After an au pair’s tragic death, Henry hires a young American nanny to care for his orphaned niece and nephew who reside at Bly Manor with the chef Owen, groundskeeper Jamie and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose.
Bly Manor stands completely on its own, offering many of the same thrills, chills, and, yes, frustrations of Hill House without requiring anyone to have watched the earlier series.
More sadness that horror, Bly Manor never reaches the highs of Hill House, but achieves its own strengths through a heartfelt story about love, guilt and overcoming sins of the past. [Full review in Spanish]
In its attempt to escape the shadow of Hill House, Bly Manor takes a misguided pivot into gothic soap opera, stranding its performers and fans in the process.
The Haunting of Bly Manor, in the end, is a bittersweet love story about haunted people which happens to take place inside a haunted house. You'll cry. You'll be scared. And you'll cry for more. Mike Flanagan has done it again.
Much more of a thrill than a fright, Flanagan unravels another tragic tale that, although not as tightly wound with its structure as Hill House, is another rich, intoxicating piece of storytelling.
I'm all for patient storytelling, asking the audience to do a little work to get to the payoff. But "The Haunting of Bly Manor" takes that to extremes. Patience is a virtue. Here it's a chore.
