The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor - Non Spoiler Review
They are both on Netflix…
Yes these are both TV Horror shows. Also they are separate but they are directed and written by the same people. So I felt it appropriate to write a non spoiler review of both because what I have to say about them is almost the exact same thing. See these are Anthologies… ie standing alone but themes are similar. That theme being horror.
What both of these do with horror, they do it extremely well. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. They get horror and they get it right. The horror they do in both is perfect and clever. It’s subtle. Some unexpected. But all executed masterfully.
WOLFLEBEN IS ABOUT TO RANT WARNING:
Let me talk about the catch and let me quote Elmore first, “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” Why am I quoting that. Dear friends this also applies to scripts especially scripts that have what I call “DRAMA JUST TO HAVE DRAMA”. Now this doesn’t mean drama is bad or should be dropped but there is such a thing as having too much and poor execution. Both of these show suffer from that. The 1st one is the worst offender. The drama drowns out a lot and distracts from the story. If a viewer can tell you the writer are just putting drama into the story because drama is needed for the story, then you have failed as a writer. Drama happens natural over the course of time, just like horror. It isn’t suddenly out of nowhere. Nor is it you give a character an issue just because that’s what the trope demands and now it leads to drama. How in the world do you get horror right but you fail at drama? This is a literal paradox. The 2nd show started off very promising and if it had stayed with that very promising start I would have been happy with it. BUT NO. The 2nd show fell into the drama trap like the other one did. ARGH. Maybe they’ll get it right with a 3rd haunting show but I doubt it.
END RANT.
Would I recommend this?: For the Horror Yes but just be ready to deal with drama that is a tad overkill. This ends up with both being just okay. Which frustrates me because they could have been perfect and I see that.