Just now watched the 5th episode, and man - that was kind of fucked up. It pricked up my ears earlier when I saw @rrmorton compare it with Lake Mungo, which is a movie I hold in very high regard. And we knew something bad was coming for Nell from the first episode, so I was tuned to expect something, but I have to admit - I didn’t expect that. I’ll spoiler the next part, because, well, because.
So the idea of being your own haunting was done in Lake Mungo very effectively, but there’s something new about this. A malevolence that we haven’t really seen before, to toy with Nell so viciously over the course of her life, dangling her own death in front of her from early childhood, even if she only recognizes it as such in the moments before that death. And of course her life is filled with such tragedy, from losing her mother and later on her husband, to her sleep paralysis, to thinking she had been reunited with her dead mother and husband only to be tricked into killing herself. I mentioned before that the best ghost stories have a mournfulness at their core and man, they punched me in the gut with this one.
Getting thorugh this myself. Episode 5 was the best yet. I’ve loved the focused on a specific character they’ve done so far and Nellie is the best one yet. By the time it gets to the last 10 minutes with her back at the house and the tie in with the “bent neck lady”, just awesome.
Great cast especially the kids. The two littlest ones are just seriously so damn cute.
Up to episode 8 and really loving this show. Some of the acting is a bit weak, and the dialogue is a bunch of people-don’t-really-talk-that-way, but something about it has grabbed me for sure. Episode 6 was one of the best things I’ve ever seen on television.
Just wrapped up episode 7 myself, still really digging this show. I’ve seen folks online talking about this show derogatorily as a family drama with a bit of ghosts draped over it, but it’s working for me big time. I like all these characters and find them interesting. I’m really anxious to see what secret Hugh has been carrying around now after that last scene. I’ll spoil the last bit -
So we know Hugh has been talking to himself (?) from the first episode, but now we see that he actually visualizes his wife, and/or is being visited by her ghost. I wonder if we’re meant to question that, just because so far everyone who sees Olivia sees her in a badly wounded, possibly decomposed form. But Hugh sees and converses with her as she was when she was alive. So I wonder if his little discussion with Luke was meant to be the real deal? Maybe he just uses her as a coping mechanism? But I doubt it, or at least I doubt it’s that simple. Guess we’ll see!
This show didn’t feel like it was “padded” to me at all. If anything I think the benefit of a service like Netflix compared ot regular TV is it doesn’t seem to force shows into a specific episode quantity or even length.
I can’t imagine this show in any fewer episodes. The ending isn’t great, but that’s not a problem with the length of the show. Nor do I think you could end it at episode 9 and have it feel complete.
I think this is true of TV shows in general. The only TV show recently I wasn’t completely unhappy with the ending was Sons of Anarchy. However, I don’t watch a ton of TV for this reason so I may be missing some gems.
If it helps, the way I’ve been spoilering is typing up my paragraph then hitting the gear icon above the post then highlighting the whole thing and choosing the spoiler option, it will blur whatever you highlighted. I’m kind of new to the function myself.
Yeah, thanks, that’s what I did. I thought at first I wasn’t seeing my own spoilers blurred, but I logged out and it still wasn’t blurring. I am probably being an idiot, but not sure what to do other than to highlight the text and select the spoiler option.
I blame the ghosts.
At any rate, I guess I won’t be able to share my deep and incisive opinions on the show.
OK, I thought maybe you were trying to key the spoiler tags manually, that’s never worked for me. I’d be interested in reading your incisive thoughts, when I’m done with the show of course.
Hey, so you can’t wrap multiple paragraphs in spoiler tags. So, spoiler alert, turns out I’m an idiot. Anyway, my thoughts:
The ending feels like part of a longer series where the writers didn’t quite know how to connect the dots and wrap things up (Lost, BSG, etc.). I don’t understand the rules for the house or for the form of the ghosts. For example, why is Nell as a ghost moldering and horrifying in some scenes, but full of life and benevolent in others? I guess much of it can be handwaved because of the timey wimey shenanigans. In the end, the house and its ghostly occupants weren’t scary anymore. But, I think that’s part of the point. Much like the over-protective parents depicted in the story, the house wanted to seal away those under its care, keeping them “safe” forever. The real horror is for those who welcome that fate, or who manipulate others into that fate. If they had not used the sappy music over the montage in the last 5 minutes, and put a tall, skinny window behind the sobriety party, I’d feel like the ending was a better fit for the series.
Overall, it sure had its problems. The clockworks of the writer’s room was way too visible, and some amazing performances (Nell) were counter-balanced by some rough performances (Steven). The show peaked with episodes 4-7, and the tonal shift of the last episode should have been better managed. Despite all that, I loved it, and I’ll be watching it again (bringing along my wife for the ride this time).
I watched episode 8 last night, and you can feel things lurching toward a conclusion. A couple of open questions are answered, some new info about Hill House and it’s previous inhabitants is revealed, and we get the mother of all jump scares! Spoilers enfogged -
So now we know the reason for the estrangement between Steve and Leigh - and you can understand his reasons for getting a vasectomy but jeez dude, watching your wife twist herself in knots trying to get pregnant, and not saying a word? Super dick move. And if you’ve ever gone the fertility route, captures the whole awkwardness very well.
Plus we also know what was going on in the closet between Theo and Kevin - no hanky panky, just Theo being freaked out after touching Nell’s body. Theo’s actor had a tough scene explaining this, she did a great job. Oh and hi Nell!
And we also find out about Poppy and her husband (blanking on the name), clinically insane and meeting in a sanitarium? And Hill House is described in the book and Steve’s episode one narration as “not sane”, is this the source of the house’s evil? And what will become of poor Luke? Anxious to see the wrap-up!
@BiggerBoat - thanks for the tip about multiple paragraphs, just tried to do that myself.
Just watched the first episode. Really like the plot! Last minutes of the episode left a great cliff hanger. I am going to download some more episodes and continue watching!
I watched the ninth episode last night, and man that house plays dirty. I mean yeah, it’s not a very nice, uh, house, but it knows how to get to Olivia and it sticks the knife in and twists hard. So now we know what happened, more or less, and I think it’s the first episode that takes place entirely in the past - so we’ll wrap it all up tonight with the last episode on Halloween!
So I wrapped it all up and watched the final episode last night - lots to process there, and I finally understand what people mean by being dissatisfied by the final moments. I’m not sure how I feel just yet - they do seem to twist the intentions of the house, but then again maybe they don’t? I’ll spoiler my speculation below.
So, as people mention, the House seems to become a neutral “halfway house” to ghosts of people who die within its walls, leeching some of the malevolence out of its earlier actions. We’ve seen characters call the house “not sane” and a mindless eater of souls.
But I wonder if the house is intended as amoral, a thoughtless thing that has no intention but to consume. It almost seems that any intentionality, any terror, comes on the part of some of those that have been eaten. A lot of terrible acts and haunting are shown to be caused by Poppy and William, who are known to be insane. Does their insanity infect the house? Are they de facto gatekeepers for the house, making it seem evil because of their actions?
We see that Nell acts as an opposing force in this episode, saving her siblings from Poppy’s nightmares. And we ultimately see her reunited with her parents in the Red Room, happy even if in an eternal stasis. Are we to assume that Hill House is a neutral ground, a tug of war between the “good” and “evil” ghosts it houses?
I also think it’s interesting that ghosts seem to exist outside of time, that not only do they seem to hop between time periods they don’t perceive time in a linear fashion anymore.
Overall I think it was a really interesting show, and I don’t consider it a strike against that I am left with many questions. I’d definitely recommend it to people looking for a creepy tale.
I will respond to your blurry text with blurry text of my own!
The rules for ghosts are kept very very loose, but I believe the show earns this freedom in its opening episode. Ben (is that his name? the jerk writer brother), when staying over in the home of the grieving widow, expands the concept beyond the conventional 'dead-guy-with-unfinished-business. A ghost isn’t simply a vengeful spirit, it can be a memory, a wish, a hidden shame. A haunting is inextricably tied to the psychology of the haunted.
I was rewatching with my dad the other day, there’s this small scene that opens episode 8, where Ben and his wife are in a fertility clinic. It’s an awkward, fairly mundane scene, interrupted by the slow approach of a ghost on the other side of an opaque window. Why was Ben being haunted right then? Who was that on the other side of the glass? You don’t find out until later, where he confesses to his father his hidden vasectomy, that there must’ve been this undercurrent of guilt and shame surrounding him in that moment. The ghost was just a manifestation of this.
Or take Sheryl, seeing the ‘ghost’ of the guy she cheated on her husband with. That guys probably not even dead! Anyway, you might even know all of this, but just wanted to speak to that because its an angle I’m really glad the show took.
Good points. I’m sure I’ll pick up on some of this with my rewatch. We’re a couple of episodes and I am noticing some themes that come back around in later episodes. Also, so many ghosts! Watching the background is fun and spooky.
