The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix Original)

[staylor26]

Has anybody checked this out yet?

Another drama/horror hybrid from Mike Flanagan.

This one is like Succession meets Flanagan.

I'm 4 episodes in, and it's probably my favorite of his since The Haunting of Hill House.

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by BWillie

This show is ****ing awful.

Any more recommendations of "awful" shows?

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

Any more recommendations of "awful" shows?

Yeah. Almost anything my girlfriend watches. So this one. Everything on the Food Network. Greys Anatomy. 911. FBI. Not Dead Yet. How much time do you got buddy?

[DJ's left nut]

So the ending is a little on the nose; pretty cliched horror movie stuff. The Pym confrontation was excellent but the rest seemed awfully telegraphed.

The politics didn't really power through; just Madeline's speech at the end really. And she's a post-modern feminist through and through so nothing she said was out of character or forced. It's that belief structure that made her lonely careerist when the end came so again; nothing white-knight about it. Just a certain character behaving/believing the way you would expect that character to behave.

Someone asked why Roderick would keep having children and I think that answer is pretty simple - he never TRULY believed her. You could squint and get to pride creating the fall in that truly believed his excellence was what created everything that followed.

All told, I'll go 8, 8.5. Really good show that mostly landed the plane but seemed to lose the creativity that drove the rest of the series.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

So the ending is a little on the nose; pretty cliched horror movie stuff. The Pym confrontation was excellent but the rest seemed awfully telegraphed.

The politics didn't really power through; just Madeline's speech at the end really. And she's a post-modern feminist through and through so nothing she said was out of character or forced. It's that belief structure that made her lonely careerist when the end came so again; nothing white-knight about it. Just a certain character behaving/believing the way you would expect that character to behave.

Someone asked why Roderick would keep having children and I think that answer is pretty simple - he never TRULY believed her. You could squint and get to pride creating the fall in that truly believed his excellence was what created everything that followed.

All told, I'll go 8, 8.5. Really good show that mostly landed the plane but seemed to lose the creativity that drove the rest of the series.

I think I gave it a 7.5, so close enough.

You make a good point about Madeline. I guess it makes sense, maybe it just felt that way because she didn't actually get political until that final episode, but I understand your point about it still being true to her character.

That didn't bother me as much as that god awful Trump reference, and Hamil breaking character.

Also, Verna lecturing humanity about how we have the power/money to end all suffering but you filthy humans are greedy ("capitalism is bad").

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by staylor26

I think I gave it a 7.5, so close enough.

You make a good point about Madeline. I guess it makes sense, maybe it just felt that way because she didn't actually get political until that final episode, but I understand your point about it still being true to her character.

That didn't bother me as much as that god awful Trump reference, and Hamil breaking character.

Also, Verna lecturing humanity about how we have the power/money to end all suffering but you filthy humans are greedy ("capitalism is bad").

But again, Poe has a very dark and semi-biblical sort of storytelling approach. I mean FFS, she's the devil; of course religious allegory is going to come into play. And you can go straight to citing scripture if you want to get to 'Capitalism is bad'.

Luke 15:25 is the most obvious example in there -- "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God..."

Which I've never read as "you can be wealthy OR you can go to heaven" but rather that the trappings of - and often the quest for - wealth can create temptations that are harder for man to overcome. And when you look at the choice Roderick made w/r/t his family, it all dovetails together pretty cleanly. None of that felt forced.

I suspect the 'Trump reference' is the "I could shoot someone on 5th avenue and get away with it" line? Eh - a little shoehorned but nothing that broke me from the show. And I can't say I noticed Hamil breaking character.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

But again, Poe has a very dark and semi-biblical sort of storytelling approach. I mean FFS, she's the devil; of course religious allegory is going to come into play. And you can go straight to citing scripture if you want to get to 'Capitalism is bad'.

Luke 15:25 is the most obvious example in there -- "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God..."

Which I've never read as "you can be wealthy OR you can go to heaven" but rather that the trappings of - and often the quest for - wealth can create temptations that are harder for man to overcome. And when you look at the choice Roderick made w/r/t his family, it all dovetails together pretty cleanly. None of that felt forced.

I suspect the 'Trump reference' is the "I could shoot someone on 5th avenue and get away with it" line? Eh - a little shoehorned but nothing that broke me from the show. And I can't say I noticed Hamil breaking character.

It's the fact that Hamil's character, a murderer, and by all accounts a cold-hearted evil person, follows it up with:

"Is his tab coming due anytime soon?" asks Pym. "Even I've got my limits."

I will give you the Madeline scene, and maybe even the Verna thing, but that was 100% Mark Hamil's line, not Pym's.

I guess the other stuff wouldn't have bothered me so much if they didn't have the Trump reference, the old pics of Verna with only Republicans, and the Fox News scene. Just felt like there was too much blatant shit pointing to the writer's political biases.

I fully understand that I'm probably giving this stuff too much attention, but it's just unavoidable at this point, and I'm over it. I can't even watch a Disney movie with some "I know socialism is a charged word" bullshit.

It doesn't keep me enjoying shit that's actually good, but it's tiresome.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by staylor26

It's the fact that Hamil's character, a murderer, and by all accounts a cold-hearted evil person, follows it up with:

I will give you the Madeline scene, and maybe even the Verna thing, but that was 100% Mark Hamil's line, not Pym's.

Interesting.

See, I felt like they laid the groundwork for Pym's response in episode 6(?) when Roderick gives the short speech about Pym and his history.

It made Pym appear, to me anyway, to be the only truly upright character in the whole sordid mess. And maybe upright isn't the right word, but someone who had a compass that he operated within. Someone who had seen the world, for all its good AND evil. And had come to terms with it.

I think when it comes to the Ushers and his duties/obligations to them, there were no limits to speak of (I'd have been fascinated to get to the root of that). But remember that she noted that the Ushers time was at an end right out of the chute - he KNEW that was over. So now it was a question of what HE would be willing to give. And according to Roderick he saw some shit up north that was straight up supernatural.

He, more than anyone else involved in the story, has been set up as someone who would fully grasp the consequences of a Faustian bargain. So I think it's less an attempt to demonstrate his limits and more an effort at showing how experience has given him an awareness and understanding of what it is that's on the table here. It isn't to show that his heart grew three sizes that day, but rather that even someone who is able to operate in moral gray areas like he has is scared of what will come of this deal she's offering.

It's not morality on display - it's fear.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

Take these girl beefs to the Tay Tay thread

Spoiler!

So did Pym actually have something he cared about that could be leveraged but he refused and took the time or was there literally nothing so he had no choice?

I took it as he had someone he cared about somewhere. He had a pretty substantial pause before he Noped right out of there. But I may have misread it.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

But again, Poe has a very dark and semi-biblical sort of storytelling approach. I mean FFS, she's the devil; of course religious allegory is going to come into play. And you can go straight to citing scripture if you want to get to 'Capitalism is bad'.

Luke 15:25 is the most obvious example in there -- "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God..."

Which I've never read as "you can be wealthy OR you can go to heaven" but rather that the trappings of - and often the quest for - wealth can create temptations that are harder for man to overcome. And when you look at the choice Roderick made w/r/t his family, it all dovetails together pretty cleanly. None of that felt forced.

I suspect the 'Trump reference' is the "I could shoot someone on 5th avenue and get away with it" line? Eh - a little shoehorned but nothing that broke me from the show. And I can't say I noticed Hamil breaking character.

Oh that’s the Trump reference? I missed that. I saw the picture but missed the line.

RE: Madelyn’s speech - I didn’t see that as political grandstanding. She pretty much told political grandstanders to **** off. Everyone in the end is fine with what they were doing.

I dunno. I might have not followed.

Originally Posted by staylor26

It's the fact that Hamil's character, a murderer, and by all accounts a cold-hearted evil person, follows it up with:



I will give you the Madeline scene, and maybe even the Verna thing, but that was 100% Mark Hamil's line, not Pym's.

I guess the other stuff wouldn't have bothered me so much if they didn't have the Trump reference, the old pics of Verna with only Republicans, and the Fox News scene. Just felt like there was too much blatant shit pointing to the writer's political biases.

I fully understand that I'm probably giving this stuff too much attention, but it's just unavoidable at this point, and I'm over it. I can't even watch a Disney movie with some "I know socialism is a charged word" bullshit.

It doesn't keep me enjoying shit that's actually good, but it's tiresome.

I believe she had a picture with Roosevelt (I presume FDR - doesn’t matter they were both democrats).

I hear you in the political shit. It irritates my wife way
More than me. She is pretty sensitive to the Disney stuff because our kids watch it.

[Bowser]

I enjoyed it, that was worth the binge.

Spoiler!

I was waiting for THE MESSAGE to be dropped in heavy handed fashion and wasn't disappointed, but I just rolled my eyes and continued on (although it wasn't lost on me that all the Usher kids that lived their lives in ways that could be described as "deviant" or "unholy" ways were all ended in grizzly fashions, their father's Faustian bargain or no). It wasn't so overbearing that it completely ruined the rest of the story for me.

Did anyone else pick up on how the priest at the funerals wasn't reading scripture, but rather Poe?

And goodness, Carla Gugino is still a smokeshow.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bowser

I enjoyed it, that was worth the binge.

Spoiler!

I was waiting for THE MESSAGE to be dropped in heavy handed fashion and wasn't disappointed, but I just rolled my eyes and continued on (although it wasn't lost on me that all the Usher kids that lived their lives in ways that could be described as "deviant" or "unholy" ways were all ended in grizzly fashions, their father's Faustian bargain or no). It wasn't so overbearing that it completely ruined the rest of the story for me.

Did anyone else pick up on how the priest at the funerals wasn't reading scripture, but rather Poe?

And goodness, Carla Gugino is still a smokeshow.

Has always been one of my favorites and you're not kidding - she's held together incredibly well.

[BigBeauford]

Started watching Haunting of Hill House on the buzz around this thread. Two episodes down. The constant time skips and extremely slow burn have me puzzled at the hype. I'm assuming it picks up?

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by Bowser

I enjoyed it, that was worth the binge.

Spoiler!

I was waiting for THE MESSAGE to be dropped in heavy handed fashion and wasn't disappointed, but I just rolled my eyes and continued on (although it wasn't lost on me that all the Usher kids that lived their lives in ways that could be described as "deviant" or "unholy" ways were all ended in grizzly fashions, their father's Faustian bargain or no). It wasn't so overbearing that it completely ruined the rest of the story for me.

Did anyone else pick up on how the priest at the funerals wasn't reading scripture, but rather Poe?

And goodness, Carla Gugino is still a smokeshow.

God damn, she's 52? She's banging.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Bowser

I enjoyed it, that was worth the binge.

Spoiler!

I was waiting for THE MESSAGE to be dropped in heavy handed fashion and wasn't disappointed, but I just rolled my eyes and continued on (although it wasn't lost on me that all the Usher kids that lived their lives in ways that could be described as "deviant" or "unholy" ways were all ended in grizzly fashions, their father's Faustian bargain or no). It wasn't so overbearing that it completely ruined the rest of the story for me.

Did anyone else pick up on how the priest at the funerals wasn't reading scripture, but rather Poe?

And goodness, Carla Gugino is still a smokeshow.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Has always been one of my favorites and you're not kidding - she's held together incredibly well.

Yeah. Carla is damn fine. I’d win wars for her today.

[ThaVirus]

Roderick was a huge piece of shit but good Lord, Madeline was somehow even worse.

[Why Not?]

About halfway through. Love it. I'm a big Poe fan so I dig what they are doing with this in a modern setting.