i thought nothing would screw with my emotions the way Hill House did... but here we are two years later and The Haunting of Bly Manor has officially done it. i actually think i liked this one better than Hill House to be honest (although i do feel like i need to revisit that again soon, it’s been a while). Hill House was very good at creepiness and jump scares while still managing to maintain a complex and beautiful story. Bly Manor, while very unsettling and yes, creepy, was such a beautiful love story that had so many layers and dimensions to it that it could’ve easily become too muddled in the wrong hands. however, Mike Flanagan makes it look so easy that i’m actually a little envious of his writing ability. while both of these stories are truly some special pieces of television, something about Bly Manor really struck a chord in me and the last episode really got the tears flowing. i really cared about every single character in this, even the more “villainous” (i use this word loosely as it’s not so clear cut in the story) characters like Peter and Viola, which is just a testament to how well this whole project was written. the eighth/second to last episode took a big creative jump from the others and it was one of the best episodes of television i’ve seen in ages. honestly i can’t say anything bad about this at all, just watch it and see for yourself. it’s very true that netflix produces a lot of trash, but this is the type of thing i keep my netflix subscription for.