Television Haunting of Bly Manor

Nou_Camp99

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Anyone watching it or already finished it?

I'm really into my horror, both literature and Tv/film, but got to say I'm not impressed with this series so far. I have only done 3 out of the 9 episodes but losing patience with it as barely anything has happened.

Haunting of Hill House was a lot better. The acting, writing and scares were all on point for majority of it. This series seems to be badly lacking in all those 3 areas.
 

Shane88

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Also 3 episodes in. I'm enjoying it so far but I don't think it's as good as Hill House.

The little girl is a "perfectly splendid" actress. Adorably creepy.
 

Hernandez - BFA

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On episode 7 - definitely different to the first one.

I'm reluctant to say anymore in case I give too much away.
 

Annihilate Now!

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Scout
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4 episodes in, I'm enjoying the slow build, but it does need to kick into the next gear now.

Hill House was one of the best shows I’ve watched on Netflix - and one of my favourite horror things I've seen, so really wasn't expecting this to match or even come close to that.
 

GBBQ

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Just finished episode 6 and its a bit hit and miss

Its quite light on atmosphere and scares compared to Hill House, its missing that sense of dread and foreboding. Also its hard to take Matthew Holness serious in a horror tv show, he's Rick Dagless damnit. Most episodes have dragged on too much and I have found myself playing spot the ghost more often than not, here's hoping that the last few episodes make up for the slow pace
 

VP89

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Haven't seen it because I tend to be shit scared easy. But I watched Hill House so may watch this.

The trailer doesn't look as scary as Hill House, is that the case? Also I recognize two actors from Hill House. Is it that they are playing new roles? Or is it a continuation of the story.
 

Bubz27

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I've seen one episode and Carla Gugino's London/Sheffield/Birmingham accent is hilarious.

From just the first episode I can see they're overplaying that "Was that a ghost in the background or just a shadow?" angle they did so well in Hill House. It made the show so creepy and always had you on edge. This one is a bit too obvious, but again, only one episode.
 

Gambit

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Different feel than Hill house. Much more about overall atmosphere, rather than building to jump scares. Still love my ghost hunting. There's the obvious ones but some of the subtler ones, hands here, legs there are great.
 

Nou_Camp99

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I'm going to stick with it regardless as I don't like to quit a series half way through even if it's not that amazing. I always like to see things through.

I have heard that it does get better and creepier from episode 5 onwards too.
 

pascell

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On episode 7 - definitely different to the first one.

I'm reluctant to say anymore in case I give too much away.
Yeah I agree, definitely a different feel to it. Can't say I was a big fan of it, some great acting, the storyline and plot was a bit mish-mash at the end and other parts of it were a bit too obvious what was going on.
 

Ramshock

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Anyone watching it or already finished it?

I'm really into my horror, both literature and Tv/film, but got to say I'm not impressed with this series so far. I have only done 3 out of the 9 episodes but losing patience with it as barely anything has happened.

Haunting of Hill House was a lot better. The acting, writing and scares were all on point for majority of it. This series seems to be badly lacking in all those 3 areas.
Are you one of those that hate slow burners?
 

Nou_Camp99

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Are you one of those that hate slow burners?
Not really, no. I don't mind a slow burner if there is something to cling to. I think the first 3 episodes have been very very slow though. Almost fell asleep watching some of it so far which isn't a good sign for a horror series.

I think the acting quality and dialogue has been very clumsy too compared to the first one. I will stick with it though but not overly mad about what has happened so far.
 

entropy

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I know shows such as these are supposed to feel campy and poorly written, but it got really cringy towards the end, especially with the voiceover. The kids are insanely talented but also equally annoying. I couldn't care less about them or their backstory. Season 1 was waaaay better.
 

Jaxa

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I think The Haunting of Hill House was one of the best horror/paranormal tv shows ever made, everything from the acting, story, the sequences and how they tied the story together was a thing of beauty, i rewatched it again before Bly Manor was released and enjoyed it as much the second time,

But this is a completely different show in terms of the story and keeping you gripped, not as scary either in my opinion, acting was still very good and it's worth a watch, but with how excellent the first one was i guess i was let down a little by the second, but when you set the bar so high it would of been extremely difficult to match that again especially across 8-9 episodes.
 

Rudie

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Compared to the first this was mediocre at best, pretty boring, belongs in the American Horror Story franchise.

Wasn't impressed.
 

Nou_Camp99

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Compared to the first this was mediocre at best, pretty boring, belongs in the American Horror Story franchise.

Wasn't impressed.
I only have the last episode to go and I can't believe how 'meh' its been. Very disappointing.
 

Annihilate Now!

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Episode 8 has to be one of the worst episodes of television I have seen for quite sometime. The narration in particular was just feckin abysmal.

I was on board after 4 episodes... Give with the slow build, but the next 4 have totally lost me.
 

jeff_goldblum

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I thought it started really well, the general level of creepiness was great. It got itself lost in filler in the middle though, to the extent that by the time it started delivering reveals for the set-ups I'd forgotten the set-ups. I can see they were going for the same number of episodes as Haunting of Hill House but there wasn't enough story to stretch over it. The second to last episode was especially bad, you could have cut it down to 10 minutes before the opening credits and it would have been better for it.

The child actors were both great but I was taken out of it a bit by how truly woeful some of the adults' accents were. Lovely to see Matthew Holness in something.
 

Mockney

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I've seen one episode and Carla Gugino's London/Sheffield/Birmingham accent is hilarious.
Genuinely couldn’t get over this... she was just reading her lines in a bog standard pass at an estuary accent for the most part, until the script threw up a northern contraction of some sort, and her brain just went insane and spat up some ridiculous amalgamation of Sean Bean doing an impression of Alan Bennet in a woeful SNL parody of a Hovis advert.... and then she forgot about it again. Mental.
 

Massive Spanner

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There was one great episode, the timejump one with the housemaid. Same guy who directed the bent neck lady in the first season apparently.

Other than that, there just wasn't much to it.
 

pascell

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I'm glad in a way its not just me that thought it wasn't near as good as Hill House. If you read the Reddit page for it, its full of people lavishing it with praise and fawning over it making it sound close to a masterpiece.
 

Andy_Cole

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As you all mentioned, it was just quite boring.

Second half of the season was much better. They just didn’t have enough materiel for 10 episodes I think so it just dragged.
 

Annihilate Now!

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Scout
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I'm glad in a way its not just me that thought it wasn't near as good as Hill House. If you read the Reddit page for it, its full of people lavishing it with praise and fawning over it making it sound close to a masterpiece.
Well that was your first mistake!

Anyone calling it a masterpiece is either trying too hard, or a crazy person.
 

Tarrou

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this is one of the shittest things I've watched in ages

the Mrs is insistent we see it through, I'd have binned it off after the 2nd or 3rd episode
 

Nou_Camp99

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this is one of the shittest things I've watched in ages

the Mrs is insistent we see it through, I'd have binned it off after the 2nd or 3rd episode
It was awful and I love the first series. Wish I had not seen it through tbh.
 

Andy_Cole

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Episode 8 has to be one of the worst episodes of television I have seen for quite sometime. The narration in particular was just feckin abysmal.

I was on board after 4 episodes... Give with the slow build, but the next 4 have totally lost me.
I can’t get ‘she sleeps, she wakes, she walks’ out my fecking head.
 

DWelbz19

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It was alright, I thought. Feel like everyone’s being a bit too negative in here. The pacing was a big problem and the accents were all terrible, but the story was OK, in all.

Thematically I think it was just always going to be weaker; Hill House was about grief and coping with loss with an appropriate amount of scare, Bly Manor was really just a glorified romance with some loose gothic elements, weren’t it?
There was one great episode, the timejump one with the housemaid. Same guy who directed the bent neck lady in the first season apparently.

Other than that, there just wasn't much to it.
Episode 5, yeah? I thought that was comfortably the best episode too.
 

Amir

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The story was OK. It just didn't justify nine episodes. Cut it by 30 percent and you have a far better show.
 

The Boy

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I really enjoyed this, thought it was very different from Hill House, but fun all the same. I think it could have been 6 rather than 9 episodes and it does feel quite padded out, but this is adapted from a short story, where as Hill House was a huge novel.

Agree with everyone on episode 8 how many times can you get away with the same three lines over and over and over - fecking tedious, though I liked the backstory. Also the last ep was a let down too. it had this weird 45 minute epilogue which could have been told in 10 mins and given more time in the main story.

I liked the fact that Dani ended up at the bottom of the lake, but was disappointed with the way the kids just forget everything, one of things I loved about Hill House was the effects a childhood haunting could have on adult life and if they had to waste 45-50 mins showing us Dani and Jamie being a happy ciuple in the states couldn't they have used that time to show the aftermath for the kids. Flora and Miles were the best things in this.