TV Review: The Fall of the House of Usher

So normally I wouldn't write a blog post about something I'd watched - I watch even more than I read so I'd be here forever and never actually get any of my own writing done! But in this case I felt that I could make an exception, especially since Mike Flanagan's 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (just arrived on Netflix) is based on the works of one of my favourite writers and poets, Edgar Allan Poe.

I won't go into details as I don't want to drop spoilers, but now that I've watched it all I'll just give you a quick rundown of my thoughts.

That. Was. SUPERB.

Beautiful visuals, excellent use of the original stories to weave an overarching tale - as with the previous two series, the original work is used as a jumping-off point rather than trying to stay accurate to the work. The integration of lines of Poe's poems and stories isn't always seamless, as Poe had a very distinctive style, but it gave me so much joy.

I particularly liked how they dropped hints at how each character was going to die before it happened, so when it does you're watching it with this feeling of inevitability, which was a big thing of Poe's. And of course there was Flanagan's trademark of things happening in the background that you don't always see right away...

And the finale was spectacular. 'The Raven' is my favourite ever poem and 'The Fall of the House of Usher' is one of my favourite short stories, and I'm not going to spoil anything, but there was attention to detail in there that made me literally applaud with happiness.

So good. You don't need to like Poe to enjoy or understand it, but if you do I think you'll get a whole other level of joy.