It’s a supernatural soap opera for a niche audience; a strange concoction of genre credibility and homage, often risible dialogue and genuine out-of-the-blue oddness. Attempting to fix a single point of comparison is a useless endeavour; it’s all over the place in a way that will prove exhilaratingly unpredictable to some and immensely frustrating to others.
Many reviews on this certain TV series read like a list of things that are wrong with the show, but they are certainly part of its charm. It’s almost baffling how watchable it is. The off-kilter sensibility is beguiling in spite of and because of its inconsistency; it’s addictive because it keeps you on your toes, it keeps throwing these dark surprises at you. As a straight horror or a teen drama it would categorically fail but as a bizarre concoction of the two, with a dose of monster mythology thrown in, it somehow succeeds. Characters like Shelley, Clementine and Dr Price are great fun to watch, the two leads are solid and (perhaps the real test of a Netflix show) it definitely lends itself to bulk viewing.
Whether or not you enjoy Hemlock Grove doesn’t depend on whether you’re invested in the murder mystery; it depends on whether you can settle into the world it creates. For all the horror homages, the audience this will appeal to the most is a younger crowd who are just discovering the genre. When the show gets all of its ducks in a row it’s exciting, funny and scary. When it fails, it’s a clunky, hackneyed mess. But for the bulk of the running time it’s veering wildly in between, making for oddly compulsive viewing, and yes, we would welcome a second season. Many viewers won’t have the patience or the inclination for Hemlock Grove, but it’s genuinely unusual and quite mad, and there’ll always be an audience for that. For all its faults, we found it to be very watchable indeed.’
No comments:
Post a Comment