I must say that Terry O'Quinn (as the warden of Shawshank Correctional Facility...I hope they keep the King throwbacks coming!) throwing a tightened noose around his neck (after tying the rope to a nearby tree) and driving over a cliff decapitating himself was not exactly what I was anticipating!
The show certainly offers plenty more odd twists where that came from! Like a cordoned cell block (F) with a "hole" containing a "cage" holding prisoner a cadaverous gaunt young man (Bill Skarsgård) who only speaks the name of a former resident, Henry Deaver (André Holland).
Nearby the unnamed prisoner's cage was a seat and a bucket of used cigarette butts, later to be revealed as the warden's.
Warden Dale Lacy is the one who actually tells the young man to mention Deaver's name when he's found...that certainly begs to question what about Deaver is of such significance to this whole discovery of the "inmate" with no record on file of his existence.
When Deaver-a lawyer in Texas who works futilely in capital cases to keep clients out of the death penalty-gets a call from a Shawshank security guard, Dennis Zalewski (Noel Fisher), regarding the unnamed prisoner.
The new warden, Porter (Ann Cusack), wants to try and keep him a secret until more information can be obtained...and when Deaver comes calling, she keeps Skarsgård under wraps, secret. So it will be up to Deaver to somehow break that "wall of secrecy" in order to help Skarsgård.
Of course if the ending tells us anything, it is that perhaps Skarsgård doesn't need anyone's help! That sequence involving the dead guard, cell doors opening, and Skarsgård walking about as the monitor room screens fade in and out while Zalewski is startled as it all transpires is quite an eerie revelation that his release would not particularly ideal!
Good to see the likes of Spacek (as Deaver's dementia-stricken adoptive mother, Ruth) and Scott Glenn (as the cop, Alan Pangborn, who found Deaver at Castle Bluff's frozen lake after being missing for eleven days, in present day living with Spacek) in the cast!
Being just the first episode, characters get a bit of development while the underlying mysteries regarding Deaver and Skarsgård's "prisoner" are purposely enigmatic.
Melanie Lynskey (much like Spacek, tied to "Carrie" of course, was previously in Stephen King's "Rose Red") is introduced as someone who seems to know Deaver but nervously makes sure to avoid him, driving her car elusively away from his sight after picking up drugs from a teenager. Her use of an hourglass, taking a look at a top with a zipper, towards the end isn't elaborated with any great detail yet, serving more or less as an item later to be explained as the show goes on...I figure.
Zalewski's investigation of the Cell Block and eventual find of the unnamed prisoner is damned creepy!
4/5
The show certainly offers plenty more odd twists where that came from! Like a cordoned cell block (F) with a "hole" containing a "cage" holding prisoner a cadaverous gaunt young man (Bill Skarsgård) who only speaks the name of a former resident, Henry Deaver (André Holland).
Nearby the unnamed prisoner's cage was a seat and a bucket of used cigarette butts, later to be revealed as the warden's.
Warden Dale Lacy is the one who actually tells the young man to mention Deaver's name when he's found...that certainly begs to question what about Deaver is of such significance to this whole discovery of the "inmate" with no record on file of his existence.
When Deaver-a lawyer in Texas who works futilely in capital cases to keep clients out of the death penalty-gets a call from a Shawshank security guard, Dennis Zalewski (Noel Fisher), regarding the unnamed prisoner.
The new warden, Porter (Ann Cusack), wants to try and keep him a secret until more information can be obtained...and when Deaver comes calling, she keeps Skarsgård under wraps, secret. So it will be up to Deaver to somehow break that "wall of secrecy" in order to help Skarsgård.
Of course if the ending tells us anything, it is that perhaps Skarsgård doesn't need anyone's help! That sequence involving the dead guard, cell doors opening, and Skarsgård walking about as the monitor room screens fade in and out while Zalewski is startled as it all transpires is quite an eerie revelation that his release would not particularly ideal!
Good to see the likes of Spacek (as Deaver's dementia-stricken adoptive mother, Ruth) and Scott Glenn (as the cop, Alan Pangborn, who found Deaver at Castle Bluff's frozen lake after being missing for eleven days, in present day living with Spacek) in the cast!
Being just the first episode, characters get a bit of development while the underlying mysteries regarding Deaver and Skarsgård's "prisoner" are purposely enigmatic.
Melanie Lynskey (much like Spacek, tied to "Carrie" of course, was previously in Stephen King's "Rose Red") is introduced as someone who seems to know Deaver but nervously makes sure to avoid him, driving her car elusively away from his sight after picking up drugs from a teenager. Her use of an hourglass, taking a look at a top with a zipper, towards the end isn't elaborated with any great detail yet, serving more or less as an item later to be explained as the show goes on...I figure.
Zalewski's investigation of the Cell Block and eventual find of the unnamed prisoner is damned creepy!
4/5
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