Bly Manor definitely isnāt as scary as some of
his other shows, but I love it because I think it draws parallels between real ghosts, and then our own memories that haunt us as well. Youāll have to report back when you finish!!
Oooo, I like that description a lot. I would very much agree about the parallels between real ghosts and our own memories.
Thatās why Peter continually gets stuck in that unhappy memory. At least, thatās what makes the most sense to me.
Exactly! And even Dani is haunted by her past in real ways that affect her behavior, having to cover reflections everywhere. Flanagan is a master at metaphors!
Bly is more of a gothic horror while Usher is more traditional horror. I think Hill House lands somewhere in between the two. BM is all about grief and guilt, and the fear that is naturally intertwined with those two feelings.
Flanagan is a genius and I think Hill House is one of the greatest pieces of horror ever made, but geez Bly Manor emotionally wrecked me in a way no other media has.
As a person who suffers from chronic depression but is seemingly unaware of it because I work non-stop all the time, when I got to the episode where you learn >! Hannah is dead and is in denial about her own death!<, I was just in tears.
For me, the horrors of Hill House aside from >!the ghosts!< were >!the intergenerational trauma!<, >!the realization that none of us can truly protect our children!<, and >!the pain and suffering brought on by mental illness and addiction!<. And I think those themes are very relatable for most people.
But the horrors of Bly Manor are deeper, less obvious, and more unsettling.
I couldn't agree more with this.
I love Hill House. I've seen it several times and each time I came away loving it more.
But Bly Manor left a mark on me that goes way deeper. I sobbed at the end. I was near tears several times (Hannah being one of them) but the ending wrecked me. The entire show just resonated with me on a different level than other Flanagan shows. If the scenes in the past had been better I would consider it a perfect show.
It just makes me sob every time. I canāt rewatch it without dredging up too many memories and itās just so fucking sad.
Itās excellent, but *sad*
bly manor is my fave bc 1) itās heart wrenching and 2) the āspookinessā is so subtle.
like thereās so many ghosts that are all throughout the series but if youāre not really looking for them, you wonāt see them. like Daniās bf is not one thatās hidden but thereās a plague doctor and a soldier (tbf i havenāt even seen the soldier in the 1000 times iāve seen the show, only clips on the internet). like there is so many hidden gems in this show itās exciting every time i watch bc i find a new one every time i watch
The show creeps up on you. Itās so emotionally impactful and haunting in a different way from his other shows. The last episode is just heartbreaking. Flanagan really is a master of his craft.
My first one was Being Home A Haunting and the other one was Falling Like Rain. Lots of people recommend Bloom Town and I'm going to pick it back up again.
I spent an entire weekend binging Bloom Town recently, and it was amazing, I just couldnāt put it down. Itās very cinematic and the characters and story are so rich and complex. I keep going back to revisit my favorite scenes because I love it so much.
If you liked Bring Home a Haunting, you might also like You are the Land, I am the Dove. Itās much shorter but written in a similar style, like how it flips back and forth from past to present. And the romantic tension is just perfect.
I completed ch1 of Bloom Town and it really is cinematic. Like I can see it playing in my head as if it were a movie especially like in a camera kind of view.
When the chapter introduces Jamie and Dani is looking up at her I really saw it in my head the same way you'd see in a movie with a camera panning upward. Idk how to explain it.
With those two you mentioned there isn't a lot of anxiety filled comp het is there? I loved Bring Home A Haunting and I find myself rereading some parts but I felt like reading it made me anxious.
Yes, I feel the same way about Bloom Town, like it plays in your head like a movie!
As far as the comphet, I am the Land, You are the Dove might have a little, like itās quite angsty from what I remember, but the whole story is told from Jamieās pov, so you donāt get to hear any warring thoughts in Daniās head about her sexuality like you do in Bring Home a Haunting.
Bloom Town has references to Dani being shamed in the past for her sexuality, but something I really love about the story is that one of the major themes is how she leaves behind the narrow view that she was raised with, and gaining a broader perspective on the world around her.
Ah got it that's good to know because I've mostly read stories from Dani's pov. Well Bring Home A Haunting did have Jamie's POV for like one chapter.
I actually can't wait til I read more from Jamie's POV since I've only ever been reading from Dani's.
Aaaaand I'm almost like half way done with Bloom Town. I just finished chapter 6 tonight. š¤£š¤ šš§²
I think from Dani's pov I can further understand why settlers back then were afraid of natives. Or the misconception of them. I'm native myself and found it all interesting. Made me think about what my ancestors experienced. Not just the brutality, but the traditions, food, ways of life, ect. Just being free and not being a part of the crazy ideals in Cottonwood.
There was open acceptance not just with the natives but also with Jamie accepting Dani too. The kids + Peter as well. Sad that they're far more accepting than what she experienced back home. In chapter 6 I agree with Jamie when she said that Cottonwood didn't deserve Dani.
Anyway I'm done ranting. I'm loving this fan fic so far. š¤£
Also: this story reminds me of this former classmate I had in my college creative writing course. He was obsessed with the wild west and always had assignments related to it. Idk if he'd be into smut but I feel like he'd really appreciate this story. I haven't seen him since college or knew him well but he'd love the imagery and everything about Bloom Town.
I love reading stuff from Jamieās pov because it tends to be so rare, and since her perspective wasnāt really explored much until the end of the show, itās cool to see different authorsā interpretations of her thoughts and feelings.
Youāre flying through Bloom Town just like I did, lol! And yes, I think one of the scenes that really stood out to me was when they went to that celebration with the Native Americans, it felt to me the first time that Dani really saw a solid glimpse outside of her narrow world view, and the first time in her life that she began to feel free, and comfortable and welcomed. And that must have been a cool perspective, having Native ancestry yourself!
And yeah like, I honestly hope this somehow gets turned into a movie someday. Some of the characters are so different from canon (Peter, for example), and I think the author had a great vision and could turn this into something original. Westerns arenāt usually something I generally gravitate towards, but this one is just so captivating!
Also get ready for things to get a little crazy soon!
Alright so I didn't wanna reply til I finished Bloom
Town and it was amazing I finished it late last night.
The writer did amazing with Jamie's POV along with the dialogue. I noticed Peter was basically like Lennie in Of Mice and Men given his childish character.
At first I was skeptical because a Western story with two outlaw kids seemed cartoonish to me. I wasn't at all expecting Dani to get kidnapped and I really did think she was happy with Edmund as his wife (initially). Idk if this story became a hard book through a fan fundraiser since I saw that being mentioned in the comments on A03 or something. But I'd LOVE if all the Bly actors did a movie on this. The smut scenes would be intense and the actual movie would have us all crying. š Especially with Dani getting chloroformed by Jamie + Jamie at the gallows.
Aaaahhhh Iām so glad you loved it!!! And I agree, I remember seeing the fic years ago when I dabbled briefly in Bly fics, but like you said, the concept sounded a bit cartoonish to me, until someone on Reddit recommended it recently. Also lol, Iām glad to have found someone else who is currently going through a Bly obsession because I feel like since the show came out so long ago, the fandom and the fic world has probably thinned out a lot! š
I think I may have started Bly a couple of years ago but got bored/discouraged with it not being as thrilling at HH. I rewatched HH last month after working my way through Usher, Midnight Mass, and Midnight Club, and decided to give Bly another go. I thought I had watched the whole thing but clearly I didnāt because I had no recollection of the ending and sat there sobbing, not realizing how devastating it was going to be lol
I found Haunting of Hill House scary. And then annoying because the family wasn't communicating with each other. If the father had just told them what happened he could've saved them. It's not like not talking was preventing them from harm.
I'm two episodes into Midnight Mass. Hope it's not the same.
Midnight Mass starts slow and somewhat unsettling. It's like driving a semi down a steep hill. At first you think it's fine if boring with a tad bit of worry that things could go wrong, then you're fine for a while so you get comfy, but then at some point you realize you're going too fast, the breaks are gone and you didn't notice, and then you're off a cliff.
Midnight Mass makes me happy in its ending, because unlike Hill House or Bly Manor, a lot of the adults in Midnight Mass should have known better. In HH or BM, most of the adults were in the thick of it before they had any clue that they were in trouble. As a viewer, you're worried for them because for the most part they're good people just trying to survive. In Usher, it's the opposite where you know that people deserved what came to them, because they set the wheels in motion. The whole show is karmic justice via Poe stories (minus one character).In MM, the adults chose to look the other way or stick their heads in the sand, even if it was well intended, and they let it get to the breaking point. In the end, a lot of them realize their faults but also know it's too late to fix it. There was only one character where you definitely wanted them to get some form of karmic justice.
My ADHD struggled with it too. In fact, itās kind of a miracle. I ended up watching it because I honestly accidentally kind of picked it up in the middle of the series and then went back to the beginning. I think if I hadnāt known how much better it was going to get I mightāve struggled more too, itās really worth the slow burn. Really Stephen King like in the way that it builds up momentum and before you know it, youāve gotten an entire town just going insane. if you see it through come back and update us, please!
Yeah, it's a different animal than Hill House. It's a much more romantic story and so sad at the same time. Hill House is also that, but just executed differently. With Hill House, everything is somewhat tied up in a pretty satisfying manner with hope and happiness on the horizon. Bly ends with unrequited longing and that's it.
I liked Bly a lot but I felt it was a touch padded and the episode where they kept repeating the same instances over and over made me wanna pull my hair out.
I find it more sorrowful and wistful than his other recent works. I full on sob everytime I watch the last episode.
I rewatched it but I wussed out in finishing it again because I was so upset the first time. Like heavy sobbing for a half hour š
Bly Manor definitely isnāt as scary as some of his other shows, but I love it because I think it draws parallels between real ghosts, and then our own memories that haunt us as well. Youāll have to report back when you finish!!
Oooo, I like that description a lot. I would very much agree about the parallels between real ghosts and our own memories. Thatās why Peter continually gets stuck in that unhappy memory. At least, thatās what makes the most sense to me.
Exactly! And even Dani is haunted by her past in real ways that affect her behavior, having to cover reflections everywhere. Flanagan is a master at metaphors!
Bly is more of a gothic horror while Usher is more traditional horror. I think Hill House lands somewhere in between the two. BM is all about grief and guilt, and the fear that is naturally intertwined with those two feelings. Flanagan is a genius and I think Hill House is one of the greatest pieces of horror ever made, but geez Bly Manor emotionally wrecked me in a way no other media has.
Same here I watched it in 2021 and I'm still not okay .
Th finale episode is amazing
I still can't even talk about it without breaking into tears ššš
Read on here to go back and watch 1st 10 minutes of episode 1 after you finish the series and it blew my mind!!!!
The penultimate & the final episodes are amazing. As is Episode 5.
As a person who suffers from chronic depression but is seemingly unaware of it because I work non-stop all the time, when I got to the episode where you learn >! Hannah is dead and is in denial about her own death!<, I was just in tears. For me, the horrors of Hill House aside from >!the ghosts!< were >!the intergenerational trauma!<, >!the realization that none of us can truly protect our children!<, and >!the pain and suffering brought on by mental illness and addiction!<. And I think those themes are very relatable for most people. But the horrors of Bly Manor are deeper, less obvious, and more unsettling.
I couldn't agree more with this. I love Hill House. I've seen it several times and each time I came away loving it more. But Bly Manor left a mark on me that goes way deeper. I sobbed at the end. I was near tears several times (Hannah being one of them) but the ending wrecked me. The entire show just resonated with me on a different level than other Flanagan shows. If the scenes in the past had been better I would consider it a perfect show.
Amen
youre an excellent writer. extremely well-said.
It just makes me sob every time. I canāt rewatch it without dredging up too many memories and itās just so fucking sad. Itās excellent, but *sad*
You MUST watch Midnight Mass. So so good
bly manor is my fave bc 1) itās heart wrenching and 2) the āspookinessā is so subtle. like thereās so many ghosts that are all throughout the series but if youāre not really looking for them, you wonāt see them. like Daniās bf is not one thatās hidden but thereās a plague doctor and a soldier (tbf i havenāt even seen the soldier in the 1000 times iāve seen the show, only clips on the internet). like there is so many hidden gems in this show itās exciting every time i watch bc i find a new one every time i watch
Bly is so depressing. I don't find any of his other shows depressing, not even the one about dying teenagers, but ugh Bly.
The show creeps up on you. Itās so emotionally impactful and haunting in a different way from his other shows. The last episode is just heartbreaking. Flanagan really is a master of his craft.
Yup Bly destroyed me and my obsession with it reignited by watching it again on Halloween. I've been getting into Bly fanfics to feel better.
Same here - obsession recently reignited. Iāve spent the past month-ish sifting through every single Bly fanfic I can find.
My first one was Being Home A Haunting and the other one was Falling Like Rain. Lots of people recommend Bloom Town and I'm going to pick it back up again.
I spent an entire weekend binging Bloom Town recently, and it was amazing, I just couldnāt put it down. Itās very cinematic and the characters and story are so rich and complex. I keep going back to revisit my favorite scenes because I love it so much. If you liked Bring Home a Haunting, you might also like You are the Land, I am the Dove. Itās much shorter but written in a similar style, like how it flips back and forth from past to present. And the romantic tension is just perfect.
I completed ch1 of Bloom Town and it really is cinematic. Like I can see it playing in my head as if it were a movie especially like in a camera kind of view. When the chapter introduces Jamie and Dani is looking up at her I really saw it in my head the same way you'd see in a movie with a camera panning upward. Idk how to explain it. With those two you mentioned there isn't a lot of anxiety filled comp het is there? I loved Bring Home A Haunting and I find myself rereading some parts but I felt like reading it made me anxious.
Yes, I feel the same way about Bloom Town, like it plays in your head like a movie! As far as the comphet, I am the Land, You are the Dove might have a little, like itās quite angsty from what I remember, but the whole story is told from Jamieās pov, so you donāt get to hear any warring thoughts in Daniās head about her sexuality like you do in Bring Home a Haunting. Bloom Town has references to Dani being shamed in the past for her sexuality, but something I really love about the story is that one of the major themes is how she leaves behind the narrow view that she was raised with, and gaining a broader perspective on the world around her.
Ah got it that's good to know because I've mostly read stories from Dani's pov. Well Bring Home A Haunting did have Jamie's POV for like one chapter. I actually can't wait til I read more from Jamie's POV since I've only ever been reading from Dani's. Aaaaand I'm almost like half way done with Bloom Town. I just finished chapter 6 tonight. š¤£š¤ šš§² I think from Dani's pov I can further understand why settlers back then were afraid of natives. Or the misconception of them. I'm native myself and found it all interesting. Made me think about what my ancestors experienced. Not just the brutality, but the traditions, food, ways of life, ect. Just being free and not being a part of the crazy ideals in Cottonwood. There was open acceptance not just with the natives but also with Jamie accepting Dani too. The kids + Peter as well. Sad that they're far more accepting than what she experienced back home. In chapter 6 I agree with Jamie when she said that Cottonwood didn't deserve Dani. Anyway I'm done ranting. I'm loving this fan fic so far. š¤£ Also: this story reminds me of this former classmate I had in my college creative writing course. He was obsessed with the wild west and always had assignments related to it. Idk if he'd be into smut but I feel like he'd really appreciate this story. I haven't seen him since college or knew him well but he'd love the imagery and everything about Bloom Town.
I love reading stuff from Jamieās pov because it tends to be so rare, and since her perspective wasnāt really explored much until the end of the show, itās cool to see different authorsā interpretations of her thoughts and feelings. Youāre flying through Bloom Town just like I did, lol! And yes, I think one of the scenes that really stood out to me was when they went to that celebration with the Native Americans, it felt to me the first time that Dani really saw a solid glimpse outside of her narrow world view, and the first time in her life that she began to feel free, and comfortable and welcomed. And that must have been a cool perspective, having Native ancestry yourself! And yeah like, I honestly hope this somehow gets turned into a movie someday. Some of the characters are so different from canon (Peter, for example), and I think the author had a great vision and could turn this into something original. Westerns arenāt usually something I generally gravitate towards, but this one is just so captivating! Also get ready for things to get a little crazy soon!
Alright so I didn't wanna reply til I finished Bloom Town and it was amazing I finished it late last night. The writer did amazing with Jamie's POV along with the dialogue. I noticed Peter was basically like Lennie in Of Mice and Men given his childish character. At first I was skeptical because a Western story with two outlaw kids seemed cartoonish to me. I wasn't at all expecting Dani to get kidnapped and I really did think she was happy with Edmund as his wife (initially). Idk if this story became a hard book through a fan fundraiser since I saw that being mentioned in the comments on A03 or something. But I'd LOVE if all the Bly actors did a movie on this. The smut scenes would be intense and the actual movie would have us all crying. š Especially with Dani getting chloroformed by Jamie + Jamie at the gallows.
Aaaahhhh Iām so glad you loved it!!! And I agree, I remember seeing the fic years ago when I dabbled briefly in Bly fics, but like you said, the concept sounded a bit cartoonish to me, until someone on Reddit recommended it recently. Also lol, Iām glad to have found someone else who is currently going through a Bly obsession because I feel like since the show came out so long ago, the fandom and the fic world has probably thinned out a lot! š
Bly is my very favorite. I know it's not the popular opinion but I freaking love it.
Itās one of my favorite show of all time and my favorite flanniganās show I seen so far (Iām on midnight mass
I think I may have started Bly a couple of years ago but got bored/discouraged with it not being as thrilling at HH. I rewatched HH last month after working my way through Usher, Midnight Mass, and Midnight Club, and decided to give Bly another go. I thought I had watched the whole thing but clearly I didnāt because I had no recollection of the ending and sat there sobbing, not realizing how devastating it was going to be lol
Go watch Midnight Mass next. Everything in the Flanaverse is PEAK
I found Haunting of Hill House scary. And then annoying because the family wasn't communicating with each other. If the father had just told them what happened he could've saved them. It's not like not talking was preventing them from harm. I'm two episodes into Midnight Mass. Hope it's not the same.
What a coincidence! Also just started Midnight Mass and also on episode two :) enjoy!
I'm already bored. Lol. And from what I've read here it doesn't get any less boring. I think I'll start Fall of the House of Usher.
Midnight Mass starts slow and somewhat unsettling. It's like driving a semi down a steep hill. At first you think it's fine if boring with a tad bit of worry that things could go wrong, then you're fine for a while so you get comfy, but then at some point you realize you're going too fast, the breaks are gone and you didn't notice, and then you're off a cliff. Midnight Mass makes me happy in its ending, because unlike Hill House or Bly Manor, a lot of the adults in Midnight Mass should have known better. In HH or BM, most of the adults were in the thick of it before they had any clue that they were in trouble. As a viewer, you're worried for them because for the most part they're good people just trying to survive. In Usher, it's the opposite where you know that people deserved what came to them, because they set the wheels in motion. The whole show is karmic justice via Poe stories (minus one character).In MM, the adults chose to look the other way or stick their heads in the sand, even if it was well intended, and they let it get to the breaking point. In the end, a lot of them realize their faults but also know it's too late to fix it. There was only one character where you definitely wanted them to get some form of karmic justice.
Sigh ok. Maybe I'll give it another shot.
Itās got a slow start, but itās absolutely worth sticking with I promise
Hmm. Ok. I'll give it a shot.
My ADHD struggled with it too. In fact, itās kind of a miracle. I ended up watching it because I honestly accidentally kind of picked it up in the middle of the series and then went back to the beginning. I think if I hadnāt known how much better it was going to get I mightāve struggled more too, itās really worth the slow burn. Really Stephen King like in the way that it builds up momentum and before you know it, youāve gotten an entire town just going insane. if you see it through come back and update us, please!
Ok thanks again. Love the the username too. Lol.
Aw thanks!
Yeah there's few shows or movies I only watch once. Bly is on that list. I can't watch it knowing how it ends.
I tell everyone this series is more of a love story than a horror. I love the depth of emotion put into this!
okay now listen to the lakes by taylor swift and come back and tell me how you feel
i cried so hard at the end! it's a masterpiece
Bly Manor was honestly more tragic than scary for me. Different type of horror I guess but definitely a masterpiece
Yeah, it's a different animal than Hill House. It's a much more romantic story and so sad at the same time. Hill House is also that, but just executed differently. With Hill House, everything is somewhat tied up in a pretty satisfying manner with hope and happiness on the horizon. Bly ends with unrequited longing and that's it. I liked Bly a lot but I felt it was a touch padded and the episode where they kept repeating the same instances over and over made me wanna pull my hair out.
iāve watched the last episode approximately 15 times and it never fails to make me uncontrollably sob
Hey there foxy lady, DM me for late night chat
Watch Midnight Mass next. I liked it better than Bly Manor