[7.8/10] Now that’s more like it! To be frank, this one is a little tidy, with the show jumping back and forth between the past and the present to show how some event in Shirley’s history informed her actions in the here and now. But you know what? It works.
Part of that is just the performance of Elizabeth Reaser, who finds so many layers to Shirley, how she is both loving and unforgiving, gentle but firm, rational but also marked by emotional experiences. She sells a lot of character work that might seem hacky in other hands through sheer force of will.
This episode also benefits from focusing on one character and her particular journey. It uses Shirley as a conduit to explore things in other characters at times -- whether its her parents debating how to do introduce her to death, or the difficulties of treatment with her brother Luke, or the tension with Steven over his career as a writer -- but for the most part it centers on Shirley and that gives the episode a clarity that was missing from the last one.
Again, the metaphors and parallels are pretty on the nose, but I honestly like the continuing vignette about her finding a collection of five kittens, having to see them perish, and exploring the way that framed her view of dying. Despite it being a little overly tidy, I like the juxtaposition of a mortician helping her cope with her own mother’s death and her being impressed at how he “fixed her,” and the way that translates to her doing the same for the little boy whose grandmother died in the present day. And I like the show doing the opposite as well -- showing how upset she was when her mom lied to her about death and what it means, and so resolving to be more honest with her own kid.
At the same time, Shirley’s absorbed a lot of her mother’s lessons, whether it’s her mom decorating the kitten shoebox casket to make it meaningful which connects with Shirley telling her own son to decorate his Halloween mask rather than buying it at the store, or accepting her mom’s reassurance that eulogies and how we lay someone to rest create stories that help preserve them and let them live on, teaching her the importance of how we mourn and memorialize that makes her inclined and sentimental about her business. Again, much of the “this is what makes Shirley tick” material is very neat, but it’s also effective, and I appreciate the well-considered psychology of it even if the jumps back and forth in time could be accused of being too direct.
That said, two episodes in and the horror elements are still pretty underwhelming. Granted, it’s hard to complain about a TV budget, but details like the demon cat or the bugs crawling out of cats’/humans’ mouths were conspicuous CGI that took me out of the moment. And even bits like the banging on the wall or the corpse situp at the end of the episode feel like pretty stock scares that haven’t done much to move me one way or another. I’m not one of those “the horror movie is no good if it doesn't actually scare you” people, but it feels like The Haunting of Hill House is trying to be scary in certain scenes and failing, when it’s surprisingly better off as more of a straight family drama in the early going.
I do like the sense of regret and shock and mourning that pervades the episode. The splicing of Shirley putting makeup on Nellie on her wedding day and at her funeral is an affecting one, and it feels like an understandable moment of Shirley trying to protect her sister at one point in time, and regretting it at another. That’s the best thing about this one -- the way it draws contrasts between the past and present while making both feel comprehensible.
Overall, this one is a serious improvement on the pilot episode, and hopefully portends more individual-focused, character developing installments to come.
Shirley has been through so much.
It's really interesting how they show parts of their childhood, it seems like all of them have experienced a lot of drama and not so normal situations.
So far, so good.
Underwhelming so far featuring bland characters. Hopefully things will start picking up soon given the ripe setting.
"We're all stories in the end"
The first episode, though slowly paced, had a nice creepy vibe going on throughout the whole episode. This one, on the other hand, was just slow and boring to watch.
It’s losing my interest now. Very slow paced.
A Shirley centered episode. There are enough kids to keep this interesting. And if they all go through as much character building as in this one, that will be a great job. We get everything. Childhood trauma leading to her current job, the different relationships with her siblings, how she try to cope. That's a real great job here.
The relationship to death, specially for kids is also very well treated here. Shirley with the kittens, and her mother, but also with her kids, and her customers. And obviously with her sister and the way she insist on handling Nell's corpse is also part of it. But wow, how fucked up is it to insist so much on doing this job on your own sister !
"Do you know what I'm doing right now ? I'm elbow-deep in our sister's chest cavity pulling out a bag of her internal organs" Epic quote !
Also a nice parallel on her doing make up both for her sister's wedding and funeral.
As expected, already sign of the mother going crazy. Migrains, sure. And that the Dudleys know very well you shouldn't be there after dark.
Elizabeth Reaser's acting was a force of nature here, she's such a good actress, Lulu's Wilson also great, but not in that way. I love how the children counterparts fits so well with the adults characters, we can see clearly that right at the beginning. I can't understand the hate with this episode. I think was stunning and powerful. The camera work and color grading still impressive, of course this deserves a emmy WINNING, not just a nomination. The written ins't completely perfect here, but the execution makes this perfect, and the edition too. Shirley's character for me, is the most interesting character of the show, just behind of Eleanor & Liv and is on par with Luke. I love this episode, because we all know Shirley's passion with the death, it all about stories, we are stories, and this is life, this is beauty, and our story after death, it's our legacy.
Such a dull, slow episode, nearly broke the skip button on every scene. giving it one more chance! sigh
This episode primarily focused on Shirley and her impacting life events. It's interesting seeing how her childhood experiences drove her to adulthood and deciding to be a mortician.
This outing focuses on the eldest Crain daughter, Shirley. It's only appropriate that one of the Crain kids would end up in the funeral business, but the genesis of her future career path is a sad one. In the end, I found the young Shirley to be considerably more appealing and humane than her colder, elder self. We also get our first real sense that Mama Crain ain't all well in the head. The show is slowly ratcheting up the suspense and horror and I'm fine with it so far, but I can see why some folks who want quicker gratification might be wanting to see things start moving faster.
2/10
Terrible
Noway should I
have to grind through
a season 1 episode 2
like that, man that was
some boring shit right
there. With so many
kids and 8 episodes left
if every episode devotes
that much screen time
to each character well
that leaves nothing
left for the Horror and
the scares and that's just
bull-shit.
To much family drama
for me, this is not what
I signed up for.
this episode just dragged
on and on and on
and went absolutely nowhere.
It's got 2 more episodes
for some shit to go down
and if this is the best
it has to offer upto
episode 4 then that's
me done I'll tap-out on
that and it's straight
over to "AHS".
bugs crawling out of mouths is not an aesthetic im into
The thing continues well, for now, we continue to see.
Another dull episode only with dead kittens!
Shout by Jim222001VIP 6BlockedParent2018-10-17T23:20:45Z
Mostly disturbing and sad in this one. If you saw any Horror movies, you know the pets aren’t safe.