The Haunting of Bly Manor

Bly Manor might not be scary but it certainly sticks in your brain long after it’s over, because stories—like houses, like people—don’t have to horrify to be haunting.

The nice thing is it pretty much works. Oh, there’s a great deal of silliness and some false notes — it is a ghost story, after all and some explanations add up while others just drift away. But in the end “Bly Manor” dares to make at least some sense (which is likely blasphemy to Henry James fanatics).

“The Haunting of Bly Manor” feels like a natural follow-up to “Hill House” in the sense that it’s from a creator who has used the success of the first project to make something that’s intrinsically less eager to please, but that also makes it less thrilling. The immediate stakes of the first project are gone, but they’re replaced by something that’s still valuable and arguably more haunting.

Some pointed and strategic tonal shifts throughout the series’ nine episodes also help keep the pace from flagging, though I’d argue that nine episodes was a few too many. Conversely, given proper attention, the series’ climax could have been significantly expanded and dramatized.

While Hill House excelled in its early, grounded episodes before devolving into chaos at the end, Bly Manor only gets going in a second half that, despite some distractingly soapy twists, thrives on productive confusion. And it offers a more satisfying conclusion than the first season.

The Haunting Of Bly Manor is entertaining to watch even during the times it’s not trying to scare the audience, and that’s something that not many horror series can do.

This Haunting is often a blast, even if I wish the storyteller (whose identity is a spoiler) had sustained a bit more mystery. [12 - 25 Oct 2020, p.8]

Once the circle completes itself, the whole thing feels richer than it sometimes does in parts, even if Flanagan, like our narrator, easily could have told this story in a more compact form.

The Haunting of Bly Manor is an entertaining and evocative followup to Hill House, despite never quite reaching the heights of its predecessor.