What makes for a good mystery? If you were to ask most of Hollywood’s television writers, the answer would probably be: a whole lot of puzzles.
Yes, writers for (weekly) TV series love to thrust complicated mysteries into the laps of their viewers, encouraging them to talk amongst their friends and scan through Reddit to theorize with super fans. But a necessary part of these mysteries is the satisfying answer – and many shows fall short in that department. Including, now, Castle Rock, whose finale left much to be desired.
For weeks, viewers tuned in to the creepy story of lawyer Henry Deaver (Andre Holland), who was summoned back to his hometown after a mysterious Kid was discovered trapped in a private cell in a shutdown wing of Shawshank Prison. With every episode, new clues accompanied the scares, but the showrunners constantly asked new questions about this bizarre mythology.
In fact, we had quite a few questions going into the finale, even after the ninth episode provided a whole host of answers. Miraculously, in the end, they answered most of the questions they had confounded audiences with – but the way they resolved these plotlines presents a major issue with the series, and sci-fi/fantasy TV as a whole.
In real life, you can’t solve a puzzle unless you have all the pieces in front of you. The same rule should apply for television. If you’re a showrunner, and you want your audience to engage with one another to try and figure out what direction your show is heading in, you owe them all the pieces. Many shows know how to make this formula work, and it’s helped make series like Lost and Westworld cultural phenomenons. As good as those shows may be, they wouldn’t be nearly as fun or memorable if audiences couldn’t join together to decode the clues.
But on Castle Rock, these resolutions came totally out of left field. Without getting into spoiler territory, the final twists are surprisingly because they were never really presented as being within the realm of possibility. Sure, the show teased sci-fi subtext and offered subtle clues for how it’d all turn out. But this is a show that went on many tangents, so none of the (painfully subtle) hints provided to viewers seemed important. This show played by its own rules and, while the ending itself was satisfying, it was not all that fun.
That being said, when completely stripped of context, the ending does make for a satisfying hour of television. This was one of Castle Rock’s creepiest episodes, thanks almost entirely to Bill Skarsgard’s terrifying performance. Multiple times throughout the hour, the camera simply lingers on his face and delivers a good fright. The episode’s final (pre-credit… we’ll get to that) scene is also quite good, if not a bit on the nose. King’s work was never really subtle, but the characters literally speak the theme of the overall season as they tie up the storyline’s loose ends. It’s a moody, well done moment, and the questions being asked to the audience are genuinely compelling. But… it’s still a tad bit too obvious in its intention.
But then, of course, we get to the after credit scene, a possible hint for the second season involving Jane Levy’s horribly named Jackie Torrance. All season long, the series winked to the camera whenever Jackie introduced herself to a new character, but these final moments doubled down on the Shining Easter eggs to awful affect. It’s a groan inducing moment, and one that will feel incredibly stupid if Castle Rock’s sophomore season doesn’t provide audiences with a gender-bent take on The Shining.
While entertaining throughout its ten episode run, it was hard to really get invested in a show like Castle Rock. It’s unsolvable mystery kept viewers at arm’s length, and its convoluted plot proved a bit frustrating. While the show was still technically better made than its closest competition, American Horror Story, it’s easy not to wonder what a campier, sexier version of Castle Rock would look like.
As it stands, Castle Rock was a perfectly solid season of television – but, in this Golden Age of Television, that doesn’t always cut it. Hopefully, when the series returns for its second season (ideally Easter egg free), they’ll focus more on building a well-constructed story, instead of trying desperately to leave viewers confused.
Overall rating: 5 out of 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoqqqYoswlI
