The Haunting of Bly Manor: 5 Things We Loved (and 5 We Didn’t)
By Louis Skye
The Romance of Certain Old Clothes
Kate Siegel’s Theo Crain was one of the highlights of The Haunting of Hill House. Viewers felt her absence in the second instalment, but with Episode 8, this was seemingly rectified. Or so we thought.
While Siegel puts in quite the performance as Viola Lloyd, the lady of Bly Manor back in the 1800s, the plot itself felt overlong.
The Lady in the Lake had been the progenitor of most of the horrors in the house, and it was interesting to see her origins come to light. But was an entire episode required for this arc? There wasn’t enough substance for 45 minutes.
What we got was a plot that viewers deciphered well before the conclusion. It would have been prudent to club Viola’s arc with the main plot through flashbacks, or to tease it out over several episodes.
Underdeveloped Characters
There are a few advantages to moving away from one family’s narrative. More diversity, differing personalities, and greater opportunity for character growth that has more to do with one’s motivations instead of familial bonds.
The Haunting of Bly Manor didn’t get this aspect as right as it should have. Despite the plethora of characters, and the amount of screen time most of them had, we end the season knowing little about them.
Hannah had an entire episode to explore her life and death, but ‘Altar of the Dead’ worked better as a narrative tool than as a character examination. Hannah possibly suffered the most because we only ever got to know her in death rather than when she was alive.
Rebecca and Peter’s bond wasn’t ever clear—aside from the fact that they were both working class and having to take on lowly roles to get ahead. But what drew them to each other and kept them together?
Dani at least got a backstory about being in the closet and losing her fiancé but Jamie, who turned out to be our narrator, had absolutely no inner life beyond what we see on-screen. The show could have done with tighter narratives to give the characters some room to grow.