1-1-1: Fall of the House of Usher

2022, 8 episodes - netflix
created by Mike Flanagan

The What 100: Roderick and Madeline Usher were the bastard offspring of the CEO of pharmaceutical corporation Fortunato. Left nothing, the siblings work their way into the Forunato company on their own merit and climb the ranks, though a secret from their past gave them a decisive leg up. Roughly a half-century later, all the Usher's successes that seemed to have been unimpeachable actually have a bill that's come due, and the cost is the entire lineage of the Usher family.

(1 Great): The story of The Fall of the House of Usher, is told by Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood, Star Trek) to US Attorney Charles Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly, M.A.N.T.I.S.), the man who has been trying to prosecute him all these years for Fortunato's many crimes against society and humanity.  The story takes place in multiple times periods, with the "present day" - in which a grieving, repentant Roderick making his final confessions to a long-time nemesis - acts as framing sequence to the series.The late 1970s era find Roderick (played by Zach Gilford, The Purge: Anarchy) picking his path in life, pulled towards being an honest, if maybe poor man but loving husband and father, or a cutthroat businessman with Madeline (Willa Fitzgerald) pulling the strings from behind. There's also the weeks set before Roderick and Auguste are having their dark-and-stormy night chat, where each episode one of Roderick's six children face their horrific and untimely demise.  I love a good non-linear story, and Flanagan here constructs it masterfully. It's jumping from time to time, further expanding multiple different narratives, all while teasing right up until to the finale what the actual deal that Roderick and Madeline made with the mysterious figure (Carla Gugino) who is present at each of the kids' deaths. There's so many little mysteries that Flanagan teases out over the eight episode that make for compulsive viewing, once one episode is done, you want to dive right into another. As well, the premise of an awful family of uber-rich assholes each meeting a pretty grim end (each very loosely based around an Edgar Allen Poe story), makes for absolutely delightful viewing. 

(1 Good): Roderick himself was personally responsible for the development and exploitation of highly addictive, highly profitable painkiller Ligodone upon which he built an empire. He has hundreds of thousands of skeletons in his closet. I've seen Greenwood in many, many productions, and he's always a solid player in every appearance, but I don't know if he's ever been given a role like this which requires so much gravitas and control. Roderick is a man who is haunted, both literally and figuratively, and Greenwood plays both so perfectly. This is the story of a man recalling the glory and regrets of his past, a man trying to, in some small way atone for his sins, while within his story, he is a most assured and devilish man. Greenwood needs to work through an entire emotional spectrum with this character, all the while it has to feel appropriate and consistent to his character. He has the toe the line of being so evil that there's no chance we could like him, and then have Greenwood present little aspects of the character that show there's humanity underneath (we still don't like him, but there is a bit a sympathy, and even pathos among all the schadenfreude). The writing is largely fabulous, the performance is even better. 

(1 Bad): The only bad in what is otherwise delightfully grizzly October-friendly viewing was a few moments in the conceit of the framework. Some of the back and forth between Auguste and Roderick felt...forced, unnatural, often as the show was using the framework to jump between its time periods and narrative tracks and the attempts to direct the narrative through this dialogue felt shaky at points. In teasing out the history that Roderick and Auguste have, it makes investing in this face-to-face a little more difficult. But it's a really small quibble in an show that had me squealing and squicking in equal measure.

META: Flanagan has his ensemble of players that he uses again and again, and I'm of two minds about it. There's an aspect of it that's kind of fun, like how Hallmark just kind of mixes-and-matches their leads across their dozens of seasonal offerings each year, you kind of get to know and like these performers and look forward to seeing what roles Flanney decides to put them in.  But at the same time I also feel like it may be limiting the performances, that maybe by only casting familiar actors, he's maybe not getting the best performances that he could. But that reservation only holds water if I feel like any of the performances didn't deliver, and I couldn't really find flaw with almost any player. And it's not like Greenwood, Mary McDonnell, Lumbly, and Mark Hamill were regular players in the Flanney troupe prior to this, and they're all quite astonishing additions. Love to see them all in great roles.

One other thing about Fall of the House of Usher that deviated from usual Flanney tropes... there weren't the usual monologues that Flanney has a penchant for, but much of the face-to-face between Auguste and Roderick was monologue, but it's also narrative, so it made a lot more sense and felt more natural that it often does in Flanagan's shows.

[Toastypost - we agree!]