The Mike Flanagan suite of Netflix miniseries have been a bit of a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House (although not as much as many did). I was a huge fan of The Haunting of Bly Manor (save for the atrocious penultimate episode). I didn’t love Midnight Mass. And I was lukewarm on The Midnight Society. So, I was excited to jump into The Fall of the House of Usher when it hit the streaming service, hoping that Flanagan’s final Netflix series (his new production deal is with Prime Video, so he’ll be taking his talents there next) would be the perfect send-off for this string of shows. And what a successful series it turned out to be.
Like his most of his previous series, The Fall of the House of Usher has a literary foundation, this time in the works of Edgar Allan Poe (the series’ title is a Poe short story, almost all of the characters’ names come from Poe works, and the episodic titles are also Poe references – most of which tell you precisely how the episode’s central character will meet their end, so it pays to know your Poe before tuning in). As someone who always enjoyed reading Poe’s strange and macabre short stories back in high school, I loved finding the various Poe Easter Eggs within the series – as well as seeing some of Poe’s most famous stories play out in new and inventive ways on screen. In fact, this series felt more in touch with its source inspiration than any of the other ones Flanagan has put out thus far, really getting into the psychological horror that infuses so much of Poe along with the base darkness that exists within Poe’s tales and characters. It was just an utter delight from start to finish.
As with the rest of Flanagan’s Netflix series, the cast of the series is made up of many familiar faces from past projects: Carla Gugino (as the mysterious Verna – and anagram for Raven), Bruce Greenwood (Roderick Usher, the family patriarch), Henry Thomas (Frederick Usher, the number one boy of the family), Kate Siegel (Camille L’Espanaye, one of the Usher bastards and a PR magnate for the family), Rahul Kohli (Napoleon Usher, another bastard who has taken his money to become a video game publisher to great success), Samantha Sloyan (Tamerlane Usher, the eldest legitimate daughter and an aspiring health and wellness guru), T’Nia Miller (Victorine LaFourcade, yet another bastard who is working on developing a heart mesh product that could save lives – if it ever works), Ruth Codd (Juno Usher, the young wife of Roderick who all the children hate), Sauriyan Sapkota (Prospero Usher, the youngest bastard who lacks the drive of his siblings and is content to party hard), and Kyliegh Curran (Lenore Usher, the sole Usher grandchild and the one who is dubbed “the best of the Ushers” by her grandfather). Joining the fun this time around – and what exceptional additions they make to this already stellar cast of actors – are Mark Hamill (Arthur Pym, the lawyer and fixer for the Usher family) and Mary McDonnell and Willa Fitzgerald (the pair share the role of Madeline Usher, Fitzgerald in flashbacks and McDonnell in the modern day, Roderick’s twin sister and COO of Fortunato Pharma, the family company, who is ruthless and cutthroat).
The cast is sprawling, but everyone is allowed their chance in the sun (some, several chances), as the episodic structure of the series is absolutely calibrated for the story Flanagan is trying to tell. At the outset of the series, we’re told that all six of Roderick Usher’s children have died over the course of two weeks – each in troubling incidents that appear to be the result of someone taking action against the family in light of the massive federal lawsuit Fortunato Pharmaceuticals is facing (making the Ushers a stand-in for the real-life Perdue Pharma/Sackler Family story is one of the best choices Flanagan makes in this adaptation – we can understand the gravity of what the Ushers have done to make their fortune and we can joy in getting to see them get their comeuppance). But who is behind these deaths? And why now? The subsequent episodes are presented as vignettes told by Roderick to his former friend turned adversary C. Auguste Dupin (a great Carl Lumbly, serving as an audience surrogate as well as a rung in this twisty ladder of a tale), the federal prosecutor trying to take Fortunato down. In each episode, Roderick explains how each of his children died*, and how their deaths are somehow his fault (we don’t get the reveal of just how until the end of the series, though the clues are there if you know Poe). Episodes two through seven recount each death of an Usher child, with the episode title giving you the hint as to just how the deed will be done. And this choice, to spotlight a single death per episodes while continuing to develop the other characters throughout (even if it isn’t their special episode, you get to spend time with the other characters, building their own arcs for their own spotlight episodes to come), is what makes The Fall of the House of Usher Flanagan’s best Netflix series.
*There are scenes in these episodes that Roderick would have no knowledge of – including the moments of his children before their deaths (at least in most cases, as he is present for one of their ends). Now, the show never really explains how he knows so much, but you could make the case that the mystical Verna has something to do with his outside knowledge. I’m willing to accept that as fact and take that leap rather than trying to suss out how else he might have come into that knowledge. It’s best if you do the same.
Every character feels fully realized by the time they meet their maker. Each performance is calibrated to fit the story it is telling (not every Usher presents as awful as the next, but even those who seem sympathetic at points eventually curdle and show you their darker tendencies). The MVP of the series, without a doubt, is Gugino, who is clearly having a blast inhabiting her role – a role I won’t say too much about, as it’s also one of the best elements of the series. But there is no weak link in this cast. Everyone is at the top of their game, bringing their all to some truly strange, truly sinister, and truly out there characters. And, throughout the series, Flanagan never loses sight of the essence of the Poe stories he is adapting. Are some of the references a bit on the nose? Sure. But none of the set pieces, the reveals, or the nods to their literary source material feels forced. Nothing about this series feels false. The story flows beautifully, taking us through the final weeks of the Usher family, seeing their flaws, their often-selfish motives, and their fatal errors. It’s a hell of a series, start to finish. If you’re a Flanagan or Poe fan, this is a must-watch. And if you’re simply looking for a compelling, strange, complex horror series for the spooky season, this is the one for you.
The Fall of the House of Usher is currently streaming on Netflix. All eight episodes are available.
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