NOS4A2 Review: The Graveyard of What Might Be (Season 1 Episode 2)
NOS4A2 Season 1 Episode 2, “The Graveyard of What Might Be,” is, more or less, a bit of a slog to get through. Much as in the premiere, the series — arguably by sheer necessity — needs to set down paving stones along its walkway before it can start running. That’s all well and good, but it makes for a rather tedious viewing experience.
No matter how much we might like it, on a kind of gratifying level, for Vic to get directly involved in the more engaging aspects of the show and get locked in a confrontation with Charlie Manx, this is a story that requires setup. Now, some of that setup is good and some of it just isn’t.
The good can mostly be found in the section of the episode revolving around Bing Partridge (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) and his getting wrapped up in Charlie’s web, setting the table for him to become the new henchman that goes and steals kids. It’s partly a character study on a man that is living a life so devoid of magic that he’ll accept it in the Charlie Manx.
There’s an element to being manipulated that’s remarkably simple. When it’s done effectively, there’s a part of you that realizes you’re being sold a bill of goods but it’s so overridden by the section of your mind that wants to believe it. For whatever reason – maybe it comforts you or supports your own view of the world — you buy it, even when you know it’s trash.
To bastardize Fox Mulder, you want to believe and that becomes your downfall. Bing so wants to believe in something like Christmasland and the kind of supposed good work that Charlie is doing that he willfully ignores the lunacy of the situation.
This is important because going forward, we as the audience need to understand why Bing is doing the things that he will go on to do, especially as it forces him to confront Vic — someone that has always been kind to him when she didn’t need to be. We need to understand that headspace for this storyline to work in the future.
On the less effective side of things, the show feels like it is purposefully slowing down Vic’s story because it can’t let her go too fast too soon and instead sidles her with a fairly boring subplot of going off to live with her dad and his girlfriend. It’s hard to see how that will be necessary for the story going forward.
At the same time, however, it’s almost as if the show wants to hit the fast forward button for a brief second with her meeting Maggie and getting that info dump on exactly what the mechanics of her power are. It’s as if the show hasn’t fully decided what the pace should be and is alternating between sprinting and laying down on the sidewalk.
That’s not to say that it’s bad; it’s just a bit disposable at the moment. While there are worse things that an episode can be, it’s certainly not where you necessarily would want to be either.
What did you think of this episode of NOS4A2? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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NOS4A2 airs Sundays at 10/9c on AMC.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.
One thought on “NOS4A2 Review: The Graveyard of What Might Be (Season 1 Episode 2)”
I have binged upto Ep7 and this has definitely gotten better with age. Vic and Maggie are great together and I now see the psychological thriller component. Don’t give up – it will reward you
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