Alan Pangborn

New Stephen King show Castle Rock seems to be guest-starring Stick from Daredevil

UK Broadcast TBC US Broadcast Hulu, Wednesdays

Rather worryingly in a show as blood-drenched and stabby as Castle Rock, Scott Glenn is currently only listed as a Special Guest Star; and on IMDb he’s only listed as appearing in nine of the first season’s 10 episodes. Pray that doesn’t mean his time is limited, as his curmudgeonly Alan Pangborn is the best thing about the show.

On paper, the role doesn’t particularly stand out. In the Stephen King mash-up show featuring characters from across the King of Horror’s literary output, Glenn plays the former sheriff of Castle Rock, a character who previously appeared in The Dark Half and Needful Things. Disaffected lawyer Henry Deaver returns to Murder Central to defend a mysterious youth found incarcerated and forgotten in Shawshank prison’s nether regions, only to find that Pangborn has shacked up with his dementia-suffering adoptive mother.

While Pangborn initially seems like a dodgy geezer, Glenn’s signature gruff, take-it-or-leave-it exterior disguises a character of unexpected depth and mercurial morality. In a show awash with characters whose motivations are a complex mix of selfish and altruistic, Glenn’s Pangborn pulls it off most convincingly. Deaver may be the hero here, but Pangborn calls him out for his failings with a cranky and worldly-wise wisdom.

And there’s the curious thing. It’s almost like Castle Rock has cast Daredevil’s Stick as Panborn. What’s more, both Stick and Pangborn are remarkably similar to Glenn’s other recent genre role, The Leftovers’ Kevin Garvey: the surly, quirky, hard-love father figure. Typecasting is usually a dirty word, but it’s hard to think of a show that wouldn’t be improved by having Glenn do his S(h)tick all over again. Dave Golder