Sunday, April 28, 2013

Hemlock Grove | Netflix Attempts to Cash In On Weird Shit

Netflix has been around for only a few years now, but in that time it has managed to make a name for itself and even has a 200 dollar share price. Business is good for the video streaming service and it was only made better when they released the made-by-Netflix drama House of Cards which starred Kevin Spacey. This show followed the intriguing life of a U.S. senator vying for a higher political office.  House of Cards really showcased what Netflix could do to the world, it was interesting and well-acted, more recently though, Netflix has released the series Hemlock Grove.

So, what was the good, the bad and the ugly about Hemlock Grove?

The Good
Sometimes weird shit is good, it makes you think. The weirder the thing you are confronted with the more you have to think about it in order to make sense of it all. And Hemlock Grove is loaded with weird shit:  banging cousins, face/vagina eating monsters, bacon grease and two former cast members of Battlestar Galactica.

The Bad
The pacing of the show is a bit slow, like The Wire slow, but unlike The Wire Hemlock Grove provides little payoff.  As well, much of the dialogue is hard to listen too, (I’m talking to you Chief Tyrol). If you are going to have a lot of buildup in a series you need to have some payoff and this show does not have any.  Once the last episode is done you as the viewer are left with most of the questions you had about the characters in the series: in other words, the series has no catharsis.   

The Ugly
We could say Shelley, but that would be too easy.  Some might say that you can’t sum up an entire season of television in so few words. With Hemlock Grove you really can and that is pretty god damn ugly.  

In the end, Hemlock Grove is just one big tease, making you think that at least some of the questions that arise in the series will be answered. But in reality, most of the weird shit that pops up throughout the series is left a mystery and only one big answer is revealed in the final episode. 

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