The first episode ended with a revelation and a jump scare. From there it gathered the family to deal with Nell's death, their own estrangements and the looming terror of that house they fled so long ago. And then it ends on a surprising, incredibly touching tragic note.
I was floored.
Despite this series being one of those that tried to be memetically popular (telling us that people would be too scared to watch the next episode...) I never actually got wrapped up in the jump scares and the ghostly nightmare. What I tethered to was the damaged family and how despite their trauma, and their desperate attempts to avoid admitting what had happened to them, they were still so very strongly tied to each other. Love is hate, and hate is love.
The Man on the Bicycle stares at the screen-memory-hologram. It won't matter how much he pedals right now, as this image is fading. There are some bright colours, some scents emerging from the screen, but the rest is foggy and dissipating. With a sigh, he pedals a bit faster to allow him to watch what he can, while he can.
With the initial scare out of the way, Flanagan can ease us into the stories of the Crains. We start with Shirley, tense and strict, who runs a funeral house with her hesitant husband. Of course, Nell's funeral is held there. Flashbacks provide us more background, to the kids and to the house itself. Theo is emotionally distant, living in Shirley's shed/guest house and hiding intimacy behind a pair of gloves. Luke, well poor lost Luke is an addict. And nobody likes to talk about dear old Dad, except with the greatest of venom.
The show spends a lot of time filling in the blanks, but hesitates in telling us exactly why the family had to run away from the house but refuses to tell us what happened and why mom never came with them. But it left them all severely damaged. And now, in the current day, it seems that with the death of Nell, the house wants them to come back. And that is where the real terror comes from -- the impending doom.
There were a couple of stand out episodes, the primary being the "all one take" episode. Of course, its not entirely a single take, but the continuity of the story telling, as the family gathers at the funeral home, is utterly stunning. The increase of emotional tension, the furtherance of the Crains being actually, truly haunted (by ghosts and by tragedy) all lends itself to a perfect episode. The frosting on this cake is how Flanagan takes the familiarity of a "one take" episode and, when it dives into the flashbacks in the house, uses its motif to accurately represent the geometry bending attributes of the haunted house itself.
Another was the introduction of how exactly the house traumatized small, meek Luke. In an episode that contrasts adult Luke trying to get sobre, we get younger Luke haunted by one of the scariest ghosts in the whole series! Sure, we are in an age of tall, thin, slender men but Luke is so tiny and that fucking thing is so tall ! Does he even need to float inches above the ground? Of course, the ghosts of the Hill House are its victims, so the real man who died is not as nearly scary as the image seared into Luke's young mind, one that obviously alters him forever.
The Bicycle squeaks to a slow pace, needing oil but only finding the blood and sweat running down the Man's legs. He looks over his shoulder. The door is there, the one his bicycle extends from. Beyond is supposed to be the haven he will get when he finally gets to stop pedaling, but right now, all he sees is the silhouette in the doorway, a tall, slender man, and The Man begins pedaling ever more frantically. Not that he can get away... ever.
In the end, I found myself rather impressed by the show. But not by the scares, but by the emotions it left in me. It doesn't take much for me to get in touch with sadness, and maybe that is why I can so easily connect to Flanagan's work. Maybe he knows sadness and let's me touch someone else's for a brief time, so I can let go my own. We are all haunted by something, I guess.
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