The Fall of the House of Usher - (Netflix Series)

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by edmonddantes

not trying to sound antagonistic, but Im also a Poe fan, Ive read all his work, poetry, horror, short tales, long tales, and the only references Ive found in this series are tenuous and usually very superficial, like names. In terms of atmosphere I feel is the usual flanagan atmosphere and see no links with Poe's universe.

This was also the impression of the dark corner's guy review posted above, whos a pretty knowledgeable and witty guy. What are we both missing that you did see?

There are obvious riffs on Poe classics in terms of some wink-wink references in the episodes, especially "The Tell-Tale Heart". Thing is, I kept watching certain episodes waiting to see how Flanagan was going to write them in, especially "The Pit and the Pendulum".

[joshsquash729]

I'm up through episode 4 and really liking it. Not quite as much as Midnight Mass, but I still find it quite enjoyable. I feel like the "Flanagan-isms" are a little clearer here- especially the witty, if a bit stilted, dialogue, but it still works quite well for what it is. For a whole family of fairly detestable people, I still care about a good handful of them, and even the ones I don't care for, I love to hate. Carla Gugino has been great as Verna- I love those sorta omniscient, ruthless, yet still fun characters. Excited to see where this one goes.

[Foggy]

Caught it over the weekend and thought it was great fun, seemed to capture the macabre and morbid tone of Poe really well. It is definitely trademark Flanagan through and through, although if you’re expecting another Hill House/Blu Manor you’re likely to come away a little bit underwhelmed. But overall I thought it was a pretty fun, granted very blunt, class satire. Mark Hamill was having an absolute blast in this as well.

[peschi]

house of usher ep3, was a corker of a episode, holy crap, that lemon monologue. It was like Flanagan response to all the peeps complaining about monologues. hilarious. Also Kate Siegel is playing the biggest ***** of her carreer I think. And can we already have a spinoff with just Mark Hammil being a grumpy evil lawyer wich clearly has a contract with the devil.

[kevin87]

Finished it tonight, it wasn't as good as Midnight Mass or Hill House but I enjoyed it enough.

I would've liked a bit more about who Carla Gugino's character actually was, felt a little too face value.

[Ernest Rister]

As someone who disliked Midnight Mass, I'll take Usher any day. Hill House was something special, Bly Manor a very long investment of time before the water begins to boil, Usher is very mainstream spookhouse. Midnight Mass tasked my disbelief too hard.

[javy]

The Fall of the House of Usher is clearly an indictment on the elite who exploit the weak and unaware for maximum profit. And it is a pleasure to watch them "fall" one by one.

Mike Flanagan, who has a very creative eye for capturing horror-themed drama,

[Show spoiler]by no means lets the "consumer" off the hook. Flanagan makes clear that we are all responsible for our own decisions.

My favorite character is Verna, who

[Show spoiler]appears to be, though never explicitly stated, an ancient being who is possibly an angel of death. So powerful the Ushers thought they were that they thought she/it could be bought.

Flanagan has wholly directed four mini-series for Netflix: The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and this one. I like them all in equal measure, though for different reasons.

5/5

[Scottie]

I thought this was absolutely brilliant, and easily Flanagan's best work to date. (Full disclosure: I really like his others.)

It's one love poem to Poe wrapped in another, with a slew of unique, despicable characters at the center of it all.

[JamesKurtovich]

Loved the first episode. Midnight Mass is my favorite out of all of his series.

[kevin87]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

As someone who disliked Midnight Mass, I'll take Usher any day. Hill House was something special, Bly Manor a very long investment of time before the water begins to boil, Usher is very mainstream spookhouse. Midnight Mass tasked my disbelief too hard.

I think a lot of the reason Bly Manor wasn't as well received was because people weren't as familiar with the source material, even though there's numerous adaptations of The Turn of the Screw, and everybody was assuming it'd be another straight up horror show like Hill House. Apart from the love interest stuff and more modern setting, it's fairly faithful. I liked the more cerebral thriller of it all. I liked Usher, it just wasn't in my tops.

[DaBargainHunta]

While I'd rank The Fall of the House of Usher slightly below Flanagan's other shows, it's still excellent and a great swan song for him on Netflix.

I was skeptical that Bruce Greenwood would be an adequate replacement for Frank Langella, but Greenwood delivered one of the best performances in the history of the Flanaverse. Carla Gugino and Mark Hamill are fantastic too.

[peschi]

house of usher, am at ep5. still enjoying the series, but felt its maybe a bit too crowded with like 16 (!) characters, playing out in 3 timelines crammed into 8 eps. Lot of it still works though, and some monologues (yes you get them) are pretty great

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Mark Hamill was having an absolute blast in this as well.

I think it's the best acting he has done, as well. He doesn't get a ton to do, or a lot of range, throughout most of the series - but at the end he gets a choice scene or two that was the first time I've ever seen him on film and didn't immediately think "Luke Skywalker".

[lupinskitten]

Originally Posted by kevin87

I think a lot of the reason Bly Manor wasn't as well received was because people weren't as familiar with the source material, even though there's numerous adaptations of The Turn of the Screw, and....

Bly Manor was just boring. I kept waiting for something, anything, to happen and it never did, so I gave up on it.

[joshsquash729]

Finally finished this last night and really enjoyed it. It's pretty neck and neck with Midnight Mass for me, but MM might juuuust barely take the top spot.

I'll echo that Bruce Greenwood and Carla Gugino are the MVPs of this one. Just fantastic work all around, especially in the last episode. The classic Flanagan monologues were still great; I liked that they were a little shorter this time around, but as crisp and punchy as ever. I detected a little hint of irony in the last episode when Verna is talking about what humanity does with its money instead of what could save the world, especially with it being Flanagan's supposed final project with Netflix, a company that's kinda notorious for throwing money around (or so it seems).

I think it's telling that, despite him using the usual suspects of cast, I wasn't necessarily tired of any of them. If anything, I wanted to see more from all of them. I think each of the kids, as self-involved as they all were, were still able to make their characters likable enough. I think the only one I didn't end up feeling even somewhat bad for was Camille, but I still loved to hate her. Kudos as well to Mary MacDonnell for making Madeline pretty starkly unlikable until the end, and Mark Hamill, for finally being able to do something different for once.

I don't really understand the bad reviews I'm seeing for this one. I know most of them boil down to "too long and too woke", but I disagree. Sure, there were many LGBTQ characters, but it works within the framing of the story (not that there aren't many LGBTQ folk in real life as well). I get the feeling in some of the cases, like Camille, and even Leo to an extent, it's more of a power dynamic situation, where these spoiled rich kids are used to getting whatever they want- whatever "love" was actually there with the longer term partners of Leo and Victorine is debatable too- did they really love them or were they a means to an end?

In terms of the length, I definitely did feel it in areas, but not as much as Hill House or Bly Manor (both of which I liked- moreso the former). I actually really like that Flanagan lets his shows breath- more often than not, there's pay off to almost every little detail, or some hidden meaning to what's being shown, so it doesn't come across as self-aggrandizing as it could, at least to me. I'm really looking forward to watching a retrospective or easter egg video on all the little Poe inclusions.

I've really grown to love Mike Flanagan and all his work. I'd certainly love to see more from him, but I don't necessarily mind if it's on Netflix or another platform. I just hope that whoever he works with lets him continue his formula. It really works, I think, especially for a genre as rare (or rarely well done) as long-form horror. He imbues it all with such heart and meaning- I'm still pretty jealous of some of the moments in this and Midnight Mass that it's something I could never come up with.

I think my ranking would be:

Midnight Mass
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Bly Manor
The Midnight Club (still haven't finished it, for whatever reason- I didn't dislike it- it had an old school Goosebumps/Are You Afraid of the Dark vibe- but I got sidetracked with other shows and never returned).

I still hope and pray that we'll end up seeing a physical release of this and Midnight Mass. Would love to own them.

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by lupinskitten

Bly Manor was just boring. I kept waiting for something, anything, to happen and it never did, so I gave up on it.

You know what's funny? Maybe it was because we were in full pandemic mode at the time - but I don't remember it, at all. Like, I even just went to Wikipedia and started reading the episode summaries, and I honestly didn't recognize anything or remember any of the plot. But I know I watched it. It's very strange LOL.

[Edo]

it was ok! i kind of expected more but it was ok! for me his best was Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House
Midnight Mass
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Haunting of Bly Manor
The Midnight Club

[happydood]

Well, I finished it. I'm all in on Flanagan. I admire his sensibilities and share his alcoholic ex-Catholic sexualized slant on the world and I think he has so much to say. He has a point of view and a voice that's sorely lacking in most everything I see these days beyond the 'auteurs' who are still doing what they're doing. I just loved this whole show and I'm tempted to watch the whole thing again. I think I like this better than all of his other series and I LOVED Hill House and Midnight Mass and liked Bly Manor. If tv is going to be his playground- and he absolutely deserves to do the Dark Tower there- then I hope people keep throwing money at him and letting him have carte blanche to do whatever he wants. del Toro deserves the same treatment. This thing spoke to me in a really visceral way and I'm so thrilled that something still can in this climate of generic corporate middleman influenced bullsh!t.

[Dr. Seymour Love]

Loved it. Looking fwd to see what he does at Amazon.

[MifuneFan]

This was excellent. Just brilliant the way it tied Poe's works together into a singular storyline, while weaving modern-day topics, and some damning social commentary into it. Carla Gugino, and Bruce Greenwood were standouts among an all-around great cast.. I've enjoyed every Flanagan series to date, and while I still rank The Haunting of Hill House as his masterpiece, I thought the writing here was really strong, especially the finale.

This would be my ranking:

The Haunting of Hill House
Midnight Mass
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Midnight Club
The Haunting of Bly Manor