A nurse and her daughter travel from town to town, running away from the authorities… until they crash their car in the town of Castle Rock.

Following on from Season 1’s stand-alone run, a second ten episodes of the fantasy show set in Stephen King’s eponymous New England town introduces us to some new characters, but maybe you’ll recognise them.

In Let the River Run, written by show creator Dustin Thomason, we meet Annie Wilkes, a young nurse who is waylaid in town. This is the same Annie Wilkes who eventually terrorises Paul Sheldon in King’s 1987 novel (Misery) and would later garner Kathy Bates an Oscar in the movie of the same name. This time she’s played by Lizzie Caplin (Cloverfield) and she’s great.

Directed by Greg Yaitanes, who also helmed Season 1’s The Queen, this opener managed to set up the machinations in the town, which primarily revolves around the Merrill family and the Somali community, which is growing in neighbouring town Jerusalem’s Lot (AKA Salem’s Lot).

Elsie Fisher (Despicable Me) is Annie’s daughter Joy, while Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption) is crime kingpin Reginald ‘Pop’ Merrill, who you may remember from King’s The Sun Dog in the Four Past Midnight collection. Of greater concern is Ace Merrill (Paul Sparks from House of Cards), a grown-up version of the character in The Body (also played by Keifer Sutherland in Stand by Me) with psychotic tendencies.

Caplan is the focus for this opening episode, and she’s captivating. When not on her meds (she steals them from the infirmaries where she works) she’s edgy and dangerous, all ‘dirty bird’ and a precursor to the Annie we’ll see in Misery.

Verdict: More than just an Annie Wilkes origins story, season two of Castle Rock promises to be as equally intriguing as the first year… and we’ve got a literal cliffhanger already! 8/10

Nick Joy