Thursday, December 13, 2018

TV review - "The Haunting of Hill House" (2018) ****1/2

Excellent adaptation of the famous novel. Maybe it would have been better off with a shorter run - emaybe six eps? - but its very well done. Atmospheric direction, strong acting. Its dramatically powerful, in part because of the deft characterisation but also because its a family drama. All the characters are distinctive - the warm but crazy mother, anxious father, sensible OCD elder sister, messed up but but professionally competent lesbian middle sister, writer brother, drug addict brother, traumatised younger sister. They are real people and you care about all of them which is what what happens to them matters. The interactions and family dynamics are first rate.

There's also another family - the two housekeepers and their kid. The fate of these is very moving.

Good shocks, some bravaura directing. It's extremely well done.

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