NOS4A2 (TV Series) The Lake House (2020) User Reviews

Rebuttle to jamericanbeauty

[songod-95003 · 9/10 · 17 July 2020]

Their review is riddled with errors. ALSO spoiler filled and not marked as such!!

Manx is NOT a detective, And no indication was ever given that Manx' sole quest now is for Wayne. He is important but more to enact revenge on Vic. He and Bing must indeed hunt other children; just this episode was not about that.

Most egregious is their assertion that a lone FBI agent took down both Manx and Bing. Bing maybe big but a trained agent could take down a larger opponent as per their training. She shot Manx through the skull which momentarily knocked him out. He soon recovered, thus NOT defeated.

Wanted to post this so that others who look at these reviews are not poisoned by that inaccurate one.

My only issue was Lou delivering ultimatums to Vic knowing what and who she is fighting. He should be nothing more than supportive now.

Season 2: Only Made It Four Episodes Into This Sophomore Season

[zkonedog · 4/10 · 30 July 2020]

There were a number of things I liked about the first season of "NOS4A2". It hewed closely to the spirit of Joe Hill's novel, some of the acting performances were tremendous, and the overall fantasy/mystery element was engaging. However, even then it was a show that needed to grow in order to be considered great. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened, with S2 (or at least what I saw of it) stagnating rather than expanding.

There are two primary reasons why I decided to jump ship from this show:

First, the time-jump is not handled well at all. In S1, Vic (Ashleigh Cummings) is a teenager. Here, despite seemingly no physical or emotional changes present, she is with Lou (Jonathan Langdon) and has a grade school-aged son (Jason David). I know the intent is to split up the narratives of the novel, but it doesn't work nearly as well here as it did intercutting in print.

Also, there seems to be no clear direction where the show is going. Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto) and Christmasland are spooky, to be sure, but both are now oft-used teases instead of developed concepts. Bing Partridge (Olaf Darn Olafsson) is nowhere near as creepy or relevant as he once was. Maggie (Jahkara Smith) is seemingly a character that the show creators really like, but without any sort of real point at the moment. Even plot-wise, everything seems to be spinning its wheels in S2. Never once did I fully understand or appreciate any of the developments within the first four episodes.

Overall, "NOS4A2" was a show I really, really wanted to like, and for one season did just enough to make that a reality. But after the uniqueness of the concept wore off, it quickly became apparent in S2 that the show had little else to offer.

2 Steps Foward. 1 Step Back.

[jamericanbeauty · 5/10 · 13 July 2020]

Good Father gave us the fascinating human and immortal backstory of Charlie Manx. Night Road had thrilling showdowns, and introduced us to a dark and elusive character: The Hourglass Man. After two great back-to-back episodes, we get the mediocre Lake House episode, where the villians are reduced to Detective Manx and Assistant Mr. Bing, solely hunting and obsessing over Wayne McQueen. They don't "rescue" other kids from broken homes anymore? Manx doesn't feed off the souls of children anymore? Wayne McQueen is the endgame? Then, there's a silly fight scene, where a solo petite FBI agent defeats Manx and Bing at the same time. Last season, Manx's ex and Vic McQueen, both Strong Creatives, tortured him (one nearly killed him) via The Wraith. Believable and exciting. This season, a mere mortal FBI agent can defeat full-strength Manx. Silly. How can we and why should we fear Charlie Manx anymore?