The bulk of the reviews seem to have this polarized Mike Flannagan hate going on. So you can really write off half the reviews. If you havent liked Flannagan's work, why are you people watching it?
What you need to know, is that this is a homage to all of Poe's work. Rating it poorly because it isn't a prevoius remake, seems extremely short sighted.
By now you've read the story is set around the house of Usher. Like many of Flannagan's stories, they are designed to be end to end stories. Which is what I prefer. The Usher house hold is the story of rich people, greed, and overall evil people.
Many people cite the parallels of Succession, and they feel like it's underwhelming by comparison. I, however, do not. I actually don't like Succession. Just like many of HBO's series they are drawn out wwwwaaaayyyy to long. This is not. You get what you get for the 8 episodes.
Mike gets a lot of the actors he continues to work with,and Carla Gugino absolutely kills it in this role. She uses a myriad of accents, and makes the central theme of the series take on a life of it's own.
Many persons point to predictability in the plot, but if you've read The Raven, or any of Poe's other works you'll know how things are going to go down. This is a homage again. Looking for something new and exciting other than story telling and visuals will set you up for disappointment.
