Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.

On October 9, 2020, The Haunting of Bly Manor—the spiritual successor to The Haunting of Hill House—dropped on Netflix. I started watching the series on day 1 and finished on October 14, 2020. Long story short: I liked The Haunting of Hill House much better than The Haunting of Bly Manor. If you want to learn why, let me continue to explain in the review below.

Synopsis: Set in the 1980’s, the story centers around a young American nanny named Dani (Victoria Pedretti) hired to babysit orphans Flora (Amelia Bea Smith) and Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth)—who reside at Bly Manor—by their Uncle Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas). While dealing with her own personal issues, Dani notices strange behavior from the children, the other estate’s residents—like the chef Owen (Rahul Kohli), groundskeeper Jamie (Amelia Eve), and housekeeper Hannah Grose (T’Nia Miller)—and uncovers the ghostly secrets from the manor’s past.

The major issue I had with this series was the scares. While Hill House had been scary from the beginning and allowed the scares to blend with the narrative of the story, Bly Manor didn’t quite strike the same balance and took its time—at least three episodes—with setting up the horror. The storytelling device—an old woman telling the story of the first season at a wedding—didn’t exactly work either.

The characters were given powerful arcs throughout the first season though, with Hannah Grose, Owen, and Dani delivering amazing character stories. Victoria Pedretti was given a few memorable scenes that demanded my attention, while T’Nia Miller’s character made me feel sad inside when we learned the truth about her and the role she played behind the manor’s hauntings. Rahul Kohli brought such warmth and humanity to his character’s background, and how he handled the situations ongoing with Bly Manor.

The love story was an “okay” aspect of the narrative, but it seemed like the show sacrificed the horror aspect to give it more space to breathe. There were moments when I waited for something scary to happen, but nothing scary did—and this is coming from someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy or watch horror movies. So, I can only imagine those who do enjoy horror movies must’ve felt their expectations falling short.

Overall, I did like the story—to a certain extent—but the horror aspect wasn’t balanced enough with the narrative to quench my little horror interest. Would I recommend this series? It’s hard to say. Yes, I would recommend The Haunting of Bly Manor for the story, but if you’re looking for some spooky this October, I’d look elsewhere for your frights.

Thanks for reading this season review, everyone! Let’s keep it spooky this October!

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