Season 2 of Hulus Castle Rock takes familiar Stephen King books to unfamiliar places

Building a TV series around a location made famous in stories without actually adapting those stories is a strange choice, but for Hulu’s Castle Rock, it’s proven rewarding. Created by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason and executive produced by J.J. Abrams and Stephen King, among others, the show is set in the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock, which is the setting for many King stories. Castle Rock incorporates elements from King’s fiction, but it leaves the novels that made the town famous largely untouched, apart from the occasional passing reference to the town’s history with killer dogs and serial killers.

The series isn’t King’s work, but it’s storytelling that aspires to be on King’s unmistakable wavelength. It’s hard to think that...

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