I shall respond to your blurry notes with a few of my own. Serve!
You raise an interesting point in that there’s ghosts, and then there’s ghosts, and the show doesn’t really seem to distinguish them too much. I thought it was interesting and a little funny when High tried to tell Olivia that she’s always been with him and she replied, “Oh honey, that wasn’t me, that was just you.” And then there’s Shirley’s ghost that you mentioned, who isn’t even dead, just a constant feeling of guilt.
But then there are the ghosts who have “lives”, for lack of a better word, or at least intentions, like Poppy and Nell, who take actions with the living. And they use those other “ghosts”, or loneliness and guilt, to try to get them to do things, like kill themselves. So I find it a bit complicated.
Also I find myself feeling bad for Abigail, who we find out was a real girl but clearly seems to have no understanding of what was going on. She’ll forever be a 5-year-old girl - and then what about her infant sister, eternally a squalling baby? That ain’t no afterlife I’d want a part of. But I’m probably overthinking it.
Oh man, I never thought about hugh and his wife being stuck with a new born baby for eternity. This show just became the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.
I can’t hear anything described as “dire” without thinking of the Dire Flail from the 3E PHB, which has got to be the dumbest weapon ever. It’s spiky balls on chains on either end of a staff. How the fuck would anyone ever fight with such a thing?
There was a dire sword as well. Same concept.
Anyway, the point is that a dire dog is probably more effective at unseen barking and howling than harrowing any prey, shall we say.
Also the ending was dumb. Worst kind of “okay time to explain everything like we’ve been so good about not doing until now!” Barf.
Tangential because it is a Mike Flanagan movie, but I watched Hush last night and I thought it was good. Though I don’t watch jump scary/homicidal guy stalks plucky woman movies often so I admit I don’t have much of an informed opinion on that genre. Though I do know what I like.
The heroine was good. I especially liked the scene where she is facing off with him at the door and she writes in her own blood, “Do it. Coward.”
I thought it would have been more effective and creepier if he had kept the mask on longer or for the entire film and spoke less.
Finished it. Not sure about the ending. On One hand I like it wasnt just about some malevolent force trying to possess or be “reborn” etc. Maybe a little sappy in the end but I’m ok with it. The series as a whole was still well worth it. Props again on the top notch casting.
Count me in the crowd who liked the ending. I think it was foreshadowed in previous episodes with the way they spoke about ghosts as both nightmares and wishes
Favorite episode was 5, followed by 10 per above. I loved the way child Nell would cry “Bent-Neck Lady! Bent-Neck Lady!” and the echoes of those cries linger in my head.
I watched this a 2nd time through, this time with my wife. It does reward a 2nd viewing.
I feel like an idiot for not catching the red room stuff the first time. Every time someone mentioned their personal space (i.e. reading room, game room, dance studio), another character would say something to the effect of “what room?”. Plus, the framing of every shot with the narrow window should have been a dead giveaway. Also, I appreciated the way themes (the nature of ghosts, the building of walls, etc.) are setup in early episodes to be reinforced in later episodes. Finally, playing Where’s Waldo except with ghosts is super fun!
The later episodes get a bit talky, and I still think it peaked at episode 6, but I’ll go against the grain and say that I do like the ending – even more so after watching it again.
I just couldn’t get into this show. Made it 4 episodes.
I don’t think, for me, horror works as a series type show. The build of tension and payoff just doesn’t work with a series like this.
Some of the family storylines are really blah. Everything with the junkie brother was just boring, it was just too on the nose. “He is haunted by his past, also his drug abuse is like that haunting, because it is always behind him wherever he goes” It was just a bit much.
I also really dislike jumping between timelines, it basically leads you to, “OK, it is the kids now, so something messed up is going to happen” and then near the end of the episode, when they are adults, something messed up happens to end the episode.
I described the show to my wife as “The show with all of the sad brown haired people that look the same”
She enjoyed it, and I am happy for those who did, but it just didn’t work for me.
Finally got around to watching this and thought the whole show was great. I loved how it focused on the characters more than just spooky ghosties. Thought the ending was good & am definitely looking forward to the next season.
I’m going into this show blind. So far I’m enjoying the pilot, but I think the cheap jump-scares need to go. Immediately. In fact they should edit them out of all the episodes remove the original episodes and upload the new edited versions without the jump-scares. All they do is completely ruin any suspense a scene may be building up by simply annoying the viewer. They serve no purpose but to try to accomplish what an insecure filmmaker doesn’t feel like they’re able to do with tension alone. Screw them, and screw the filmmakers who decided to put them in. How irritating.
Besides that and some iffy acting by day players the pilot seems solid.
I’m on episode 3 now. It’s like every time the writers run out of ideas they just shoehorn in a jump scare. The jump-scares punctuate all the good moments, and by punctuate I mean shit on. How boring and trite. But everything else about the show is good. Except for the child actor for Shirley. My God she acts like a child actor. The best child actors can’t act at all. But this one obviously went to singing and dancing school and everything she does reeks of child actor.
