The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)

[Tale]

A modernised combination of Edgar Allan Poe's works by Mike Flanagan (Haunting of Hill House, Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club).

Midnight Mass is one of my favourite things ever (I went in knowing nothing about the show or Flanagan and was totally immersed). This one is all from Poe source material, so although it took me a month to realise it was released I binged it in 24 hours.

I was thrown out regularly by a few too many tie-ins to current events such as the opioid epidemic, Trump stuff in a key scene, writers' strike talk "One day robots will write TV and movie scripts" "Nah, they'll do it badly", and some wooden acting in the first episode, but I was soon back into it.

The casting and acting and major scenes were top-notch as always, but for me this was a 7/10 on the Mike Flanagan scale. Too much self-indulgence mixed with the brilliance, but still better than most of what's out there. Hope that is kept in check for the next.