Of course, it was always likely that I was going to enjoy the mini-series. It was the latest from writer-director Mike Flanagan, whose previous offerings include not only series like Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House, but the surprisingly excellent movie of the supposedly impossible-to-adapt Stephen King novel Gerald's Game. Flanagan also makes a habit of working with the same actors as much as he can, accumulating a reliable "repertory company" of talented performers. So I'm at a point where I want to check out anything he creates.
In this case, he was synthesizing his own modern day tale of gothic horror out of bits and pieces lifted from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. My own knowledge of Poe runs rather shallow: I've certainly heard a few of his poems over the years, I've read a short story or two, and am loosely familiar with plot elements of a few others. That put me in an interesting place for viewing The Fall of the House of Usher, where I felt engaged in three different ways in roughly equal measure. Sometimes, the story would completely surprise me with its twists in turns. Other times, I would know exactly what was coming thanks to familiarity with the source material. Still other times, I'd embrace the atmosphere of the macabre and anticipate what was coming next just by os-Poe-sis. My response to the show was also divided in roughly equal measure: I enjoyed the mini-series on its own terms, and it made me want to seek out the specific original Poe writing that most inspired it.
The visuals of this mini-series were stellar. Every episode was directed by Mike Flanagan himself, or by the director of photography, ensuring the same heightened, dreary look throughout. The performances were even better. Carla Gugino might be the best actor of all in that "Flanagan Repertory Company" I mentioned, and this story spotlights her in a delightful way. Meanwhile, the structure of the season overall allows a different performer to take center stage in every episode; I found the episodes featuring T'Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, and Kate Siegel to be especially strong.
The "FRC" picks up a couple of new actors as well, both making a big splash. Mary McDonnell is excellent as the cold and conniving Madeline Usher (and Willa Fitzgerald, who plays the same character in 40-year old flashbacks, really shows how closely she studied McDonnell to deliver a similarly calibrated performance). Meanwhile, Mark Hamill gives great villanous energy as family lawyer Arthur Pym. I hear Hamill is already cast in Flanagan's next project, and it's no surprise to me from watching Usher why actor and director would seek to work together again right away.
It's not a completely flawless series. For one thing, at eight episodes, it might be a touch long. The formula of each episode is made abundantly clear very early on (in case you missed the not-subtle title), and I found myself wondering if perhaps there were one too many "Usher kids," one too many episodes, before the grand finale. (For one thing, it began to strain credulity how long one man is willing to sit in a chair and listen to a meandering story, as the overall framing device dictates.) Still, for the high highs in the series overall -- the most delicious come-uppances, creepy deaths, and well-executed jump scares -- I was willing to forgive the occasional indulgences.
Overall, I'd give The Fall of the House of Usher an A-. Now that I'm finished, I have a notable hole in my TV viewing for something fun to savor.
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