'The Fall of the House of Usher'

I don't always watch 'quality' television shows. I watch pretty B-grade stuff and often, I whoosh through shows just for fun. I'm not so much of a film buff. When I started on Netflix loose adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 1839 'The Fall of the House of Usher', I was hooked within twenty minutes of Episode 1. I binged it. Apparently this isn't a B-grade series. Heh. This 2023 show directed by Mike Flanagan and Michael Fimognari. The show premiered on October 12 and I rushed to finish the eight episodes over the weekend.

Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite 18th century writers. While he might be seriously dodgy (how do you marry a 13-year-old cousin, although they stayed married for 11 years till her death) and can never find enough money to feed or clothe himself or his wife, enough time has passed for me to split his person from his writing, considering the ills of the 18th century. He is so good with the macabre and mysteries. 

Bruce Greenwood plays the titular role of Roderick Usher. Carl Lumbley plays his nemesis, C. Auguste Dupin. Madeline Usher is played by Mary McDonnell. Carla Gugino plays the supernatural entity Verna. While this show is ultimate made for today's television audiences, it still takes a lot of inspiration from the original story. The whole Netflix show alludes to the different characters and scenes in Edgar Allan Poe's stories, especially those from 'Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque' (1840). The name Fortunato itself is already another Poe reference. Then there's the raven. Of course. Nevermore. The Ligodone produced by Fortunato Pharmaceuticals in this show mirrors the real world painkiller Oxycodone.  

Everybody wants to know how Roderick Usher's six adult children died one after the other over two weeks in this show. Readers wouldn't know how this film script will pan out, and would be willing to wait, even though this isn't a true adaptation of the printed word. Still, we can't move away from the same themes. This show is all about karmic retribution and original sin. There's selfishness, but is there regret? And is there redemption?

I like how the directors transposed this show from the 18th century into 1970s to 2023. It's got a great script and lines, good acting, delightful editing and post-production. It's a good one. It reminds me why AI can't do the jobs of actors or scriptwriters. I wasn't even sure I should giggle at Vanity Fair's review titled 'The Fall of the House of Usher' Makes Gothic Horror of the Sackler Family. 

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The series is not an exercise in subtlety. Flanagan is, as ever, enamored of a long and literate monologue, of a gnarly death sequence, of grand emotional brushstrokes. House of Usher is a heavy show, stuffed to the gills with morbid humor and gloomy pathos, political allusions jumbled together with myriad pop culture references. The series is, in its eight-episode run, sometimes an exhausting sit. Yet it’s engrossing throughout, shifting from the gothic to the baroque as miserable punishment befalls each Usher—one by bloody one.