A common source of praise for narratives is their unpredictability. It can be great fun when a story takes a turn that you didn’t expect and reinvents itself in the process! However, if these turns are not substantiated with foreshadowing, thematic relevance, and solid reasoning, they can often wreck a perfectly fine screenplay. In that sense, I respect The Fall of the House of Usher greatly for its predictability. Mike Flanagan knows you know more or less how each episode will go down: an Usher will succumb to their worst traits and die a brutal death while we learn a bit more about how their dynasty was built. He doesn’t try to one-up himself each episode with confusing, jaw-dropping twists that muddle his story. Instead, he focuses on crafting an engaging narrative that is thematically satisfying and ridiculously entertaining. And for the most part, he succeeds! The Fall of the House of Usher is a spookily good time that knows exactly what it is and plays to its strengths.

The show begins and ends with horror-infused sequences that are less terrifying than they are fascinating. While I wasn’t hooked on the show initially, the opening bits of horror intrigued me and made me fascinated about what kind of story this series would tell. Though the scariest elements of the show are some of its most delightful, what actually got me invested in this story were the family dynamics and the implicit hilarity that came along with them! Watching this hateful, entitled family destroy each other and themselves provided me with an inexplicable amount of joy. And really, the horror element of the show that perhaps works the best is the one found in this family’s core: there are people who exist that are this self-involved, this monstrous, and this unwilling to change. Every episode’s ending feels like karmic justice, and you can’t help but feel satisfied at the show’s most gruesome deaths. While it’s difficult to not be a bit sympathetic to the Ushers, since they are monsters partially because of the way they were raised, as Carla Gugino’s enthralling manifestation of consequence puts it: “that’s still no fucking excuse”. Each Usher’s brutal death is a direct result of the choices they made. Had they been better people, they could have died like good people. But the eventual fate of the Ushers has been sealed from the start, from the genesis of their success, from the very title of the show. Because the teleplay fully understands the gothic themes, the distinct tone, and the satirical nature of the story Mike Flanagan aims to tell, it remains consistently impactful and engrossing throughout. 

The ensemble of The Fall of the House of Usher similarly grasps the unique style the show has invented for itself, as each performance reflects the mix of parody, authenticity, and evil necessary for the series to sustain itself for 8 episodes. That being said, there are standouts. The aforementioned Carla Gugino chews up every single line she has and manages to be deeply haunting as the embodiment of fate: whether she’s mimicking a chimpanzee or portraying a country bumpkin, she makes each of the “roles” her character plays feel entirely her own while dominating every scene she is in. Bruce Greenwood plays the Usher patriarch with every ounce of magnitude that you’d expect and pounds of heartache and regret that you probably didn’t. Meanwhile, Kate Siegel is clearly having the most fun out of anyone, playing the deliciously insincere Camille with so much commitment and enthusiasm that you almost wish she wasn’t doomed to die so we could have her for longer. The rest of the cast is fantastic whether they’re frequent or first-time Flanagan collaborators because of how well they fit into the specific style The Fall of the House of Usher is going for, only adding to its hilarity, horror, and heartbreak.

There isn’t much to criticize about this show, as it is consistently great from beginning to end. The pacing could have been a bit tighter, and some of the characters could have been a bit more memorable, but it’s difficult to outright say anything this show does wrong. But while The Fall of the House of Usher is a dependable show, it never quite exceeds expectations or rises to become something truly excellent. It is solid and entertaining, but I wish it had elevated itself to be something standout. As it is, it is a wonderful show that is very assured of its identity and knows exactly what it wants to do. But it never goes the extra degree, never has that show-stopping moment, and thus never becomes an essential show the way some of Flanagan’s other projects are. It’s a lovely thing if your show’s only issue is that it’s not a defining show of the year, but for a series that does so much right, it’s a shame that it can’t quite reach the heights of less refined but more impactful shows this year. It didn’t have to be unpredictable, as its predictability led to some of this show’s greatest strengths, but it would have been wonderful if it had had more staying power.

8/10