Hemlock Grove is an American, Netflix Original, horror thriller television series. The show is executive produced by Eli Roth (Cabin Fever; Hostel; The Green Inferno), developed by Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman. It is based on McGreevy’s novel Hemlock Grove (2012).
The show premiered April 19, 2013, with all thirteen episodes made immediately available for online viewing. On June 19, 2013, Netflix renewed Hemlock Grove for a second season.
Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania. The town is a mixture of extreme wealth and poverty, as the closing of the town’s steel mill many years earlier caused many to lose their jobs. The town’s main sources of employment are now the Hemlock Acres Hospital and Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies. Run by the powerful Godfrey family, the Institute is rumored to conduct sinister experiments on a daily basis.
The town’s rumor mill turns even more twisted when two teenage girls are brutally killed and their bodies left for unsuspecting people to find the next day. Peter Rumancek, a 17-year-old gypsy, is suspected of the crimes by some of the townsfolk; he is also rumored to be a werewolf. While secretly he is a werewolf, he is not the killer, and, along with the heir to the Godfrey estate, Roman, he sets out to solve the mystery…
Main cast:
- Famke Janssen as Olivia Godfrey
- Bill Skarsgård as Roman Godfrey
- Landon Liboiron as Peter Rumancek
- Penelope Mitchell as Letha Godfrey
- Dougray Scott as Dr. Norman Godfrey
- Freya Tingley as Christina Wendall
Reviews:
“If the underlying formula is as old as Dark Shadows, there’s still a need for more narrative momentum than the 13-episode series initially delivers. So while one can understand why Netflix would augment its original slate with this mix of talent, “Hemlock Grove” remains a mere niche confection, one likely to play best among those genre fans who can’t see the forest for the trees.” Brian Lowry, Variety
“Actually, embarrassing is a good way to describe everything about this show. It’s cringeworthy. You can tell that the creators thought they were being edgy, because they threw swear words into every other line and included lots of sex scenes, but it comes off as impossibly juvenile. There’s not a single character that acts like a real person would. They just do things, because the script says so. It’s hard to shake the impression that the whole thing was written by a child, just guessing at how the adult world works.” Sarah Dobbs, Den of Geek!
“Hemlock Grove takes its time with story lines, ensuring that each one has plenty of room to ripen. It carries out every dastardly deed with gusto, but still offers enough moments of levity … And though the sordid world is captivating, I’m still grappling with aspects of the conclusion, which oozes with old-school misogyny that savagely punishes every girl and woman who dares to own her sexuality.” Jessica Shaw, Entertainment Weekly
