Written by Luke Barnes
Summary
A group of terminally ill teens spend their time telling each other scary stories and vowing to send each other signs from the afterlife.
What I am about to say might sound like horror heresy to some but stick with me, I think Mike Flanigan’s Netflix series have been on a downward spiral since Hill House, with this being quite clearly its lowest ebb.
I have quite a few issues with the season as a whole but I think the worst is just how teen angsty the whole thing is. You would be forgiven for thinking that what you are watching is a YA series rather than a horror one and really that is because very little time is spent actually trying to scare the audience and a lot more is spent having the kids make long speeches about how the adults just don’t understand them. This is accompanied by many, many long drawn out conversations about feelings.
Another fairly large issue with the season is how badly paced it is. For a start the whole thing could be cut down by a few episodes and be a lot better, a lot of the episodes are packed with filler and plot lines that just go nowhere which could easily be cut out at no expense to the show. Honestly in the back half of the season this show is a slog to watch.
I really do think the most damning piece of criticism I could give this show is that it is not what it claims to be, this is not a horror series in any way as it never sets out to scare you and the few scares it does include, to avoid claims of false advertising, don’t work at all.
Overall, Mike Flanigan should take a few years off from making horror content and go back to basics and really figure out what is working and what isn’t.
Pros.
It is watchable
Anya’s story is easily the best and is genuinely creepy
Cons.
For the most part this show is more of a teen drama then it is a horror series
It is not scary
It has horrible pacing
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Another Millennial Reviewer 