Hemlock Grove

Sleek and surreal, this new installment from Netflix (produced and directed by fright-man Eli Roth) breathes of noir-style films of yesteryear - if only it were in black and white. About halfway through the first episode I admit I was drifting, having serious doubts of the substantial play of the series. A fan of Netflix's hit 'House of Cards' I was eager to see what was up their sleeves and didn't want to give up too early. The show will pique your interest. It will dabble in sex and bloody-good fun. But this feels like an HBO version of Nickelodeon's Degrassi, with two parts Twilight and a dash of True Blood. Pretty people in over-saturated roles being seen through an over-exposed lens (it's kind of like watching it through a foggy beer glass). But hey, if you can't find a character in this show you wouldn't want to have sex with, then you don't have a pulse. In all seriousness, it will be interesting to see if the characters develop past their inherent sex appeal and find traction in a show that has a lot of potential. It's like riding in the slow lane on a Sunday afternoon in your daddy's Ferrari - when all in takes is an exit and an open road to come alive. Give it the gas and quit toying with us Netflix! A large part of why 'House of Cards' was so great is it hit the ground running and within 10-minutes of the pilot - I'm three episodes in and still waiting for it to make the turn. (Update to come)

To me, Hemlock Grove is like a gorgeous dress that doesn't quite fit. You'll wear it anyway because you love the idea of it so much, but you'll always be aware that it just doesn't look as great as it could.

The premise and the script scream for camp and witty - a la Buffy or True Blood - but the direction tries to make it gritty and serious like it's The Sopranos. The problem is that the story lines are just too ridiculous for such a somber tone.

Joss Whedon found the perfect solution to this in the Buffyverse - he made it tongue-in-cheek so that the silly stuff could just be silly and still work, and when things got serious, we really cared. I feel like the director(s) of Hemlock Grove could learn a lesson from that way of making a supernatural/fantasy drama. Or, if they wanted to go the dark gritty road, I wish they'd done it like the much missed Carnivale and focused much more on character development, keeping the supernatural elements teasingly in the background.

That's not to say this isn't enjoyable because it is. It just keeps frustratingly missing the mark in its attempts to be far more earnest than the premise warrants.

Some of the acting comes across as pretty bad, but I'm not sure if that's the actor's faults so much as it's very difficult for them to deliver their lines in the tone the director wants.

I'd hoped the criticism the first season got would be taken on board for the second season, but aside from Famke Jannsen getting rid of the ridiculous accent, that doesn't seem to have been the case.

This could have been the next big thing in supernatural shows. It's got the cool creepy town like Vampire Diaries but without all the Dawson's Creek stuff that goes on in Mystic Falls. It's got some familiar and well loved supernatural entities, and some we've never seen before. Landon Liboiron is great in his role as the gypsy Peter and Joel de la Fuente gives a good performance in an original take on the mad scientist trope.

I just wish they'd either stick with the scripts they're writing but camp it up in tone, or stick with the dark and gritty tone but change the scripts to suit that.

For once they make a series without milking it till the last drop. Three seasons was perfect for Hemlock Grove. Never in the three seasons you get that milking feeling like with so many other series. This one keeps you interested from the beginning till the end. And even though it's again about vampires and lycanthropes you can't compare it with that garbage that is Twilight. This one is so much better, without having a lot of vampire and werewolf shots. The absolute star to me is Famke Janssen. Besides her natural beauty and elegance she shows us that she is also an excellent actress. The other star to me is her fictional son Bill Skarsgård that also gave an excellent performance. The other actors are good as well but to me the whole show turns around Olivia and Roman Godfrey. I truly enjoyed every single second of Hemlock Grove. Once you start watching this show it becomes immediately highly addictive.

** May contain mild spoilers **

'Hemlock Grove' is a rare and strange beast among the many current fantasy/horror shows on TV. This new series is refreshingly original; although vampirism and werewolves haven't exactly been underrepresented in movies and TV-shows over the last couple of years, 'Hemlock Grove' manages to find a very interesting new approach and uses old European myths and legends - and even a bit of Sci-Fi - to inject some fresh blood into a genre that started to feel a bit stale. The mix is strangely compelling – and highly addictive.

The cast is very strong, especially the two leads Bill Skarsgård and Landon Liboiron – and of course, the always great Famke Janssen. The production values are also worth mentioning: the music, the cinematography and the set-designs in this show are absolutely beautiful, the gory make-up effects look realistic and CGI is thankfully kept to a minimum. I'm a bit surprised this show hasn't found a bigger audience yet, given how well it is produced (and this wasn't exactly a cheap affair either: season 2 had a budget of 52 million dollars for 10 episodes), but maybe it's just a bit too original for that. As far as I'm concerned, 'Hemlock Grove' certainly deserves to be seen; offering unique 'Horror' with a fantastic, slightly surreal atmosphere and amazing images, this highly original series is a prime candidate for binge-watching. 8 stars out of 10.

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The graphics are epic and the characters are perfect, but the story line doesn't fit together very well. When I watched it I felt like they were trying too hard to make it look good and be plausible which is great but, the plot slipped through the cracks. It's a nice try but it could have been better. Also they had to many mysteries going on at the same time. It was hard to remember who knew what and how it all came together. They rushed things that needed time and dragged things out that needed rushed. It's a perplexing show and I don't regret watching it, I just wish things had turned out differently. It's a bit gory but interesting too, if you put up with it long enough to find out.