The Haunting of Bly Manor – Ramblings

All ye who enter, here be spoilers, beware!

The Haunting of Hill House was an exceptional piece of television, both in terms of writing as well as execution. Any follow-up, regardless of its actual merit will be judged unfairly especially because the show is conceived as an anthology- each season is independent, a new story, a new house. In that regard, the key to enjoying Bly Manor is to watch it with no ties to Hill House. A tough thing to do but a must. If you watch Bly Manor, expecting the story and scares from Hill House, you will find it sorely lacking.

Bly Manor and Hill House could not be more different from each other. Other than a few repeated cast members and some behind the scenes crew, it’s a completely new concept. Like its predecessor, the season resembles its source material only in the broadest of strokes. There are a bulk of characters, story arcs that don’t exist in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Instead, Mike Flanagan and his team of writers have woven in other, more obscure stories by James into this television adaptation and the season is richer for it.

The beauty of a show like Bly Manor and indeed even Hill House are its characters. The story is engaging and keeps the audience glued to their seats, the characters though elevate it to a whole new level. I am perhaps waxing poetic but as I sit here having just finished the last episode, I find myself going back to the characters. There is such abundant richness to them, so many layers, even to the ones that we would mostly dismiss as the “villain”. The show infuses such heartache into their stories that to label any of them as villainous would be to completely miss the point. Which is not to say that there aren’t characters who do absolutely despicable things, like a certain Peter Quint, nor does the show offer them a redemption, merely understanding, a look into their lives.

Unlike Hill House, where a majority of the ghosts retained their menacing and malicious edge, the last 2 episodes of Bly Manor completely rid the ghosts of the house of all that makes them frightening, revealing them to be nothing but unwitting bystanders who had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The heartache is a running theme especially among 4 principle characters- Hannah, Owen, Dani and Jamie. Hannah who constantly finds herself in different times, who hasn’t yet realised that she’s no longer among the living, existing like an echo, repeating the actions in death as she did in life. Filled with regret at the life unlived, the regret of being in love with Owen and never telling him. For Owen to be in love with Hannah but also held back, whether due to his mother’s illness or just never being sure of how Hannah felt about him.

I tip my hat to Mike Flanagan. In Hill House he gave us Theo Crain, the only complaint being that perhaps Trish only existed in the story to serve Theo’s character. He does a much a better job in Bly Manor with Dani and Jamie. You can see the yearning in Dani’s eyes almost as soon as she meets Jamie, there is an instant pull. And then through her flashback, you can see that it was her guilt that was holding her back. And once she let that go of it, you could see her embracing the happiness that came from being with Jamie. Their love for each other was one of the high-points of the show. The way the show concludes, leaves a bittersweet taste, in that, at the end, Dani does come back for Jamie and they can finally be together. And that was just beautiful.

Bly Manor is also beautifully made show, though if I were being honest, I missed some of those brilliant single takes shots from Hill House which were so superbly executed. The structure of the season bares some similarities to that of Hill House, in that almost each episode focuses on a particular character but it’s not necessarily from their point of view. With each passing episode, the story slowly unfolds, until the last episode brings everything together like a tapestry unfurling, finally presenting the whole image in its entirety. That’s the other thing to watch out for in the show, it is slow, it takes its time, the first episode especially. We have become so used to fast-paced storytelling that there is something soothing about one that takes its time, that also occasionally pauses and lets its inhabitants breathe and simply exist instead of pushing along one story arc or another. I almost miss it which is why shows like this are a treat.

The acting is also top-notch, though some of the accents take some getting used to, most notably Henry Thomas as Henry Wingrave. All of the others, especially the kids Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Amelie Bea Smith as Miles and Flora respectively were amazing. Special mention also to T’nia Miller who played Hannah Grose with such depth and sincerity. I’m going to mention all of the main cast members because of how amazing they all were- Victoria Pedretti as Dani Clayton, Amelia Eve as Jamie, Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Peter Quint, Tahirah Sharif as Rebecca Jessel, Rahul Kohli as Owen, Carla Gugino as The Narrator. Special mention also to Kate Siegel who only appeared in one episode but owned every frame she was in.

Mike Flanagan was being honest when he said that Bly Manor is gothic romance. It is not the horror-fest that was Hill House. Bly Manor, like Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak, is a love story with ghosts in it. At its core, its about people deeply in love. Some of it, transcendent like Hannah-Owen and Dani-Jamie and some of it toxic like Rebecca-Peter. The Haunting of Bly Manor is a beautiful show and to watch it in the shadow of Hill House is a gross disservice to it’s beauty and nuance.

P.S. – Petition to have Victoria Pedretti in the next season of The Haunting and to get a happy ending and if we get a wlw ship, that’s just an added bonus.

P.P.S – Netflix better not cancel this show! Seriously, keep your cancel-happy hands away from this.