[Author’s note: This will discuss details from the series Hemlock Grove. If you don’t want to know you should stop reading now]
Netflix has invested heavily into producing original content to stream through their service and although they’ve had great success with series like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, not everything has been a resounding success.
Don’t get me wrong. Hemlock Grove is not a terrible show but it does have some problems that I believe led to the decision that it will be cancelled after the upcoming season.
Hemlock Grove is a series based on the novel by Brian McGreevy and centers around a rich family, The Godfreys, that practically own the small town of Hemlock Grove. Into this situation arrives a gypsy family (The Rumanceks) and they live across the lake from the Godfreys. The story takes place as a series of paranormal events are taking place and involve all the main characters.
The shows mixes all sorts of paranormal and horror elements including werewolves, vampires, strange curses, and mad scientists but it also mixes a healthy dose of teenage angst and soap opera situations into the mix and that’s part of the problem.
Hemlock Grove has an identity problem in that it really doesn’t know what it is and where it’s going. The other problem it has is that it can’t properly pace the storyline to keep the viewer engaged.
Season one played out at the beginning too much like the Twilight movies. The whole vampire versus werewolf conflict played out as a fight for the affections of one of the heroines of the show. Some episodes went back and forth and really didn’t advance the story along and then all of a sudden all the action occurs in the last couple of episodes.
Season two began with no clear storyline and then slowly developed one and then things took bizarre twists and turns involving religious cults and psychics and then resolved that storyline mid-season and introduced a second one possibly involving space aliens at the end.
It’s a bit of a mess and a little difficult to follow. The other thing that makes it difficult to watch is the gratuitous use of blood and gore. Granted you can’t make a show with werewolves and vampires without some blood and gore but this show seems to have gotten a bulk discount on fake blood and is intent on using it.
All that being said the show does have some memorable characters in it and the idea of bringing the paranormal and horror elements into a contemporary setting generally works for me but the execution is clumsy.
If the producers had taken a more evenhanded approach and slowed the pacing down a bit I feel that this would have been a much better series. Unfortunately the Netflix management felt that the series was waning in popularity and will end the show with the upcoming 3rd season.
Hopefully some producers will learn some lessons from Hemlock Grove and make a better effort at a contemporary horror series at some future date.
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