The Haunting of Bly House (Netflix 2020)

[Greg]

Boo! Scary! Well, creepy. This is by the people who brought you the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House. But it's a whole new haunted house. This time from the mind of Henry James. I remember buying the book on which this based, The Turn of the Screw. But I never read it. It was a scholastic book bought in Elementary School that was part of double book. The other half was Daisy Miller. Didn't read that either.

It's got a good set up. It starts with wedding prep at a mansion that is supposed to be haunted. The wedding participants are telling their own ghost stories when one mysterious woman says she's got a ghost story, but it will take a while to tell. This launches into the actual haunted house story of Bly Manor. The uncle needs to hire an Au Pair to look after his nephew and niece out in the country. The Au Pair is an american who has given up her teaching job in the US. Everyone's story is shaky. The Au Pair's story is shaky. The Uncle's story is shaky.

The American, Dani, takes the job. She goes to the mansion and meets the weird kids, named Flora and Miles. Dani meets the caretaker who is out of it. She meets Owen the driver and cook who can't wait to be away from the mansion. Dani is warned not to leave her room after dark by Flora, but Dani does anyway.

And Dani has issues as well. She covers up the mirrors. She has a claustrophobia problem. Her past is sketchy.

Weird things start to happen. Flora leaves hand-made talismans everywhere. Miles watches Dani get undressed. The kids speak in a very effected way. And of course the parents of Miles and Flora are dead and we don't go into their wing of the house. 

So many mysteries. And this is just episode 1.

[cranefly]

I read The Turn of the Screw in college.  What I remember of that experience is a sinking sensation of just how much I'd missed of Henry James's psychological machinations in that novel.

I'm left with a vague sense of complexity.

[Greg]

It's been a low long slog. I'm not really feeling compelled to race back to the show to see what happens in the next episode. I guess that's what happens when you stretch a novella into an 8 (maybe 10) episode TV series.

I think we made up to episode 5 "The Altar of the Dead" which was a really good episode. Lots of secrets are revealed but plenty more are left to be explained. The episode centers on housekeeper Hannah. And she appears to be lost in time as she jumps from event to event in the house. Then some events keep recurring and you see she is kind of lost in her own head in a way. It's a very clever way of telling the story. It also gives me some momentum to find out what is going on.

[Greg]

The last two episodes have retreated from the peak of Ep 5. Ep 6 centers around the Uncle and why he won't come to the house. Ep 7 is all about the ghosts and more slipping through time but not as effectively or powerfully as Ep 5. Two more episodes to go.

[Greg]

But does this show continue to disappoint. S2 Ep8 was all flashback. And it was all narrated in a very dull way. Basically it was a TED talk about how we got to here. And it was dull. I wanted them all to kill each other.

I will watch the final episode because there are still some secrets and i want to see them explained. I fear the explanation will be less than satisfying.

[Greg]

I'm glad that is over. What crap. It started off semi interesting. Then got deal. Reached it's apex in episode 5, which was really great. Then fell into a pit of stupidity for the remainder of the nine episodes. The final episode was a punch in the face of dumbness. I don't think I will be in for the next 'The Haunting..." series.