Hemlock Grove

A while back I saved this article on Netflix’s approach to releasing all of the House of Cards episodes at one time, instead of one each week, per the traditional TV format. The article goes on to discuss the habit of “binge-viewing” television shows.

I am so guilty of this, and I might even go so far as to say that it’s one of my favorite pastimes. I love watching full seasons of television shows in one go, instead of having it drawn out over months and months. The best is when Mat and I find a show we like and can rent the past seasons. The worst part is catching up and having to go back to waiting each week.

The article talks about “hoarding” shows, or purposely waiting until a season (or even entire series!) is complete before watching, to decrease the down time between episodes. As much as I prefer this method of viewing, I am way too impatient to hold off on something that I know I can get right away. It is also kind of nice to have something to look forward to, because it does suck when you near the end and know you don’t have any more episodes to watch.

Our most recent “binge” was Netflix’s second series, Hemlock Grove. 

Ugh. Not enough good things to say (from me—many critics seem to disagree) about this show. I was instantly hooked, if only because I had no clue what was going on. But this confusion continued to pique my interest all the way until the end, and I started to really develop a relationship with the characters. The show kind of reminds me of a mix between True Blood (vampires, werewolves) and American Horror Story (plenty of wtf-ery). The male vampire character is actually True Blood’s Eric’s (Alexander Skarsgard) real-life brother, and it’s funny because the resemblance is prominent in the show, even just in their mannerisms.

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I think fans of the supernatural horror genre will enjoy it, but I do wonder if I would have loved it as much had I watched it on a week-to-week basis. I think I still would have loved it but something about immersing yourself into a show like that really affects me emotionally. I tend to get overly excited and obsessive about things I enjoy, so kind of hard to separate yourself from the fiction, at least to a small extent.

We started watching Dexter after the fourth season had aired, and watched all four seasons in under two weeks. If you’ve seen the show, you know how the fourth season ends, and after thinking about nothing but Dexter during that time, that scene hit us hard. I was depressed all the next day, ha. You feel like you start to know and understand these people.

It’s funny because I never really consider myself a big TV person, but that’s really pretty far from the truth. I never watch TV just for the sake of watching it – if I am bored, I am on my laptop. But when it comes to making the effort to watch specific shows, I have a long list.

Okay, now that you are all starting to get a little bit worried about my TV-viewing habits, I’ll say also that the music in Hemlock Grove is phenomenal. I can’t stop listening to playlists inspired the show (http://8tracks.com/explore/hemlock_grove). Excellent.

Anyway. If you aren’t too busy actually living a real life and need some way to spend 13 hours (and you have Netflix), definitely check out Hemlock Grove (and let me know what you think).

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Thanks for reading, I’m thinking in hindsight this will be pretty embarrassing ;)