Stephen King's renaissance continues with this adaptation of another of his more recent novels (that I have to admit I've not read yet). HBO have quickly produced this adaptation, and judging by the starry cast are eager to make this their latest prestige drama.
When the mutilated body of a young boy is found on the outskirts of a small American town. It appears to be an open and shut case for Detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn). Several eye witnesses place the local youth baseball coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman) at the scene, covered in blood. Forensic testimony and CCTV also show Maitland and his actions following the crime. Emotions are high in the town, and only heightened when Anderson has Maitland arrested during a little league game. However, conflicting TV footage emerges that shows Maitland out of state at a conference at exactly the same time.
Initially I'm not sure whether were looking at a paranormal elements to the story, or more of a "worst of humanity" type story. My current guess is more towards that paranormal aspect, and something has made itself look like Maitland to convince the victim that it was safe to go with him, I'm not sure that's much of a revelation, as I suspect whatever it was in that scene outside the Maitland's house whilst the police were serving their warrant.
I've seen some criticism of the show as being slow, but I'm not sure I agree with that. I thought that, particularly for a first episode, it was worth spending some getting to know the characters. Understanding, for example, Anderson's anger at Maitland is because of the death of his own child before this story started. That depth also lets us spend time with the actors and when they're Ben Mendelsohn, Jeremy Bobb, Paddy Considine and Mare Winningham that's a great thing. I liked the time jumping around a little, to unveil the story in stages as a gimmick too.
Though I'm a little concerned that this is going to end up being typical "King" - an alien that turns into a Spider - for the time being, I like what we've seen.