The Pitch: At the end of a long and not-exactly-noble life, the time has come for wealthy businessman Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) to confess his crimes. Not just his own, as the figurehead of a company whose success comes from an allegedly non-addictive opioid, but the crimes of his six children, who at the beginning of the series have all passed away from unnatural causes.
So Roderick tells their stories, as well as the events that shaped the Ushers into a twisted parody of a happy family, to C. Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly), the government prosecutor who has been trying to prove the Usher family’s malfeasance for decades. And if you at any point in your life studied American literature, and were doing a shot every time The Fall of the House of Usher dropped a reference to Edgar Allen Poe as you watched this… please go to the hospital now, and get your stomach pumped.
Once Upon a Midnight Dreary: Writer/director Mike Flanagan has developed a nice niche for himself on Netflix, and The Fall of the House of Usher might be his best effort yet. While his now-annual run of limited series have received their fair share of acclaim, “What would Edgar Allen Poe have thought of the Sackler family?” proves to be a meaty pitch, elevated by a cast that in some cases has never been better.
While past Flanagan series inspired by famous authors have never hidden their inspiration, House of Usher puts the writing of Poe front and center, with a deliberate emphasis on the author’s actual words, especially his poetry. These familiar lines are blended into the show’s actual dialogue at times, and used for emphasis in voice-over at others: Greenwood wasn’t necessarily cast for his rich speaking voice, but listening to him recite familiar passages from poems like “The Raven” is a deeply-felt pleasure.
In fact, the entire cast all gets a chance to intone some of Poe’s most famous verses. This is no poetry recital, though, as each episode explains how each brick of the House of Usher came to crumble, in gruesome fashion. Flanagan has a great deal of fun adapting Poe’s most disturbing fictions for today in both expected and unexpected ways — from the episode titles, you might expect to know how “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” might play out… but you also might be mistaken.
Those Who Dream by Day: Flanagan, like many creators, has developed a strong in-house ensemble of actors he keeps bringing back for projects, and regulars like T’Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, Kate Siegel, and Zach Gilford all turn in solid work. But Usher‘s shining star is Carla Gugino, as a mysterious woman deeply involved in the Usher family’s fate. Gugino has always been a joy to witness as an actress, but here Flanagan gives her so much to play, her character’s frequent darting between identities a true showcase for the full range of her talents. It’s a tremendous performance, worthy of whatever awards you could throw at it — its scope is hard to sum up in words (spoiler-free ones, anyway).
The Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)