The Fall of the House of Usher
When I first watched The Haunting of Hill House I realized that for the first time an adaptation got the source material. Not that it was actually a direct adaptation of Shirley Jackson's work. It was reinterpreted and remolded and what Mike Flanagan did was create a series that is in the spirit of the original and a loving tribute to it while being its own thing. It was the start of his Netflix empire, the Flanaverse. And the start of his "house" series. Because audiences adored The Haunting of Hill House and were demanding more. More of Mike Flanagan's unique take on classic literature. More spooky tales in amazing structures. They got their wish two years later with The Haunting of Bly Manor, an adaptation that actually made me no longer hate The Turn of the Screw. And that lead to speculation, what was next? He threw us for a loop when it turned out to be an original show followed by another adaptation without architecture but with amazing sets, but thankfully, he came to his senses and decided that after Shirley Jackson and Henry James he was bringing Edgar Allan Poe into the Flanaverse with The Fall of the House of Usher. And unlike The Haunting of Bly Manor he didn't even have to change the title! So he assembled his stable of actors, adding in Frank Langella, which turned out to be a massive mistake, and got to work. What I marvel at with this adaptation is how Mike Flanagan created a narrative that not only encompassed so many works by Poe but also was such a showcase for his actors with each of the six Usher children getting their own deadly tale. And yet, for all the Poe, this is something more, this is a story about greed, this is a story about the opioid crisis in America, this is a story that someone who doesn't know anything about Poe could watch and enjoy. Because while the "Poe" of it all is wonderful for the literary geeks out there hoping they'll do this or that, or in my case chanting for monkey carnage, this is more about a family falling apart because they made a deal with the devil. This show is, without doubt, based on the Sackler family. They owned Purdue Pharma and were a cornerstone if not the cornerstone of the opioid crisis we now face. There are so many films and television shows and documentaries on them, two, Painkiller and Pain Hustlers, also done by Netflix. Though Dopesick probably got the most attention and awards. These are all shows I avoided like the plague in "The Masque of the Red Death." I like escapism in my entertainment, not to wallow in human suffering. Even if I will admit it's very important shows like this are made. We need a record of what happened. But here, here we have the same evil told through a fantastical lens, and the fantasy aspects make the truth of what this family is doing all the more horrifying. But unlike lawsuits and the striping of a family's legacy, here we see them pay more viscerally for their crimes. The character of Verna, an anagram of Raven, has appeared to the Ushers because the time has come to pay the piper. And yes, that might just be "The Rains of Castamere" the piper is playing. Yet if you notice, for the "innocent" among the Ushers, she offers them a chance at redemption. Those who are not fully evil are given an out, a chance to not go there, and time and time again, they show that their greed, their villainy, is the true drive in their lives, and therefore they must die. This show is cathatic and wonderful and dark and perfectly encapsulates the human condition and as for Frank Langella? He couldn't have done what Bruce Greenwood does. Bruce Greenwood is Roderick Usher.
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
After seeing the amazing interpretation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House that Mike Flanagan pulled off I was beyond excited for The Haunting of Bly Manor. And this was only approximately 79% to do with Rahul Kohli being cast. OK, it was probably closer to 100% because I am not a fan of The Turn of the Screw like I am with The Haunting of Hill House, but that's why this adaptation is so perfect, it made me like The Turn of the Screw and the other stories by Henry James that were incorporated. This miniseries turned a bleak tale of possible madness into a love story. And not just a single love story either! There are many couples to ship here. In fact this show might have healed and broken my heart simultaneously. If someone were to say to me "it's you, it's me, it's us" I would probably break down sobbing right this second. Yet this phrase which comes to mean so much about the power of love started out menacing. That's what's amazing here. The way the story unfolds. What was one thing becomes another and another and everything you think you knew keeps changing. This is a miniseries that could easily be rewatched the second you finish it just to fill in the gaps you might have missed. The one thing I found odd when reading reviews of what people have dubbed the second season of Mike Flanagan's "Haunting" series is that so many people took exception to the penultimate episode shot in black and white, "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes." This episode set centuries earlier explains how Bly Manor came to be the haunted place it is with Mike Flanagan's wife, Kate Siegel, Theo from The Haunting of Hill House, taking center stage. This episode is lyrical and perfectly paced. There are phrases that come back to me again and again while thinking about this show. "She would sleep, she would wake, she would walk." And while yes, this could be a way to explain all our lives during quarantine and it's repetitive nature, it also taps into the broken record aspect of a haunting. How ghosts are just reliving the same moments over and over again which is why the penultimate episode is crucial! This show is time loops and the supernatural and true love all mashed up together and all I have to say is more!
One night back in undergrad two of my friends and I decided to go rent a movie. Remember video stores? Full of all those wonderful films yet somehow kind of grubby. We were walking from Rivendell (no really, my friend Matt lived in a big purple housing co-op named Rivendell) to the local video store a few blocks away. On the way there we found over $20 in cash on the ground that some drunk college student had obviously dropped. So dinner and a movie was on said drunk college student who was probably pissed in more ways than one when they found out. Four Star Video was known for it's rather indie pics. You could find basically anything there that was offbeat. After much toing and froing we decided on the Ethan Hawke/Kyle MacLachlan version of Hamlet and The Turn of the Screw, because Colin Firth. I'm not sure how far we got into Hamlet before it was ejected, but could have been twenty minutes could have been a thousand years. And that, my friends, is why you always rent two movies when you go out in case one is an absolute stinking pile of shit. Well, we didn't fair that well with The Turn of the Screw either. None of us had actually read the story, so we were all unprepared for the whole evil wins ending. What's more, and in fact more to the point of why it failed to meet our expectations is that Colin Firth was in the first five minutes and then never seen again. That's false advertising that is putting his name first! And yes, after this debacle my friends said I should pay them for having to sit through videos dubbed my choices... but they were free! And more importantly we did put it to a vote! But looking back, while The Turn of the Screw isn't my favorite ghost story out there this is the best direct adaptation there is, because at least they didn't throw in a weird insane asylum/murder conviction plotline like the 2009 version with Michelle Dockery did. So if you're looking for a faithful adaptation of The Turn of the Screw you can't go wrong with Jodhi May and Pam Ferris who are superb actors, but if you're looking for the best adaptation out there check out The Haunting of Bly Manor instead. 
