The Haunting of Bly Manor

A year ago, I watched and enjoyed "The Haunting of Hill House" so was very happy to find that the spiritual sequel had made it to completion before covid shutdown. Much like last years effort, the scarier aspects are just trappings really, with "Bly Manor" being a tragic, or perhaps a series of tragic, love stories - with ghosts.

Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) comes to a big Stately home in England to act as Nanny for two small children, who's parents have died. Though the children are charming, both Flora (Amelie Bea Smith) and Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) are prone to spells of absence, or sudden personality shifts. The house is old and has been around for centuries and has many ghosts, both literal and figurative, but Dani has a secret, that she has been haunted by a figure from her past long before arriving in Bly.

My gut feeling is that, particularly after the opening few episodes, "Bly Manor" is less scary than "Hill House" was. So, if being scared is all the worth you're going to attribute to the show, then you'll almost certainly be disappointed. (I do accept that it's not advertised that way and maybe that needs addressing if there's a third version next year). The "secret" ghost idea returns from "Hill House", so much of the fun is spent scanning the backgrounds for the ghosts in various doorways, at the end of corridors and in mirrors, just quietly watching the action unfold.

Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas and Carla Gugino all return from last year. But they're joined by Amelia Eve, Tahirah Sharif and most importantly by the pair of T'Nia Miller and Rahul Kohli as the Manor's housekeeper and cook respectively and the shows most compelling will-they-won't-they-pair.

Admittedly, the show could have done with a few more surprises or, perhaps less predictable twists, along the way. A couple of the shows reveals we had the gist of well before it was actually revealed. For reasons I shouldn't explain, Carla Gugino is attempting a Northern English accent which I feel I want to award points for effort for, even if it's not entirely successful. Henry Thomas' plummy Southern accent is even less so.

I'd have liked scarier, I'd have liked a few more unexpected twists, but ultimately I enjoyed this melancholy, gothic, tragic story and hope to return to the house next year.

You know when you attend a 3 day course and you leave at the end thinking we could have achieved that in half a day? Well...

The show is nowhere near as frightening or memorable as it's predecessor, The autopsy scene in that show still gives me nightmares.

While this show does fall short of 'Hill House' it can still stand on its own legs. It's an entirely different story and it seems to have entirely different goals.

The story is tragic and beautiful. The third episode had me nearly in tears. The characters were sympathetic and compelling. I binge watched the whole thing and I loved doing it.

That being said I almost wish the shows creators didn't aim for this type of story a "love story" as they plainly say in the show. I wanted something creepier and this show isn't meant to scare, but rather gut punch and evoke a sense of loss which it does rather well.

The narrative is also a bit convoluted which takes away any sense of progression in the plot. The reliance on flashbacks is interesting (side note-one entire episode is a flashback) but I might have preferred a more linear progression. A lot of plot points are simply abandoned at whim, and threads left underdeveloped for the sake of these flashbacks.

All in all it stands well on its own but in reference to its predecessor it pales in comparison and I find myself wishing that they had made another show.

I looooved the Hill house and was looking forward to the same creators producing a new masterpiece, but in my opinion they didn't. The first 4 episodes are sooo slow and borderline boring, to the point where I almost stopped watching. Glad I didn't, because the 2nd half was way better. But all together it didn't hit a home run for me. Not bad, just not great.

btw am I the only one who got annoyed by "perfectly splendid"?!

I won't give it a 10 however did anyone cry on the last episode ... as some of you have said you cannot compare this to the first season because this has a different story like though I wish it would have been a continued of the first season and it was what I was expecting . There were some Parts that were a little scary but I don't think it was as scary at all I think this season was more of a romantic suspense plot. It was well written and if you are going to watch you must pay attention to every detail . It seems like most of every character has its own little personal story line and then it all comes together about the whole story line.

It was good ..