''NOS4A2'' (pronounced ''Nosferatu'') is an American

supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

horror

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

television series, based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Joe Hill, that ran on AMC from June 2, 2019 to August 23, 2020. The series was created by Jami O'Brien and stars Ashleigh Cummings, Zachary Quinto,

Jahkara Smith Jahkara Smith (born September 5, 1996) is an American YouTuber and actress. She is best known for the YouTube channel ''Sailor J'', where she published parody make-up tutorial videos. She came to further recognition for her starring role as Marga ...

, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson,

Virginia Kull Virginia Kull is an American actress who has appeared in ''Big Little Lies'', ''NOS4A2'', ''The Looming Tower'', and others. In addition to her roles in film and television, she has appeared in various Broadway productions. Early life and ed ...

, and

Ebon Moss-Bachrach Ebon Moss-Bachrach (born March 19, 1977) is an American actor best known for playing the role of David Lieberman in ''The Punisher'' and Desi Harperin in ''Girls''. Since 2022, Moss-Bachrach has played Richard "Richie" Jerimovich in the drama s ...

. The series deals with a working-class artist who uses supernatural abilities to track an immortal being who preys on children. In August 2020, the series was canceled after two seasons after completing the storyline presented in the original novel.

Premise

''NOS4A2'' follows Victoria "Vic" McQueen, a young working-class artist who discovers that she has a supernatural ability to track the seemingly immortal Charlie Manx. Manx feeds off the souls of children, then deposits what remains of them into Christmasland—a twisted Christmas Village of Manx's imagination where every day is Christmas Day and unhappiness is against the law. Vic must strive to defeat Manx and rescue his victims—without losing her mind or falling victim to him herself.

Cast and characters

Main

* Ashleigh Cummings as Victoria "Vic" McQueen * Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Bing Partridge * Jahkara J. Smith as Margaret "Maggie" Leigh *

as Christopher "Chris" McQueen *

as Linda McQueen * Zachary Quinto as Charlie Manx *

Ashley Romans Ashley Romans (born December 28, 1992) is an American actress, known for playing Agent 355 (Y: The Last Man), Agent 355 in Y: The Last Man (TV series), ''Y: The Last Man'', Hermione Granger in ''Hermione Granger and the Quarter Life Crisis'', and ...

as Tabitha Hutter (recurring season 1; main season 2) * Jonathan Langdon as Lou Carmody (guest star season 1; main season 2) * Mattea Conforti as Millie Manx (recurring season 1; main season 2)

Recurring

* Dalton Harrod as Craig * Asher Miles Fallica as Daniel Moore * Chris McKinney as Sheriff Bly * Rarmian Newton as Drew Butler * Karen Pittman as Angela Brewster * Paulina Singer as Willa Brewster * Darby Camp as Haley Smith (season 1) * Judith Roberts as Jolene * Jason David as Bruce Wayne McQueen (season 2) * Paul Schneider as Jonathan Beckett, the "Hourglass Man" (season 2)

Episodes

Season 1 (2019)

The complete season became available on June 2, 2019, via AMC's on-demand service, AMC Premiere.

Season 2 (2020)

Production

Development

On December 8, 2015, it was announced that AMC had put a television series adaptation of Joe Hill's novel ''NOS4A2'' into development. It was reported that a search was underway for a writer to pen the adaptation. Production companies involved in the series were set to include The Tornante Company and AMC Studios. On May 31, 2017, it was announced that AMC had opened a writers room for the series. Jami O'Brien led the writers room and executive produced alongside Hill. On April 10, 2018, it was announced that AMC had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. Additionally, it was reported that O'Brien would serve as showrunner and that Lauren Corrao would be an executive producer. Though the series is set in

Haverhill, Massachusetts Haverhill ( ) is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Haverhill is located 35 miles north of Boston on the New Hampshire border and about 17 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The population was 67,787 at the 2020 United States Cen ...

, it was filmed in various locations in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, including the Cranston Street Armory. On March 30, 2019, it was announced that the series would premiere on June 2, 2019. On July 20, 2019, while at

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is ...

it was announced that AMC had renewed the series for a second season. The second season finished filming in January 2020 and premiered on June 21, 2020. Ratings saw a massive drop during season two, running at about half what they were during season one. On August 31, 2020, AMC canceled the series after two seasons and adapting the entire storyline of the original novel.

Casting

On June 27, 2018, it was announced that Ólafur Darri Ólafsson,

, and

had been cast in main roles. On July 5, 2018, it was reported that

had joined the cast in a recurring capacity. On August 28, 2018, it was announced that Karen Pittman had been cast in a recurring role. On September 13, 2018, it was reported that Zachary Quinto and Ashleigh Cummings had been cast in the series' two lead roles of Charlie Manx and Vic McQueen, respectively. On October 12, 2018, it was announced that Rarmian Newton and Darby Camp had joined the cast in a recurring capacity. On December 17, 2018, it was reported that

would appear in a recurring role.

Release

Marketing

On December 20, 2018, a promotional image from the series was released featuring Zachary Quinto in character as Charlie Manx.

Premiere

The series held its world premiere during the 2019 South by Southwest film festival in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, in March 2019, as a part of the festival's "Episodic Premieres" series of screenings. The first episode premiered on AMC on June 2, 2019. While AMC broadcast the episodes over a nine-week period, it made the entire series available for online streaming immediately on its AMC Premiere platform.

Reception

Critical response

For the first season,

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported a 69% approval rating with an average score of 6.6/10, based on 29 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though ''Nos4a2'' strains to build the necessary atmosphere to pull off its ambitious premise, it does capture the spirit of Joe Hill's singular work and provides a new psychopath for Zachary Quinto to sink his teeth into."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned a score of 47 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". For the second season,