Hemlock Grove Review

Intro/Overview

So apparently I didn't have as many episodes of Hemlock Grove left to watch as I thought. I pretty much blew through those yesterday and so I have a review for you today. So much for slowing down, eh?

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the entire first season of Hemlock Grove, please leave the blog, watch it, and then come back. I'm horrible at keeping spoilers out of my reviews.

Hemlock Grove - Review

What. The. Fuck.

I sincerely have no idea what I just watched. Or rather, I have no idea what the hell that was. I'll attempt to explain.

I completely understand the werewolf stuff. That all made sense. It was twisted, but it made sense. All of the werewolf stuff was explained within the confines of the universe.

I understand the upir stuff... mostly. I don't get the purpose of the baby or even what happened to the baby. I thought the way they handled the whole upir thing was interesting. It reminded me of the living vampire vs dead vampire thing from Kim Harrison's Hollows novels. I'm not sure where the caul thing comes in exactly, but it was creepy, weird, and gross.

The parts I have problems understanding circle around the science-y stuff. That's never explained. They didn't even attempt to explain it. I get that it was supposed to be a kind of magic/science melding thing, but I don't understand in the least. I thought the scientist guy was attempting to make another "Ouroboros" child, but then that was sort of dis-proven by the upir reveal at the end. Still not sure exactly what was going on with the "Ouroboros" thing and that bugs me to no end.

As for the rest of the show... I liked it. I'm glad it was portrayed in a more realistic fashion than other supernatural shows. Sure it was gross at points, but I didn't mind that given the context. The supernatural has been gross since its inception, I'm just glad someone decided not to sanitize it or overload it for once. I thought keeping the audience in the dark as to what exactly was going on until the end was actually pretty brilliant. We were kept completely in the dark just like the Roman and Peter were. It was frustrating at times, though it was awesome to get a payoff when things were revealed.

I'm not sure whether or not I would actually recommend Hemlock Grove. I'd say you have to judge for yourself whether or not you want to watch it. It's not a show that explained itself right away. It's not a show you should watch if you're squeamish. It's a show you have to stick with for payoffs. Not fore everyone, but if you're interested, I'd say check it out.

Love ya, Jessie.