaver disappeared for 11 days from the home of a prominent member of the community, his adopted father and a popular local preacher, prompting a manhunt that ends with a deputy named Pangborn finding the impossibly unharmed (given the cold) boy standing in the center of a frozen lake, claiming to have no memory of anything that transpired during his absence. One of the things that inarguably did? The injury of Deaver's father, who later succumbs from the exposure leading many in the town to blame Deaver, some suspecting the boy of somehow causing the harm and secreting himself, as the two had a contentious relationship.
Other characters we meet in the opening episode include Deaver's mother, played by Sissy Spacek. The two had a close relationship, but it's obvious that there's an enormous strain in it, likely over that same period of time, though we see a relieved Mrs. Deaver rushing to the boy in flashbacks. It is clear in short order that Deaver has been away for some time without a great deal of contact. Mrs. Deaver is suffering from encroaching if sporadic dementia and her son is surprised to find the caregiver service he put in motion didn't make it past a brief opening period. A second shock is the discovery of a much older Pangborn semi-ensconced with the mother (and played by Scott Glenn). Add to the mix a psychic childhood friend named Dale Lacy, who appears to be inextricably bound to the thoughts and feelings of Henry and who may have played a role in the elder Deaver's death and you have the foundation of the piece.
