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The finale’s payoff also cleverly drives home the message that those genre-spurred frustrations are pointedly there so we didn’t forget that this is a story about a woman who is ignored. It also comes with some brilliant one-liners (“You can’t ever get rid of mental illness. That shit is like glitter,” Joan says in the premiere episode) and comes with a stacked cast of character actresses.
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All in all, it’s a great season of TV. Thanks to the performances and a sharp look at intergenerational trauma through a horror-comedy lens, Shining Vale’s return is sinister, fun, and hilarious.
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Pat’s psychiatric facility, with its generically inky green light, screaming patients strapped to gurneys, and generally depressing air is pretty over the top, and a house creaking in its joints and beckoning people through suddenly open doors doesn’t really grab us. It’s almost like Shining Vale needs to go for the horror jugular first, before it integrates its solid jokes and noteworthy themes.