On October 12, the 8-part mini-series “The Fall of the House of Usher” premiered on Netflix. MyMMO author Schuhmann recommends the series to all viewers who enjoy juicy intrigues like those in Game of Thrones and who long for a self-contained storyline. While “The Fall of the House of Usher” tells a continuous story, the individual episodes can stand alone.
What is the series about? Roderick Usher heads a pharmaceutical company that has already made him a billionaire through a painkiller. But an investigator from the health authority wants to hold him responsible for the raging opioid epidemic in the USA and drags him to court.
Roderick has 6 children from 5 women, only one of whom he was married to. The children all work in one way or another for their father and the Fortunato corporation:
- Prospero plans cool orgies in pop-up locations
- Camille is responsible for the PR of the pharmaceutical giant and has a particularly trusting relationship with her 2 young assistants (featured image).
- Napoleon is a gaming influencer with 12 million followers and a drug problem
- Victorine works as an ambitious surgeon on an important research project
- Tamerlane designs a lifestyle product line with her husband, a sports influencer, for whom she regularly orders prostitutes to play their roles in a romantic dinner while she masturbates
- Frederic is the legitimate heir of the corporation and the only one married with a daughter who is considered the family’s special favorite
Allegedly, one of the children or the much too young wife of the patriarch is supposed to assist the investigators as an informant. Roderick puts a $50 million bounty on the table, but then a series of strange fatal accidents begins to decimate the House of Usher.
The trailer hints at some key scenes:
In which world does The Fall of the House of Usher take place? The mini-series has two timelines:
In the 1970s, we see siblings Madeline and Roderick Usher. The two want to become something in a world that is not waiting for them at all. The hyper-intelligent Madeline would like to immediately take on a leadership role to change the world. However, they only offer her a secretary job, and only if she provides “the full service,” meaning sleeping with her boss. Brother Roderick can barely keep his young family afloat.
In 2023, we see a family clan that no longer has anything worldly to fear. A feared lawyer clears away every problem. The Ushers live in a world of non-disclosure agreements and prenuptial contracts in the security of luxury apartments. The men of the family indulge in excesses and seem never to work. The women competently and ambitiously vie for their father’s recognition and millions.
Edgar Allan Poe meets Final Destination
What makes the series appealing? “The Fall of the House of Usher” is by Mike Flanagan, an exciting director who also made “Black Mass” and the mean horror film Oculus. He has cast two actresses from Black Mass for key roles in “The Fall of the House of Usher”: two selfish daughters of the family clan with huge complexes and issues.
Flanagan is outstanding at building a world where something is amiss. From the first second, the viewer senses that something is not right with the characters.
Ultimately, almost every character of the Usher clan is corrupt at their core. The characters behave in various inappropriate ways towards their fellow human beings and themselves – and in this behavior lies the core of their downfall.
The series manages to indicate early on to the viewer what terrible things are going to happen, then the series clearly tells them what terrible things will happen, but it is not until a third act that the terrible is shown, and yet it remains effective.
The inevitability of the downfall, already established in the title, runs through the mini-series, and yet it is gripping in the details.
The highlights of the respective episodes unfold much like the horrific accidents in the “Final Destination” series; a chain of events is set off that has a tragic consequence sooner or later.
The appeal of the series primarily comes from the strong actors and their roles:
- Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker from Star Wars) plays a softly speaking lawyer who is hard to read.
- Mary McDonnell (the president from Battlestar Galactica) plays Madeline Usher, a brilliant woman who is obsessed with making her way in a man’s world and dreams of immortality.
- Kate Siegel, the director’s wife, has perhaps the coolest role in the series with Camille: a cynical PR manager who respects nothing.
Those familiar with the creepy works of Edgar Allan Poe can discover countless allusions as a bonus, as the individual episodes reference the stories of the horror master.
You want to shout at the characters: If your name is Prospero, for God’s sake don’t throw a masquerade ball. The orgy that Prospero organizes shows so much naked skin that these scenes alone could explain the series’ “18+” rating.
Pleasingly, the mini-series comes to a conclusion and each episode is well-rounded. However, on the way to the finale, some of the most colorful characters are also lost.
Only towards the end does “The Fall of the House of Usher” lose some of its lightness. By then, some of the tricks have repeated, some mysteries have been unraveled, and some motivations come across as rather flat. When one of the characters finally starts a political speech in the face of the downfall, from which you can hear more the director than the character, explaining the world’s problems, one wonders where the next bizarre death trap remains.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” impresses with strong actors, thought-provoking conflicts, and gruesome shock scenes. Furthermore, the series is simply mean in many ways.
If you are up for 8 hours of thrill, you will be satisfied. It is half horror, half family drama, with a touch of Edgar Allan Poe and a lot of Final Destination.
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