La caída de la Casa Usher

In my opinion, polarising creations are always fascinating, and generally I don't think ill of people who happen to dislike what I enjoy very much. I'm not particularly fond of being meta in my reviews either, but I feel that in the case of "The Fall of the House of Usher" something needs to be said on this matter.

I'm not going to question personal taste when it comes to the technical aspects of this show, such as acting, directing, and production value. Personally, I think is an excellent TV series graced by some seriously spectacular money shots (the rave party's abrupt ending comes to mind), but that's just my take.

The hill I'm ready to die on is about whether or not Flanagan did justice to Poe's work, and I'm afraid I won't be very forgiving to whoever says he didn't.

Poe didn't just write Gothic literature, he added heavy personal touches to it that would eventually become genre-defying, and ultimately, the most iconic aspects of his work. If you ask Chat GPT to write like Poe, that's what you'll get.

But whilst extremely picturesque and entertaining - and tempting, from a Production's pov (the costumes, the Victorian gloomy setting, the riddles, it's a guaranteed spectacle) - those elements are the proverbial arabesques on top of something infinitely more substantial.

The deep psychological implications of his work is what makes Poe a genius, and not just a good writer. The man described illnesses and neuro-divergences centuries before there was even a name for them. He delved in universal fears and anxieties that not only have transcended his time, they couldn't be more relevant today: the unhealthy approach toward death, living in an alienating society that has lost its human touch, feeling the constant pressure of uncertainty.

The core of Poe's work is bleak and modern, and Flanagan captured it to perfection with "The Fall of the House of Usher". Above the must-have iconic references, he resisted the easy road of a shallow costume piece, and focused his script to what's underneath instead. I, for once, can't praise him enough for it.

The only reservation I may have with this TV series is about the title's choice, which may have mislead some spectator to believe that this was going to be an adaptation of the eponymous short novel instead of a broad homage to Poe's greatest hits.

Other than that, as a longtime fan of Poe's work, I won't shy from stating that "The Fall of the House of Usher" is storytelling at its best, and nothing short of one of the most quintessential Poe-esque piece of content in existence.

Mike Flanagan is clearly a Poe fan. The fall of the house of usher is my favorite Poe story. The 1960 Vincent Price film of that story is one of my favorite movies of all time. I came into this expecting a similar story told longer. That is not what I got.

After the first episode I was actually kind of annoyed because I wasn't getting it. I didn't get how this was the house of usher. I thought it was beautiful and it definitely grabbed my attention but it wasn't what I was expecting to be. And then after a few episodes I realized what was happening. Every episode is a modern retelling of an Edgar Allan Poe story. And then tying each of those stories into the house of usher. It was genius. Some people will catch that by reading the titles of each episode but I honestly didn't pay any attention to that until I was four episodes in. Obviously the episode title does give away what the story in that episode will be but then the creative journey will show us how it ties to our main story.

I think from start to finish this entire project was so well done. The acting is outstanding. Every special effect was marvelous. The sets were beautiful and unique. The writing and the directing are top knots. There are definitely some beautiful and unique shots in this work. I could honestly write a book about how much I loved this. This is something I will watch again and again.

The bulk of the reviews seem to have this polarized Mike Flannagan hate going on. So you can really write off half the reviews. If you havent liked Flannagan's work, why are you people watching it?

What you need to know, is that this is a homage to all of Poe's work. Rating it poorly because it isn't a prevoius remake, seems extremely short sighted.

By now you've read the story is set around the house of Usher. Like many of Flannagan's stories, they are designed to be end to end stories. Which is what I prefer. The Usher house hold is the story of rich people, greed, and overall evil people.

Many people cite the parallels of Succession, and they feel like it's underwhelming by comparison. I, however, do not. I actually don't like Succession. Just like many of HBO's series they are drawn out wwwwaaaayyyy to long. This is not. You get what you get for the 8 episodes.

Mike gets a lot of the actors he continues to work with,and Carla Gugino absolutely kills it in this role. She uses a myriad of accents, and makes the central theme of the series take on a life of it's own.

Many persons point to predictability in the plot, but if you've read The Raven, or any of Poe's other works you'll know how things are going to go down. This is a homage again. Looking for something new and exciting other than story telling and visuals will set you up for disappointment.

A huge family run empire at the height of its powers begins so crumble, as one by one the heirs and offspring begin to die.

It's a binge worthy eight part series, one you won't want to end. It's a twisted look at one greed and vanity can do, even among siblings.

It's dark and twisted, it gets better with every passing episode, Flanagan knows only too well how to spin a yarn, and this is another wonderful series. The final episode was perhaps my favourite segment, how rare for a series to end on such a high note, it's wonderful.

Beautifully produced as you'd expect, you get a real insight into what life is like for those that live with huge wealth, sadly they're all monstrous, every single time you think an Usher has come good, you have to think again.

It highlights what it is to have everything, and what it is to have nothing, only you have to question what exactly is worth having, does wealth amount to anything at all ultimately?

Lots of familiar faces, and they all perform, it's worth seeing for Mark Hamill alone, although it owes a great debt to the versatility of Carla Gugino, who gets some show stealing scenes.

Am already counting down for the next Flanagan series.

9/10.

It's not scary it's a mystery that takes too many episodes to spin the web of integrated Edgar Allen Poe stories and poems into a retelling of the House Of Usher . Good idea but in the end it's long and a bit boring , Bruce Greenwood is fantastic as usual a great actor , the rest of the cast also good . I just found the plot to convoluted and contrived to fit in the stories of Edgar Allen Poe. Tale Tale Heart , The Cask of Amontillado, the Black Cat ,the Gold bug. The Masque of The red death , so in and so forth ...

Great idea but I found it too slow to binge I suppose it would be better as a non binge series .

Love the nod to the Saclker family and Purdue Pharma and the opioid deaths they caused globally .

The real evil.