Hemlock Grove
Created by Brian McGreevy (based on his novel)
Original run 2012- Present
I’m a little ashamed to admit how obsessed I’ve become with Hemlock Grove. The show is so ridiculous, over the top, bizarre, it’s the farthest you can get from subtle and frankly at times it’s not that great but for the life of me I can’t stop watching.
Based on the densely written Brian McGreevy novel of the same name, Hemlock Grove biggest inspiration shows like Twin Peaks, except there is a gothic quality to Hemlock. Taking place in the relatively small Pennsylvania town of Hemlock Grove it’s a complicated story centering on the town’s rather unusual problems. For one thing teenage girls keep turning up dead from what looks like extremely violent animal attacks. There’s the popular girl who says she’s been impregnated by an angel and a giant, severely deformed girl who they call glowworm.
The story takes off when teenage gypsy Peter Rumancek (Landon Liboiron) who happens to be a werewolf teams up with lonely rich boy Roman Godfrey (Bill Skarsgard- Alexander’s brother who he shares the same pout and disgustingly good looks with). Roman’s mother Olivia (Famke Janssen) is controlling and hiding a few big secrets, chief among them her affair with her brother in law and Roman’s uncle Norman (the always welcome Dougray Scott).
The story only get’s more twisted and bloody from here. The thing about Hemlock Grove is that for every insane eye roll inducing moment, every little twist in the story or Famke Janssen’s spotty “British” accent I kept getting sucked back in for two reasons. For starters the plot just kept dragging me in. Every time I exclaimed “why am I watching this!” I’d find myself a few hours later clicking on Netflix to watch the next episode.
Hemlock Grove also benefits from a great look. Everything look’s like it was filmed in the moonlight with an eerie and fitting grayish blue glow. The atmosphere lends itself perfectly to an unnatural and unnerving story. At it’s core, elements of Hemlock Grove are deeply disturbing, taking well worn horror plot lines (vampires, werewolves and medical experimentation all play a role), twisting them up and spitting them out into something rather new and exciting. Roman and Peter’s unexpected friendship was also a standout from the entire season.
It was that potential that had me coming back. Particularly in episodes 4, 12, and 13. It was towards the end of the season that kinks started to get worked out and I started to see just how good this show could really get, especially in it’s upcoming second season. I’ll certainly be back for more of Hemlock Grove.
Tressa Eckermann