Hemlock Grove Review: Less Than the Sum of its Parts

Imagine if “Supernatural” and “The Killing” had a child that did not live up to the expectations of its parents, you’d get Hemlock Grove,” a show ripe with incestuous undertones and underdeveloped characters. As part of the Netflix resurgence of 2013, “Hemlock Grove” was supposed to lure viewers in the way other Netflix originals like “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards” did. But that is not the case.

Based on the 2012 horror thriller novel by Brian McGreevy, the Netflix thriller does more showing than telling. It’s as if the creators expected everyone to read the book prior watching the series.
There is so many things wrong with the series that it’s hard to enjoy the simplicity that is Netflix. You want to be able to veg out and binge watch the show but you simply can’t. You have to take the show in doses. It’s not that the show is mentally stimulating, it’s just that there is so much going one has to stop and ask “WTF is going on?”

The reason “Supernatural” excels in the horror thriller genre is because they have mastered the cold open. You get the bloody death before the opening credits. You get the “what just happened” factor right away. You don’t get attached to the victim and at all you get the first piece of the puzzle and follow the heroes on their journey to find the killer.

Hemlock Grove does not do that. The pilot episode feels like a Parisian short film that just won’t end. The shows looks as if the it is shot using a Instagram filter which does not help the show at all. Take the pilot for example. There is no dialogue for the first 6 minutes of the show, just lost pouty looks from various actors. Like the director instructed the actors to think of what the meaning of life was and just filmed away.

The next scene we are shown is a sex scene between the one of the main characters Roman Godfrey played by Bill Skarsgard and some random harlot. The scene takes place in the middle of the day and in the front seat of Godfrey’s car- it’s too small for them to do it in the back. While the girl is jumping and down and moaning wildly Godfrey pulls out a straight edge razor. You think he’s going to harm the girl but he cuts his own thumb and draws a heart on the girls shoulder. Again, WTF is going on? Oddly enough this does not freak the harlot out, she likes it.

By time the actual killing takes place, you don’t care even though you’re supposed to. The victim is supposed to be a sexy high school student who apparently is part of a lesbian Mary Kay Letourneau relationship. That relationship is never explored or mentioned ever again.

The kill sequence is actually shot beautifully, but there is no real emotion behind it. You know the girl is going to die. She does a poor job of trying to save herself. She runs into a cramped storage shed with only one way in or out. Instead of trying to conceal her hiding space she cries and squeals alerting whoever or whatever to hiding place. Whatever is after her rips open the door to her “sanctuary” and begins to do something to her lower half. The victim screams are quickly ended though the creature is still having fun with its meal.

The body is discovered the next day in a “Law an Order” fashion and so the hunt for the killer begins. It’s too bad that you’ll most likely give up on the show before the truth is uncovered.

If you choose to stick around you will be rewarded with one of the most innovation werewolf transformations scenes. As if the visual effects crew took a page from NBC’s Hannibal, the transformation is disgusting, gag inducing yet beautifully fulfilling. It is not everyday that you get to see a “teenager” shed his human skin, bones, intestines, and eyes and transform into a ferocious yet passive wolf. You also get to see the werewolf eat his human remains. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNieysjSZW4 (Preview) >

There are few if any scenes in the series that is quite as rewarding as the transformation, the show somehow managed a season two pick up as well as a Emmy nomination. Forecast for season two seem bright as there will be cast shake ups, additions, and a shorter season. Expected to resume sometime in 2014, viewers will have to wait to see if these changes make a difference.