TV Review: Castle Rock - Series One Episode Six "Filter"

"I Was There, In The Woods The Night You Disappeared..."

With the major news this week regarding Castle Rock being that the overwhelming success from critics and audiences alike have resulted in a second season being rightly ordered by Hulu, the jury remains out on how exactly all of the many as of yet, unsolved mysteries within the series so far will play out to a conclusion this year or will instead seep into the next batch of episodes set to come in twelve months time. Thankfully, "Filter", the sixth chapter of the series, goes a long way in attempting to break down particular narrative arcs with a bit more push in comparison to last week's slow-burning episode, with a flashier pace and a stand-out musical accompaniment resulting in one of the better episodes of the series so far, one boosted by yet another great central performance from André Holland as his character begins to understand the oddity of his ambiguous past and the origin of the strange, ringing sensation which was picked up on out of the blue during last week's episode, whilst attempting to rekindle his distant relationship with son, Wendell Deaver, as portrayed by Chosen Jacobs, a young actor famous of course for his portrayal of Mike Hanlon in last year's It. 

With most of the action focusing heavily on Deaver's own discovery into his murky and absent memories of youth, particularly in regards to his wanderings into the forest with his adopted father, the discovery of two previous associates of Deaver Sr. results in a surrealist, dream-like epiphany in an attempt to understand the "voice of God" which has supposedly manifested itself within the ringing sensation Henry has been plagued with since a child. With the twirling mix of forestry and incidental piano-based musical cues which wouldn't be astray upon the musical desk of Angelo Badalamenti, Castle Rock does seem to bear more than a fleeting resemblance to Twin Peaks the more it goes on, particularly when Sissy Spacek's Ruth is essentially a contemporary incarnation of Grace Zabriskie's mourning Sarah Palmer, and with the added straight-faced horror elements including the recurring masked spectres haunting Molly's subconscious and The Kid's continual presence within the Deaver household, the show is best when it mixes the supernatural with the sublime. Concluding with arguably the biggest cliffhanger yet, "Filter" offered a vast improvement on last week's chapter with thrilling developments, better pacing and a sudden switch into surrealism which put the series back on track. 

Overall Episode Score: 8/10