“NOS4A2” Season 1 Review by Brooke Daugherty
September 2, 2019 4:21 pm |
NOS4A2 is AMC’s episodic adaptation of Joe Hill’s 2013 novel of the same name. It centers around a vampire centenarian Named Charlie Manx (Quinto) who kidnaps children to feed off their energy and take them to a place called “Christmasland”. The most frightening thing about Zachary Quinto’s vampire is his gross fingernails, but the rest of the cast kept me watching week to week. Series spoilers ahead.
Even though Manx is the title character of NOS4A2, the other lead is Ashleigh Cummings playing 18 year old Vic McQueen. I had previously only seen her as Dot in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and wouldn’t have know it was her if I hadn’t looked her up. Vic is a feisty, blue-collar American teenager, a far cry from Cummings’ timid ladies maid character in Miss Fisher’s.
For half of the series, Manx and Vic are linked without meeting. Both are considered “strong creatives”, possessing supernatural abilities which can only be accessed by specific object working as a knife to “cut” through reality to enter their inscape. Vic’s knife is her dirt bike while Manx’s is his Rolls-Royce Wraith. We meet a few other creatives in the series, all with different abilities. We also meet Bing Partridge who becomes a devotee to Manx with the promise to live in Christmasland after their work is done. The work includes kidnapping children with various degrees of absentee parents as well as Vic herself.
Quinto is usually masterful at his roles, especially odd or creepy characters. As Manx, he is more of an exaggeration. His whole presence should be intimidating, but it falls short. In the eighth episode, he finally is creepy and menacing enough while telling another creative of his plan to make Vic the mother of his saved children. It wasn’t the first time he mentioned his intentions in the series, but it was absolutely the most skin crawling performance by Quinto.
The show uses several similar themes from the book, but changes things enough to make it compelling for episodic television. The book jumps back and forth through time and has Manx capturing Vic’s son, where the show is set near the end of Vic’s senior year of high school. The ending does allow for another season, possibly utilizing the future parts of the novel. If AMC decides to renew, I will probably binge watch all the episodes as I think that would have helped with most of the Manx material. Check out NOS4A2 and keep note of Ashleigh Cummings. I have a feeling now that she has broken into American TV and Film, she will become the next indie darling.
PCL Rating: High Taste It
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH 🍅
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Tags: Brooke Daugherty, Joe Hill NOS4A2, NOS4A2 AMC, Pop Culture Leftoverrs, zachary quinto
Categorised in: Television Reviews
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