AMC recently premiered its anticipated NOS4A2 (pronounced Nosferatu) based on the book by Joe Hill. Having not read the source material I binged the series without any preconceived notions or expectations except those lingering from the 1922 German Vampire film. If I was expecting simply a retelling of that film, those illusions were quickly shattered.
The show wastes little time introducing the big bad. It opens on a decrepit-looking Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto) in his titular-named 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith. Very quickly his wickedness is put on full display by him kidnapping a small boy. As he drives the innocent passenger to a place he calls “Christmasland” you begin to see various changes happening to both occupants of the vintage car.
Meanwhile, we travel to small town Massachusetts to meet our heroine, a high school senior, Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings), with dreams of leaving small town life via Art School. Riding her dirt bike through wooded trails, she happens upon an old wooden covered bridge at the edge of a lake. She stands at the mouth of the structure & hears the eerie screech of numerous bats. After being told that the “Shorter Way Bridge” was torn down years prior, she discovers it’s not what it seems.
It is on this discovery that she/we meet the last of our main characters, Maggie Leigh (Jahkara Smith), a bubbly librarian medium who uses a Scrabble bag to divine answers from the universe. It is mainly through Maggie that the rules & structure of this magical world are laid out for Vic, as well as the viewer. As Vic uses her “Shorter Way Bridge” more often Charlie begins to feel it & his suspicions are confirmed when he looks on his “United Inscapes Of America” map. This puts these two “Strong Creatives” on a collision course that keeps the viewer guessing.
(I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention “The Lovecraft Keyhole” was a nice easter egg)
Though it sometimes gets bogged down in the minutiae of simple character drama and world-building, NOS4A2 is still a unexpected & entertaining series. With a lot of story left to tell & given a more robust second season it could fit in nicely with other brilliant AMC shows like “Preacher” & “The Walking Dead”.
