Article originally written for Seat42F.
Netflix’s HEMLOCK GROVE, the popular but critically derided
supernatural drama, returns tomorrow for a second, shorter season on the
streaming service. Season two, which will consist of ten episodes, picks up a
few months after the events of season one. Events conspire to bring Peter
Rumancek (Landon Liboiron) back to the town of Hemlock Grove and into its
scary, dangerous mess once more. Who will make it out alive this time?
HEMLOCK GROVE is a creepy and bloody place to live. Even
though our heroes manage to take down a serial killer previously, the premiere
this year opens with a new deadly menace. It might be a little hard to swallow
another mass murderer in the same place, but then, it’s also apparent that HEMLOCK
GROVE attracts the odd types, given the cast of players already in place. This
is one area where belief must be suspended for the course of the series, as
each subsequent batch of installments will likely present much the same.
It is welcome that HEMLOCK GROVE gets right back to the linchpin
stories right after that first scene. Shelley (Nicole Boivin) is still missing,
but she is far from forgotten. Norman (Dougray Scott) is continuing to mourn
his daughter, Letha (Penelope Mitchell), who died in childbirth, and Olivia’s
(Famke Janssen) absence from her big house is definitely felt. More
importantly, Roman (Bill Skarsgard) continues to feel abandoned by Peter’s
swift departure, and it will take no small amount of repair work if they are to
be friends again.
And friends again, it seems they must be. After all, who
else is going to stop the killing? Peter’s mother, Lynda (Lili Taylor, still
woefully a ‘guest star’) needs their help, too, in the arc that brings Peter
back to the area. Besides, while Peter has others to lean on to assist him,
Roman does not, and Roman seems much less capable of coping through the tough
times by himself, though he’s definitely been trying in the gap between
seasons.
The relationship between Roman and Peter is key to HEMLOCK
GROVE. It is shattered at the end of season one, but I’m hopeful, despite a
very rocky beginning in the return, that they can fix things. They are unlikely
pals from completely different worlds and with overlapping, but not completely
consistent, values. They make for an interesting dynamic, and Roman’s latent
homosexual tendencies only make the sparks dance higher. Whether they ever
become a couple (doubtful) or not, they need to come back together with a
stronger bond that cannot be broken this time. That, or they will become
arch-nemeses, which feels like a much less original way to go to me.
Fans of the series will remember that of the six main
characters listed in the opening credits, all three women were presumed dead at
the close of the first year. One of those three has been widely reported in the
press to be retaining her full-time presence, though I won’t say which one,
just in case you don’t already know. Filling the other two slots are two
recurring players, Destiny Rumancek (Tiio Horn) and Dr. Johann Pryce (Joel de
la Fuente), both established presences earning promotions in the sophomore run,
and good choices to make up for the loss of the others.
HEMLOCK GROVE is popcorn fare, to be sure, lacking real
depth in the characters and more concerned with moving rapidly from one event
to the next than providing growth or making you think. However, it is entertaining,
enjoyable, good fun. The writers are clever enough to surprise us, including
with a big twist involving a familiar face late in the second season premiere.
All of this makes for a pace that is never boring, and by avoiding a lot of the
vampire and werewolf clichés, taking older legends as the source material instead
of pop culture, it doesn’t feel tired or repetitive of others in the genre.
HEMLOCK GROVE’s entire second season will be available
tomorrow exclusively on Netflix.
Fun Fact: This review is exactly 666 words, and that happened purely by chance.
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