AMC’sNOS4A2Has a Secret Weapon That Has Nothing to Do With Vampires

The selling for AMC ’s NOS4A2 pegs it as “ a different sort of lamia story”—and indeed , its Christmas - obsessed scoundrel make it not by drinking descent , but by kidnapping children into his very special Rolls - Royce Wraith and draining their souls . But the story has another distinction that sets it apart : unusually complex female characters .

NOS4A2 is ground on the novel by Joe Hill ( also ofLocke & Keyfame ) , but the AMC series — which just wrapped up its first time of year — was create by Jami O’Brien , who ’s also its showrunner and executive manufacturer . Between Hill ’s source material and O’Brien ’s adjustment , the show makes a point of emphasizing the adult female who dwell its drama .

It ’s passably remarkable how much CRT screen clip the women get , considering that this is a show featuring the decadently evilness Charlie Manx ( played by Zachary Quinto ) , a guy who drives around the res publica in a chauffeur ’s uniform , aging at a rapid rate until he or one of his henchmen is able to snatch up a refreshful new tyke and restore his spring chicken . Charlie does n’t kill the kids , he does something arguably bad : He carts them off to “ Christmasland , ” an eery amusement commons where they ’ll live evermore as pint - sized graverobber .

Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings) prepares to take on an undead scumbag.

Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings) prepares to take on an undead scumbag.Photo: All images Zach Dilgard (AMC)

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Over the year Charlie has developed some peculiarly pointed opinion about char , and he ’s show to be a raging woman hater who put away around phrases like “ meddlesome female ” and “ you dirty little whore ! ” He appropriate a particularly sneer , judgmental brand of venom for mothers — we do n’t teach too much about his own desktop , though we ’re lead to assume his early years were pretty crappy — but he ’s somehow still ghost with regain a life-time collaborator who ’ll serve as “ female parent ” to all “ his youngster . ”

Charlie is absolutely NOS4A2 ’s cheap grapheme , what with all the make - up effects , theatrically - delivered threats , and white holiday flourishes — and Quinto is in his element , gleefully rive into the scenery with every chance .

Graphic: Jim Cooke

Charlie Manx in one of his more youthful guises.

By line , the rest of the show is pretty gloomy and game , specially when it comes to Vic McQueen ( Ashleigh Cummings ) , the show ’s misfit heroine . Vic , who ’s teetering on that ledge between being a kid and an grownup , is dealing with a shit - ton of troubles even before she awakens her psychic powers . For long stretches of NOS4A2 , you might even draw a blank the show feature a vampire at all . Eighteen - year - old Vic comes from a hardscrabble category ; her aweary , overbearing mum plump for everyone with her house - cleaning clientele , while her dad ’s more like a nerveless boastful crony , except he ’s also a bastardly drunk . The McQueens ’ volatile married couple turn over a break point in instalment one , and the bad blood loaf throughout the season .

Though her parents , especially her female parent , doubt her chances , Vic dreams of attend a honored art college after graduation , both as a mode to build up her natural endowment and to get out beat - end liveliness in small - township Massachusetts . But her teen angst take a distressing turn when she discovers she has extraordinary endowment that have nothing to do with artwork . After overhearing yet another tearing argument between her parent , she speed up away on her dirt bicycle and finds a bridge circuit deep in the Sir Henry Joseph Wood that by all odds was n’t there before . It ’s known as “ the Shorter Way Bridge , ” and when Vic zoom across it , she ’s able to find almost anything ( or anyone ) that ’s gone neglect .

Though Vic ’s initial chemical reaction is shock and disbelief , subsequent episodes further underline her growing realization that the world is a lot stranger than most people realize . Vic ’s bridge deck shortly leads her to Maggie ( the excellently quirky Jahkara Smith ) , a free - spirited Iowa librarian who ’s able to divine answers from the universe using an enchanted bag of Scrabble roofing tile . She ’s been crystalise longer than Vic , and while she ’s eager to aid stop Charlie Manx , she ’s memorise from experience that mess up with occult effect can be dangerous . Same goes for Jolene ( Judith Roberts ) , an elderly woman whose own gifts once made her Charlie ’s first selection to be Christmasland ’s female parent - in - residence — a function she refused , at great personal toll .

Charlie Manx in one of his more youthful guises.

All three women , as well as Manx , are “ strong creatives , ” NOS4A2 - specific lingo that plays into a larger mythology of “ inscapes ” ( or so , the psychic worlds that the characters are able to visit ) and “ knife ” ( the portal they use to get there ) . There ’s not a long ton of way in the episodes to dig too deeply into this material , but since we ’re memorize about it all along with Vic , the fact that it ’s all a little confusing and overpowering actually feels appropriate .

Not every distaff character on NOS4A2 is a mystical badass , but most are interestingly save and intriguingly mussy . A character like Vic ’s mother ( played by Virginia Kull ) could have been compartmentalized as shrill and one - tone , but the show relieve oneself it clear that for all her tough talk , she ’s fundamentally an undecided wound because she ’s spend 18 years projecting her regrets about her own aliveness onto her daughter . A sight of NOS4A2 ends up being about defeat trauma , or at least acknowledge it , since most everyone on the show still has plenty of healing left to do when time of year one wraps up .

While mussy character are brisk to see , particularly when so many of them are woman — and hey , just because you have wizard powers does n’t entail you always do the right hand thing!—that does n’t mean NOS4A2 is without its own , more regrettable messiness . The last few episode see Vic — who’d previously been flirting with a preppy kid who share her art - shoal aspiration , but has some snooty ideas about her family — enter into an intense human relationship with Craig ( Dalton Harrod ) , a childhood pal who ’s plucked from the “ acquaintance zone ” he ’s been lurking in since the first episode . Aside from the fact that Vic and Maggie ’s friendship has already been solidified as NOS4A2 ’s on-key emotional core by that point , the love story feels hasten , as if the fib needed to suddenly up the stake and find someone to give during Vic ’s inevitable showdown with Charlie Manx . Because , well , that ’s exactly what pass off .

Maggie tries to help.

An extra account for Craig ’s sudden grandness is revealed during the season finale . The instalment leaves several dangling threads that will no doubt be pick up in time of year two , when NOS4A2 will have a luck to explore more of Hill ’s sprawling tale . Charlie Manx come through his fiery clangor with Vic is not all that surprising — he is the prominent bad , after all , in add-on to being sorta immortal , and Vic still has to make good on her threat to destruct Christmasland .

The real plot - changer is going to be witness Vic take him on once she ’s a mother herself , since the time of year ends with her finding out she ’s fraught with Craig ’s baby . Given the oft - emphasize theme of how much Charlie loathes female parent , it makes a certain amount of sentiency . And the plot of ground twist will no doubt further pad Vic ’s depiction as a charwoman who does n’t always get it on what she should be doing , but still carry off to be fearless and quick - cerebration no matter how frightening or improbable the office . But it ’s also a shift that feels too abrupt in a show that ’s otherwise content to take its fourth dimension — except when Vic is taking the Shorter Way Bridge , that is .

NOS4A2 ’s first season is available for streamingthrough AMC ; there ’s no Word of God yet on when time of year two will be hitting the airwaves .