The Haunting of Bly Manor

[Aucald]

The Haunting of Bly Manor came across to me as more of a gothic horror/romance series as opposed to the more visceral and contemporary The Haunting of Hill House, not that that's a bad thing but if you're expecting more of the same coming from Hill House you're likely to be confused and/or let down. Bly Manor's scares are neither as up-front or abundant as its predecessor, but they are definitely there, as is a lot of atmospheric dread and existential horror when it comes to its themes. I would definitely recommend it as a show to watch, but I'd agree its a bit of a step down from Hill House in terms of its overall horror quotient. It's a quieter story, more contemplative and introspective, but it's a riveting tale nonetheless.

[Khain]

Just binged this one, never actually watched HHH. Really enjoyed the beginning of it but once things started to develop it came up as a quite predictable plot. I honestly didn't love it but it got me curious to watch HHH.

[MrLachyG]

Just binged this one, never actually watched HHH. Really enjoyed the beginning of it but once things started to develop it came up as a quite predictable plot. I honestly didn't love it but it got me curious to watch HHH.

of the two I preferred HoHH. HoHH had the creep factor mixed in with some pretty good jump scares. I felt HoBM was less about the jump scares and more about the creep factor (especially those kids who were creepy as fuck - they've cast the kids pretty well in both series). But yeah pretty early on I made some predictions about some of the characters and they turned out to be correct but even then they were ever so slightly off

[melodramocracy]

A few episodes in. Eh so far, the acting isn't very good to the point of being a bit distracting (especially from the main character). I'll watch a few more and see if it sticks w/ me.

Just got done with Dark, so this is having a tough time following up I suspect.

[Thelxi]

I watched the first episode and I'm enjoying it so far. I liked the first season, but it was competing with a lot of good TV at the time. Now there is pretty much no competition whatsoever, and I'm getting pretty desperate for some intellectually stimulating TV.

I'm not too sure about the casting of the main girl, which looks like an in-house Netflix casting decision, which is a questionable decision for a show like this. I recognize her from You, and she wasn't that great at eliciting sympathy there so I think it's a pretty safe to assume that by the end of this most people are going to be rooting for the bad guy.

It looks OK visually though, and it wasn't stupid to the point of pulling me out of my immersion, and the mystery is compelling enough. I'm pretty worn out on brainless shows like raised by wolves, the boys and TWD, so I really hope this show can keep me entertained for 9 episodes. Just please don't be stupid. I really miss Veep and GoT. Succession can't come back on fast enough.

[jellmoo]

Finished it last night. I really enjoyed it as a love story that you slowly get to piece together. The ending felt a little rushed and they didn't quite stick it, but it strung me along well and I thought the cinematography as outstanding. The accents are not great, but I thought the actors did a good job with the material.

But, this really isn't horror. At all. If you go in looking for scares you'll be disappointed. I didn't think that Hill House was horror either, but it did have a few attempts at jump scares. Bly Manor really doesn't. It sets a stage that is more about sadness and loss than it does about scares. It's moody and atmospheric, and if you go into the show understanding that you aren't in for a horror show, you can still be thoroughly entertained as you puzzle together the pieces of the narrative.

[MrLachyG]

Finished it last night. I really enjoyed it as a love story that you slowly get to piece together. The ending felt a little rushed and they didn't quite stick it, but it strung me along well and I thought the cinematography as outstanding. The accents are not great, but I thought the actors did a good job with the material.

Which accent didn’t you like? I have a theory about the accents which is a bit meta but I want to know which ones you didn’t like first

[jellmoo]

Which accent didn’t you like? I have a theory about the accents which is a bit meta but I want to know which ones you didn’t like first

Henry was the most obvious one to me. It felt really off. Peter was not amazing either. I'm still on the fence about Jaime. It felt forced and kind of like a good impersonation, rather than a natural way of speaking.

[MrLachyG]

Henry was the most obvious one to me. It felt really off. Peter was not amazing either. I'm still on the fence about Jaime. It felt forced and kind of like a good impersonation, rather than a natural way of speaking.

Ah yeah fair enough. Peter’s I thought was more Irish than Scottish. Jamie’s though should have been spot on because it was an English accent done by an English actress.

As for my theory I realised it was stupid so forget about that haha

[Dwarfhamster]

Meh. Struggling to get through the second episode. The writing seems a bit hokey.

[Orby]

I loved the Haunting of hill House so I'll have to get around to this. One of the things I really liked about that series was the ghosts and just how well they fleshed out all the characters and built to a story. I love shows like that.

Cannot wait to see what they do with this one. staying away from spoilers in this thread

[jellmoo]

Ah yeah fair enough. Peter’s I thought was more Irish than Scottish. Jamie’s though should have been spot on because it was an English accent done by an English actress.

As for my theory I realised it was stupid so forget about that haha

Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert in accents. I used to work for a company based out of England with a gaggle of brits moved over to our office, so I'm mostly comparing to my experience working with them.

[Skizzit]

I enjoyed it. Not as much as Hill House, but I still found it pretty engaging and never was bored. Ending wasn't quite as strong as I hoped for and there were some things that were odd, like how the whole thing with Edmund just kinda stopped half way through, but still was overall satisfied. Only complaint was it needed more Rahul Kohli. He's awesome and his character felt sort of pointless.

[Thelxi]

Well on the 5th episode now and very disappointed. This is a big step down in quality from the first season. The plot is thin and shallow, and moves along at an extremely slow pace. The acting is adequate at best, kinda terrible really.

The structure of the mystery is also awful. Every episode you basically get the story of one character. The character story reveals are lame and pretty much irrelevant to the actual plot.

I'm pretty shocked that Netflix would burn a show like this. The first season was nowhere near this bad. Wtf.

[Koriani]

I just wanted to post and say thank you to everyone posting who have managed to have an actual review/discussion on the series so far without any spoilers for the rest of us.

Was worried I was going to have to skim over some detail spoilers (as tags aren't always used) to get some reviews in on what to expect - and I didn't have that at all.

So thanks - just wanted everyone to know its appreciated! =D

[Grimbold21]

3 episodes in and this is nowhere near the level of the previous series.

[Wilfire]

Someone should really adapt Borrasca already

[TrollHunter3000]

Meh. Struggling to get through the second episode. The writing seems a bit hokey.

My favorite part of the writing is how they just completely drop the whole "it's splendidly perfect" line all the sudden. I imagine everyone on set was like "stfu"

- - - Updated - - -

One thing that annoyed me was that no one, prior to the parents dying, was killed by Viola. No one in the family, during their whole time living there, happened to get up in the middle of the night when she was walking her path? It made no sense to me.

Well it was their summer home. I'm not sure who all lived there when they weren't there. It doesn't really go into much detail about what time of the night that is either.

I don't think I really like the ending though. Dani essentially gets possessed but for some reason isn't possessed completely like the kids were. Maybe because Viola was way weaker with having been dead for so long. But then that doesn't make much sense either since she could man handle a 6'3 175 pound dude and snap a guys neck with one hand. I also don't really get how the kids don't recall their time there at all. Maybe they blocked it out because it was so traumatic I guess. I also don't get how Jaimie would know so much about the history. I also don't actually get why they were going to possess the kids anyway. I thought even if they did, once they leave the property they were expelled? Were they just going to live the rest of their lives there? I get why Viola wasn't expelled, she was the one holding everyone there. If their possession they were able to do was more permanent then I think it would have been kinda funny to just do a spin off series of them running off as the kids

[Heavens Night]

Meh. Just like the Haunting of Hill House, this is too tame for me.

This pretty much sums up how I feel.

[TrollHunter3000]

Not even one of the parents noticed her standing at the bottom of the bed every night, staring at them? Not once?

I think it was just lazy/poor writing, tbh.

Yeah, I mean maybe they never woke up but that's pretty unlikely. I just remembered too that she did this every single night, so literally every single day she would make those muddy foot prints. Even when they weren't staying there at the time. I guess they didn't lock the door either? Or it just magically opens for her? Definitely some plot holes for sure. It honestly all was pretty predictable too. Like the first time Hannah didn't eat I assumed she was actually dead or something. Then when Dani and Jamie had their little connection, I predicted she ended her engagement because she was gay. It's actually kinda lame the whole time she was seeing her fiance it was just her being fucked in the head rather than him actually haunting her or something. Then all the sudden that just stops for no apparent reason.