Nathalie Monk

Bly Manor had so much potential, and it was honestly so disappointing. Hill House was incredible, and I truly hope Mike Flannigan continues the "Haunting of" series, but I hope Bly teaches him a bit more about his strengths and weaknesses. I've seen the series referred to as "Bloated", and honestly that's the best way to describe it. Narration makes the story drag, the whole "The narrator was one of the characters" trope is dull and transparent. But I think the big thing that sets Bly apart from Hill House, is the mystery. Hill House stimulated your mind, it let you put the pieces of the puzzle together while Bly spoon-fed you the history of every character. We spent an entire episode on Dani's backstory, on Dani's ghost, only for the "Ghost" that we had been building up for half the series to completely disappear. Each ghost did not need a 40-minute backstory, and it made the story drag and fall flat. Like I said - bloated. The nail in the coffin was episode 7. If you have to put an entire episode in black and white to convey a time period, that should tell you that you aren't doing a good enough job on visuals. Episode 7 felt like a bad film student historical drama. The costumes and wigs were terrible, the sets were pretty awful, and the entire thing was so entirely unnecessary. And of course the elephant in the room throughout the whole series (but especially apparent in the 7th episode) is the god-awful accents. It was cool to see returning faces in the cast, but it felt like they were there just for the sake of being there. Overall, the story dragged, the ending fell flat, and the terrible accents and costumes distracted from what good there was. The Haunting of Bly Manor was disappointing, but hopefully it paves the way for better work in the future.