Hemlock Grove: Thoughts

Let me explain: I got Netflix so I could watch Orange is the New Black, which I hear is Netflix-shows-are-the-new-awesome. But somewhere on the way, I got distracted by Netflix’s other offerings. Because I watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers and said I wanted to watch Twin Peaks, it told me to watch Hemlock Grove.

Hemlock Grove is an original Netflix horror series, and if the rest of this entry is tl;dr, you can get the gist of my review when I say I was surprised to find it was produced in 2013. Based on the 2012 book by Brian McGreevy, the series is a postmodern retelling of many famous Gothic horror tropes that follows two teenagers trying to figure out who’s responsible for the vicious murders of local high school girls.

The series does make me want to read the book, and I was at least entertained enough to watch it through. Overall, it doesn’t deserve great or even good reviews, but, IMHO, it could do better than the pans it’s getting from some major entertainment news sources. A lot of it felt hokey and/or stilted, but there were a few really interesting scenes that made the whole show worth the time I spent watching it over daily dinners.

More detailed observations? I thought you’d never ask:

+ Netflix is not bound by the rules of cable. They can drop f-bombs, show naked female chests, have teenage boys smoke cigarettes, and show characters of all ages gleefully gettin’ some. Because this is a horror series, that also means they can show gore that wouldn’t make it onto prime time. I’m not saying that those things are good in and of themselves, but it does mean the show doesn’t do silly TV things like make characters have sex with most of their clothes on or have characters blurt, “Gosh!” when a giant monster is attacking them.

– On the other hand, it does mean there are some moments when I was thinking, “Does no woman in this universe wear a bra???”

+ Overall, I loved the way the show handled exposition. The only conceit about which it’s explicit are the werewolves: characters talk to each other about what werewolves are and how they work, but even that’s only after one of the characters figures out another is a wolf and watches the human-to-beast transformation. Otherwise, everything is subtle and audience-trusting. We know there are a couple weird things about the Godfrey family; the show lets us learn what those things are to the point where we’re sure they’re true, but no character ever comes right out and says them. Sure, a couple plot points end up ambiguous, but I don’t feel that’s unfair; I feel like I could figure out what’s going on if I paid closer attention.

– The names. Really? I mean, really? Dr. Chasseur hunts things. The Godfreys are, um, God-free. A character whose story winks at Frankenstein is named Shelley. All right, already. I get it.

+ Without wishing to spoil anything, sometimes, when conflicts are shot badly, I think, “Oh, for goodness sake, this scene makes it look like they’re going to make out, not fight!” So I was watching a conflict scene in this show, and I was thinking that. And then to my surprise, they did make out. And it was awesome!

– Misogyny/sexism. Again, not wanting to spoil anything, an awful lot of this show turns out to be working through issues about girls, women, and sexuality. The “best” female characters — morally speaking — are the “purest.” They either don’t think about sex or have sex only when they’re in True Love Forever and Ever. They don’t dwell on their own sexuality or have physical desires. The two “good” female characters who have sex outside of committed relationships are portrayed as troubled, mystical, and/or mysterious. Contrariwise, the male characters treat sex as any other appetite, and the way they have it (or don’t) shows specific things about their personalities besides “good girl” and “troubled/bad girl.”

+ On the other hand, there are an awful lot of sensually shot sex scenes in this show, and almost all of them show a female participant taking as much physical pleasure from the act as any male participant. So there’s that.

– But there’s also racism. Of course all “gypsies” are super-mystical magical people who, in the end, really can all be expected to act the same. Ugh.

+ There’s not really a plus that can make a difference after that…

– Aaaaand why not go for the holy trifecta with homophobia too? SPOILERS (highlight to reveal): The only openly lesbian character ends up dead. Wow, shocker.

+ … yeah, I’m just gonna move on to other problems I had watching the show. Oh, wait, I guess I really liked Dr. Chasseur. Who is a lesbian woman of colour. So even though that makes her a token! minorities! character! on a show like this one, she’s still awesome and troubled and full of anger. Not that her mere presence solves any of the problems above.

– Especially considering that there’s an awful lot of sexual violence. This is a horror show, so, yes, I expected there to be violence of all kinds. I’m even OK with occasionally being asked to sympathize with the perpetrator rather than the victim, because, you know, the show’s dark. However, I’m not cool with being asked to sympathize with the angst of the Poor Troubled Rapist. Sorry, but being asked to sympathize with a serial killer is acceptable because in real life, nobody automatically takes the serial killer’s side. In real life, stories of rape and sexual assault get turned into stories of the poor, harangued, very sorry perpetrator (oops, where did the victim go in this narrative?) far too often for me to feel comfortable seeing it in fiction.

+ OK, back to elements of writing stuff to find something positive. The plot takes a little while to get started, but once it did, I was hooked. I wanted to know more about all the subtle, supernatural stuff going on, and to find out who was killing the girls (even though it was pretty obvious long before the characters figured it out).

– Some of the writing is pretty clunky. This may have been exacerbated by the fact that I like to watch TV with subtitles on (I like reading better than listening! Also, I don’t like having the volume turned up ridiculously high!) But there are scenes that you can see would work fine in a novel, when nobody has to say the lines aloud. Except… people do. Have to say them aloud. And they sound silly. Especially in the couple of scenes that have turned into a soliloquy. Not a voiceover; not a monologue to other characters in the room. Just one character talking aloud to nobody. Awkward.

+ Um… I liked their take on the mandatory werewolf-transformation scene? I guess? It was something I’d never seen before.

Overall, this show has some pretty bright red flags. And I’m not sure I can recommend it for that reason. Still, its great exposition and the nuanced performances turned in by some of its performers were highlights. I’m curious about what next season could even be about, but if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a whole season of Orange is the New Black to work through…