{"id":8549,"date":"2020-10-26T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/?p=8549"},"modified":"2020-10-26T09:33:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T14:33:03","slug":"spooktober-movie-watch-round-up-2020-week-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/?p=8549","title":{"rendered":"Spooktober Movie-Watch Round-Up 2020: Week 4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I… I didn’t watch any movies last week! Oops!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that’s because I was spending my free time doing other spooky things, like playing spooky video games, or watching other people play spooky video games, or watching a spooky new Netflix series called…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ The Haunting of Bly Manor ~<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I could just cheat the system and not write anything this week, but why not at least put up a short post about this series that surprised me in several very good ways? The first, and I’m going to spoil everything right off the top, is that I really liked it. Like, I would be okay watching the whole thing again basically right away, under the right circumstances. I can’t say that about all that many TV shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another one that comes to mind though, is The Haunting on Hill House<\/em>. Which is a Netflix series that came out last Halloween, and is the predecessor to Bly Manor<\/em>, because apparently “The Haunting of<\/em>…” is going to be an anthology series now. It’s a little like American Horror Story<\/em>, even, because about half of the actors from Hill House<\/em> carried over to Bly Manor<\/em>. I had no idea about any of this when Bly Manor<\/em> was first released, and was happy to pass on the series. But then I heard about the connection, and I really liked Hill House<\/em>, so it just seemed natural to check out the next entry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Haunting of Bly Manor<\/em>, is, like Hill House<\/em> before it, based on a novel. The difference is that this time it’s a novel I’ve actually heard of: The Turn of the Screw<\/em> by Henry James. I’ve never read it, and in fact I didn’t even know it was a ghost story, but I’ve heard of it! And I really want to read it now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The setup for this one is that an American lady trying to run away from a troubled past travels to England to get a nanny job in a creepy old mansion… Stop me if this sounds familiar.<\/a> She does get put in charge of real<\/em> children though; a young boy and his little sister. Both are a touch on the weird side, and maybe a little bit annoying at first. I have to admit though, that after a few episodes I really took a liking to little Flora. She’s just so darned cute!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other characters, as well. Obviously. An absent-minded housekeeper, a fabulously mustachioed cook, a tomboy gardener, and an absentee uncle. Oh, and also a whole host of spooks and spirits. Despite the fact that the show is set in a very haunted mansion, only the first episode comes anywhere close to scary. After that, it’s basically just character drama with a somewhat creepy atmosphere. There are still ghosts, mind you, but most of them are fully-realized characters, and almost never do anything scary. In fact, the scariest one is basically exorcised less than halfway through the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite my disappointment at the lack of spookiness, I still really enjoyed The Haunting of Bly Manor<\/em>. The characters are great and the plot is compelling, which resulted in me getting hooked on it very quickly. I don’t really have any idea if Bly Manor<\/em> is a shot-for-shot remake of The Turn of the Screw<\/em> or not, but I would imagine that a lot what makes it so good is that it’s based on classic literature. It certainly couldn’t hurt that they started with a solid base. I don’t think that Bly Manor<\/em> is quite as good as Hill House<\/em>, but the fact that the story is told in a much more linear fashion makes it a lot easier to understand, if nothing else. It’s a very good second entry in this anthology, and I’m stoked for a third series next Halloween.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dani’s 80’s jeans drive me absolutely bonkers though. Euuuuugggghh. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I… I didn’t watch any movies last week! Oops! But that’s because I was spending my free time doing other spooky things, like playing spooky video games, or watching other people play spooky video games, or watching a spooky new Netflix series called… ~ The Haunting of Bly Manor ~ I could just cheat the … Continue reading Spooktober Movie-Watch Round-Up 2020: Week 4<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-idiot-box","category-spooky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8549"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8553,"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549\/revisions\/8553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}