'Castle Rock' Recap: 'Severance'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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When you hear the name, Stephen King, a bevy of things pop into your mind. You likely ponder upon the pile of books you own bearing his name, and your favorite story amongst that pile and you likely engage in a conversation about Mister King with whomever mentioned his name because hands down, he is one of the most prolific authors of the past forty years and his name brings instant recognition and instant joy when it is muttered because of the incredible stories that he’s brought to life over the course of his illustrious and storied career. 
 
Yet, what’s equally as fascinating is that a discussion on King’s written works often leads to a follow up discussion on the various movies and shows that have adapted his work since the consensus out there is that filmmakers and showrunners either get his stuff right or horribly wrong, and these discussions and debates about his stories and their respective adaptations will continue on as long as someone creative wants to take their shot at bringing them to life on the silver or small screen. But what’s intriguing about these adaptations, is that no one has ever wanted to expand upon the rich universe that King has brought to life. They merely want to focus on the bigger stories that everyone knows and loves. That is, until now. Because after all these years, Hulu finally rolled the dice on a brand-new series that takes us to parts of King’s universe that quite frankly, we’ve never seen before in Castle Rock.
 
Now in this story, we are introduced to Henry Deaver, a man who grew up in the town that shares the namesake of the series and poor Henry, has a past with his hometown, one that was scandalous and strange enough that it drove him far away to start anew. But, a series of strange circumstances have brought him home to face not only his past, but what appears to be a grave danger that no one understands just yet and well…it doesn’t get more Stephen King than that and I have to outright admit that I’m quickly falling in love with this series for so many reasons, starting with the fact that the series premiere, ‘Severance’, does an incredible job of building a world that is mostly free from King’s mainstream stories. 

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​Because we’ve never heard of Henry Deaver, nor his situation, but we are instantly drawn in by the mystery of what happened to him as a child, and how it clearly haunts him and really, it’s the characters that sell this premiere because they are rich and fascinating and populate a world where some supremely strange things have happened and continue to happen, as evidenced by the stunning suicide in the opening sequence and to top it all off, this premiere truly does do an amazing job of setting up the grand mystery for season one since you’re dying to know about the mysterious man that was living in the bowels of Shawshank and why the former warden kept him there for so long. 
 
But, while it is cool to see a different side of King’s universe, the series also understands to never forget where it came from and the fact that Shawshank is present in this story, along with the appearance of Alan Pangborn (a character that I’ve always wanted to see more of in the King-verse), and a few other Easter Eggs peppered through this opening tale, allow for it to fit nicely into this rich world that we’ve all explored at one time or another and it lends credence to the theories that Castle Rock and Derry are places of great power in these stories since the strangest of events happen in these two places and whatever is brewing before our eyes now, will be no different.
 
Truly though, what I loved most about this premiere, is how it shows us what life is like in the King-verse away from the Overlook Hotel, with the everyday Janes and Joes that live in a world where the impossible is possible and it is kind of cool to see how people react to the strange things that occur in this place and of course I also love that so far, this series is pretty darn solid. The acting is top notch, thanks to a stellar cast that includes Sissy Spacek, Melanie Lynskey, Ann Cusack, Terry O’Quinn, Frances Conroy and Scott Glenn and well, this series simply sets the mood right, it’s creepy and mysterious and it’s all that King fans can ask for, and more and since Hulu was nice enough to have the first three episodes of season one ready to view for the launch of this series, it’s time for me to return to Castle Rock and see what lurks in its shadows. Until next time. 

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