Stream It Or Skip It: ‘NOS4A2’, An AMC Drama About A Girl Who Finds Things And A Vampire Who Loves Christmas

Joe Hill’s 2013 novel NOS4A2 presented a vampire story that has a few interesting elements. The story’s vampire isn’t exactly a dark guy; sure, he sucks the blood from children, but he lives in a place called Christmasland. And he doesn’t go unchallenged in the novel, as a girl from working-class New England has a special power that might help defeat him. AMC has adapted the series; how does it translate to TV? Read on for more…

NOS4A2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A pencil drawing of an old Rolls-Royce, and the words “Here, Iowa.” A young boy lies awake in his bed. He goes to his mother’s room and asks to come in, but she’s busy having sex with some rando and she tells him to go back to sleep.

The Gist: That boy, Daniel Moore (Asher Miles Fallica), is lured into that old Rolls-Royce by a candy cane and a bunch of wrapped gifts. While he gets locked into the car, a thug kills Daniel’s mother and the rando, leaving syringes and other evidence behind. The man driving the car is a craggy old guy who introduces himself as Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto), who says he’s going to take the unhappy kid away from his home and take him to Christmasland, “where every day is Christmas day, and unhappiness is against the law.” His license plate reads: NOS4A2.

Then we switch to Haverhill, Massachusetts, and a sketch of a covered bridge. Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings) is a smart working-class kid and a very good artist who is thinking of going to RISD for school. But for now, she’s helping her mother Linda (Virginia Kull) clean houses, including the huge house of her old friend Willa (Paula Singer). Things are not going well between her mother and her father Chris (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and she usually gets away from it by getting on her dirt bike and riding through the woods. After a fight about losing the credit card, Vic rides and finds a spooky covered bridge. She goes into the bridge and gets some sensations that spark equal sensations in Manx. But there’s also a graffiti scribble that says “Willa’s”, and she comes back with the credit card.

Every time something needs to be found, the bridge shows up. But, according to everyone she asks, it was torn down 15 years ago. Vic feels especially out of place at Willa’s lake house during holiday fireworks; Willa’s private-school friends make fun of her parents’ jobs and basically make her feel like crap… except for Drew (Rariman Newton), who pretty much hates his rich parents. Vic goes back to the other side of the lake to join “her people”, but is surprised to see bruises on the back of her mother’s neck.

Meanwhile, back in Iowa, Daniel’s friend Maggie Leigh (JJ Smith) keeps looking for clues about where Daniel went, often asking for a mystical set of Scrabble letters for help. As Manx and Daniel make their way towards Christmas Land, Manx gets younger, and Daniel gets more tired and haggard. Yes, that means that Manx is a vampire sucking the youth from children. But as the weather gets snowier, Manx can’t deny the pull that is coming from that small town in Massachusetts.

Our Take: Joe Hill adapted his original novel NOS4A2 for this series, and he’s heavily involved in the production. But AMC veteran Jami O’Brien (Hell on Wheels) is the showrunner, and she’s got the pacing and characterization of an AMC show down to a T. If you’re turned off by the show’s title — once you realize that it’s a licence-plate version of “Nosferatu” — don’t be. Sure, this show is full of people being killed and all sorts of supernatural shenanigans. But Hill and O’Brien are more interested in telling the stories about the people directly affected by this brewing confrontation between Vic and Manx, and that is what will keep non-horror fans tuning in.

Granted, the show is a bit strange, and may not be scary enough for horror fans. But we’re not as interested in blood and gore as we are in seeing Quinto’s Manx get younger and younger and gain power as he approaches Vic. There’s no one more able to eat up such a weird and meaty role than Quinto, and he does a great job making Manx both sad and creepy all at once.

But Cummings as Vic is shaping up to be a fine adversary for Manx, even in the first episode. Vic is miserable about her life in her tiny Haverhill house, with her screaming parents, and the fact that many of her friends have money and don’t worry about the same things she does. She’s trying to figure out how this bridge leads her to find things like her father’s watch and what exactly this power means. It’ll be interesting to watch her harness this power and see what happens when Manx ultimately enters her life.

Sex and Skin: Besides the schtupping Daniel’s mom has in the opening scene, that’s about it.

Parting Shot: A now-young Manx says to a haggard Daniel, “I’ll see you again when I return from a far-away place named Haverhill, Massachusetts.” Then he drives into the woods.

Sleeper Star: Both Kull and Moss-Bacharach play Vic’s parents as flawed individuals and not the cartoonish Massholes they could have been, and that’s to the credit of both of them.

Most Pilot-y Line: When one of Willa’s trust fund idiot friends says “You’re obviously smart. We just thought your parents would be smart, too,” Willa’s response is, “Her parents are smart. I’ve known them forever; her mom cleans my house!” Read the room, Willa.

Our Call: STREAM IT. NOS4A2 is more creepy than scary, and may still be too weird for some people. But Quinto and Cummings put in two fine performances and the story has a prestige TV sheen that makes us want to see more.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream NOS4A2 on AMC