Hemlock Grove - General Discussion

[KatWay]

I'm up to watching episode 4 at this point...so far so...okay?

It makes more sense and I like that they're trying harder to explain the stuff that goes on.

 

Thoughts so far:

I hope Pryce will be back to normal soon. Roman and Peter need to share more scenes, why are they in separate storylines for so long? Andreas sure developed a completely new personality between breaks. Olivia is still hilarious although seeing all these other well-adjusted Upir just makes her stand out more as a complete psychopath. Not much of a fan of the zombies. I hate zombies. Blessedly little Miranda and she didn't bother me much in that episode she was in. Poor Pearl though,

[Hybridcookie]

Just watched Episode 7 and I'm not happy.

 

Why kill Destiny for no reason? Especially after giving her nothing to do all season. What was the point, just because it's 'edgy' to kill people in the final season? Why is Andreas suddenly a bad guy this season? Why are Roman and Peter still barely sharing scenes? The Peter/Destiny relationship was always one of my highlights of the earlier seasons, why ruin it? Why has Peter barely had a storyline this season?

 

Though I'm glad Shelley seems to be happy - the one good part of the season

 

I liked the first 2 seasons, it wasn't a great show, but it was enjoyable, mainly because of the characters and their interactions, but this season is lacking

Edited October 24, 2015 by Hybridcookie

[KatWay]

Oh man.

I saw that ending coming from episode 7 on, but still...shit.

 

Everyone dies, except for Shelley and her creepy older boyfriend? Come ON. I mean sure this show wasn't going to have a happy ending but when they had Roman kill Destiny they really crossed a line. It's all misery and despair. This sucks.

I thought the climax with the dragon creature was seriously anticlimactic...they should have incorporated that much better into the main storyline. And fuck, I never liked Miranda, but that was a gruesome ending for her. Pretty gruesome ending for just about anybody actually. Pryce had a dignified death, and Annie I suppose...poor Roman, poor Peter. I suppose they really never had a chance.

[Hybridcookie]

Just finished 3x09

And I'm so upset. First Destiny, then Peter. 2/3 of my favourite characters gone. They better leave Shelley alone!

[Hybridcookie]

Hope it's okay to double post, I've just finished the season, and have to agree with everything Katway said. (I tried to quote the post, but the spoiler tags kept failing)

 

The dragon creature climax was awful. I thought the Season would be Peter, Roman and Destiny tracking down Nadia and Miranda and saving her. That climax lasted about two minutes.

I'm glad Peter came back to life/didn't die (yay for werewolf healing), but overall that finale wasn't great. I did like seeing Destiny again
- her spirit anyway.

I was getting worried for Shelley, but I'm glad she made it outalive.


What a disappointing season!

Edited October 24, 2015 by Hybridcookie

[KatWay]

 

I'm glad Peter came back to life/didn't die (yay for werewolf healing)

 

My understanding was that even though he didn't die, he's still essentially lost - he went full vargulf there didn't he? White fur and everything. And Shelley saw him during the day so he didn''t change back. In a way I think Roman and Peter both chose their own deaths - Roman when he didn't cut Peter's head off (which I believe he knew about), subconsciously maybe he wanted him to come back. And Peter could have waited a month, but chose not to. And then Destiny distracting Roman during his fight, I think that was his subconscious too.

Still, how freaking depressing was that. And the whole Lizard/Nadia storyline was a waste of time. I also thought Shelley in that underground lair was really boring.

[greenbean]

I don't think we need to put things behind a spoiler, this is the S3 discussion thread after all. The show has aired. Episode threads can be made.

 

Anyway, I have finished it, and I'm also not happy. The main problem was the lack of scenes between Peter and Roman. Admittedly, they were the reason I was watching, and I was hoping the show would do a Hannibal and go there with them. But if not, there still should have been far more things happening between them. It was a stupid and weird decision to spilt them up for so long.

 

Killing Destiny was also annoying, and I hated Annie. What a shit-stirrer of a character. Running between all the other characters and causing problems. I mean, I know Roman was in the wrong for killing Destiny, I am not even a fan of his, but when she went running to Peter about that, it really annoyed me. What did she think was going to happen!? She was literally sending him to his death. She knew he'd feel compelled to strike back, and Roman would likely kill him or things would end badly another way, which they did. She should have kept her mouth shut. Peter would have been a good influence on Roman and Nadia. Ugh! I'm glad she died. Her death was also stupid, but I was afraid she'd end up with Nadia. You'd think an old Upir would be smarter, but she was naive and dumb.

 

Shelley's story was really boring. I forwarded through a lot of those scenes. But I'm okay with her ending, and out of everyone there, I'm glad she ended up with Nadia.
 

I'm also sad that Pryce died. He seemed like a trooper who would out live them all. It was very cheap to kill everyone off, just because it's the final season. Really unsatisfying ending.

Edited October 24, 2015 by greenbean

[greenbean]

You know, when characters are suddenly split up like that, I have to wonder if something behind the scenes is going on. I haven't followed the actors or any coverage of HG, how have the actors seemed? Do they get on, have they been positive about the content of the show? What about the writers, do they not like the friendship?

[caseylane]

Well, I just saved a weekends time suck. I watched the first episode and saw some troubling things, such as very little Peter & Roman as well as a new Upir character. Reading the spoilers has made me decide not to bother. Sad, I was so looking forward to watching this. It isn't even the mass die off but the lack  of what actually made this show enjoyable for me.

[Hamatron]

I made it through. It was awful. The show comes off as really juvenile, but it thinks it's deep. It really felt like it was written by a teenage boy. Sometimes bad TV can be fun, but that was mostly boring. And misogynistic.

And yeah. The two leads barely interact all season. And when they do it's not good (I think I was the only person who didn't care if they had sex or not, hah, but still, the show is their friendship.)

Anyway, yeah. That was a hot mess.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Hamatron

[Glade]

Shelley certainly deserved her happy ending, and I'm glad she got it (though I had to fast-forward through every one of her boyfriend's stories, as I can't stand the way he speaks.)  But everything else was really bleak.  I wish there was more explanation for why Roman killed Destiny; it truly came out of nowhere. 

 

I came to loathe Annie, for being a hypocrite and having odd motives.  At her age, maybe she should have accepted that Roman, being a Upir for barely a year, could still be rehabilitated and become a better person.  She was also really stupid, to go see Olivia without arming herself with one of those poisoned guns, and not even backing away when it was painfully obvious that Olivia had the disease (and was 100x worse then Roman!).  She should have expected to be hunted by the diseased Upir wherever she went...but that plot thread was allowed to fall away into oblivion.  No one was around to find a cure/treatment, or hunt down the diseased until it was gone.  It was also kind of obvious that not everyone of those little dragon things died in the end, so I didn't really need that to be the last scene.

 

Peter's wolfpack had a cameo in the first episode, and then was never really explored again; I would have liked some of the werewolf lore to be incorporated into this; what was the dragon's plan to wipe out the werewolves?  Was there never any danger that he dead fiance would come back as a vargwolf?

 

I was glad that Pryce came out, but very disappointed that a Roman/Peter coupling was used as joke-fodder.  Their relationship and it's possibilities was the reason I got sucked into season 1, which was still the best, IMO.   Their ending was incredibly tragic, but it could have used more buildup/feeling throughout the season.  Peter never even found out, officially, that Roman was Nadia's father...if they had both said 'I love you' and taken their relationship to the next level before this betrayal came about, it would have been more powerful. 

 

I also enjoyed how Pryce finally freed Shelly and got the best of Olivia.   I wish we had a better idea of what happens to the Godfrey Institute now?  There was too much crammed into this season.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Glade

[Crossbow]

I've only watched 3x1. Man, Shelley' makeup is TERRIBLE this season. Why???

[Hamatron]

I don't think they had much of a budget this season. Or last year. They did a little better with the CGI stuff this time though.

[Chaos Theory]

This is not my favorite season but I am glad I watched it. I needed a finale and this was an ok one. I liked Shelly got a happy ending she is the only one who deserved one. The only thing I found truly sad was Destiny's fate.

Although not doners well as it could have been I liked the confrontation between Roman and Peter. Things were never going to end well between these two this has been foreshadowed since day one.

I also like that Olivia was never anything but the villian. I never knew what to make of Pryce but I really liked him this season.

The one character I miss and have always missed is Petet's mom. Maybe she comes back for wolfPeter?

[egilsdottir]

I'm up to episode 8. Definitely do not like this season as much as I liked the previous two, but it's an ending, I guess.

I can't stand Annie - I don't know if it's the actress, or the character, or both.

I wish they had done flashbacks of Olivia's childhood/early adulthood. I think they did something like that in one of the earlier seasons, but I'm not 100% sure.

Don't like Pryce as a drug addict, and bummed about Destiny's fate.

[sjohnson]

Werewolf/vampire is a star-crossed love.

 

Also, incest, even under occult influence, is unforgivable. So Roman had to die. 

 

"Spivak" as some sort of ecological competitor to vampires and werewolves is odd enough. But for one to be a Big Bad who doesn't waste time with pointless confrontations? Breaks all the rules of Whedon-style shenanigans. Why, if it weren't for the script saving Roman and Pryce from the massacre, the dude would be able to enjoy his triumph over humanity...which will probably include Shelley and Nadia, who fatal demises are merely postponed I think, until the sprats grow up. Pryce is in the Cloud Shelley tells us, so I guess he's the soul survivor. 

 

Anni has no discernible motivation that makes any sense. That was a problem. 

 

All the death is a bummer. 

 

Thinking about the series as a whole, you know, despite the oddities, in the end it was better than something like True Blood. 

[Hamatron]

I can forgive incest if you are under vampire mind control, but Roman also raped a woman in season 1. That's pretty much when I stopped caring about him.

I haven't seen the ending to True Blood. My understanding is that it is one of the worst things ever in existence, hah. But I will say that True Blood as a whole was way more entertaining to watch. The acting was much better. The script was fun, and sometimes genuinely funny. The WTF? scenes actually paid off for the most part as character development. I mean, the series was clunky and silly sometimes, but at least it was mostly fun. Like, I actually want to watch the show as opposed to this one, which is mostly a "let's get through this" background noise experience. We'll see if I feel the same way after I see the last season of that show, hah!

Edited October 30, 2015 by Hamatron

[sjohnson]

By the way, Joel de la Fuente is carrying on the bad work on The Man in the High Castle. He's the Japanese opposite number to Rufus Sewell's villain with a trace of humanity.

[Crossbow]

Why doesn't Shelley glow anymore?

[Hamatron]

I totally forgot about the glowing thing. Shelley's hand shape also changed throughout the seasons. And she randomly started talking.

[Crossbow]

She's also gotten a foot shorter. She used to fill a doorway.

(Edit: At a distance she's played by Amazon Eve, who is 6'8", but up close they have her being about eye-level with whoever she's talking to if it's a man.)

Here's the first time we see her whole face. Currently, she has a right ear, hair on the left, the eye is up higher, the growth over the nose is gone, and the marks on the neck are gone.

 

Edited November 2, 2015 by Crossbow

[Crossbow]

Here she is towering over the other characters...

 

[KatWay]

What I would like to know is what the hell happened to Olivia and Roman's mind control powers? Those were pretty much in constant use throughout Season 1 and involved in a major plot point (Nadia's birth) and then....never again. Did the writers think this was too convenient? But seriously, there was never an explanation why that was just suddenly dropped.

[Crossbow]

What I would like to know is what the hell happened to Olivia and Roman's mind control powers? Those were pretty much in constant use throughout Season 1 and involved in a major plot point (Nadia's birth) and then....never again. Did the writers think this was too convenient? But seriously, there was never an explanation why that was just suddenly dropped.

 

Yeah, they could at least TRY. Say it's Olivia's cancer that made her lose it or something.

[Peanut6711]

Two thumbs down for Season 3
Such a letdown and a waste of talent. Did the same writers write this season as the previous?  The pacing was awful. The big story of Spevak from S2 was down played too often in favor of the gypsy mob crap and Shelley’s love story.  The resolution to Spevak and saving Nadia was very anti-climatic.  Olivia’s imaginary friend was annoying. I don’t understand why Pryce didn’t just kill Olivia and put her out of her misery—he certainly had opportunities. 
Pryce’s death was disappointing. Roman’s death pissed me off.  I didn’t care that he killed Destiny because her and Peter both acted like morons w/the whole Andres thing. Annie was a self-righteous, hypocritical bitch.  The sex scenes with Roman might have been hot but it was beyond wrong on her part as she knew he was her brother all along and knew how he felt about having been forced into sex with Letha.
Speaking of Letha….the big secret that her baby was fathered by Roman was never really revealed to Norman or Peter. What a missed opportunity.
It should have ended with Roman’s character growth  and him embracing being a father, raising the child with Peter; maybe Shelley as a nanny.  Shelley and her man getting the baby and the only people to have an HEA was just LAME!

[sjohnson]

Nobody except maybe Pryce in the Cloud gets a happy ending. Some of Spivak's offspring survive and they will prey on humanity without competition, becaise the vampire disease was left uncured by the vampire biotech tycoon and Pryce, who will all die. Perhaps Shelley can survive but Aitor is just a human being.

[Glade]

Shelley's makeup was horrible this season; you could clearly see the edges and exactly how the prosthetic peels off at the end of the shooting day.  Her look was much better in season 1.

[egc3]

bah. Only got like two minutes of Peter and Roman being heterosexual husbands and raising a kid together. I hated that they had Roman kill Destiny just so Peter would go after Roman.

[mustbekarma]

Thank you so very much for the season 3 discussion. I was going to binge watch it tonight. I got through the first episode. I just hated how Olivia screwed everyone over, so I decided to check the conversation here before I possibly ruined my weekend.

 

I mean, I really want to see Olivia die. I just don't want to watch anyone else die.

[greenbean]

bah. Only got like two minutes of Peter and Roman being heterosexual husbands and raising a kid together. I hated that they had Roman kill Destiny just so Peter would go after Roman.

 

It still pisses me off. That little scene hinted at how glorious it could have been.

 

On imdb, it seems the writer who came onboard, (he was previously script coordinator), had more recently worked on Sons of Anarchy. So that might explain the gangland storyline and some other elements. This was also his first real writing credit. Travis Jackson.

[sidekickgirl]

I really enjoyed season one, and even season two.  But I've gotten 1/2 way through season three and have abandoned it.  From what I've read here, that's okay because it sounds like garbage. 

[Flannery Tanner]

I'm coming to this discussion really late, but holy shit that last season was bad.

The whole Gangs of Hemlock Grove plot was terribly out of place.

Shelly's adventures in homelessness thing was painfully embarrassing. I like Shelly, but I think the show would have been better if she'd succeeded when she tried to hang herself.

Why the hell didn't anyone kill Olivia? She was vulnerable many times, and everyone hated her and knew she was dangerous.

Annie was awful.

I'm sure I'm putting way more thought into this than it deserves, but what was Spivak's plan? He spent years and years manipulating the upirs to make Nadia, and then he bred with her. But why? Wouldn't the point of that be hybrid offspring that are immune to upir venom? But the little baby manta rays weren't immune. So... ?

And somehow there's a tunnel under the cabin in Erie, Pa that leads to Niagara Falls? That's a four hour drive, at least.

Ugh. This show.

[toolazy]

On 7/18/2014 at 4:32 PM, Whimsy said:

This show is so weird, but I do love it anyway.  I agree- it's binge-only watching.  Weekly would not work.  Mostly, I just love the bromance (and now romance?) between Roman and Peter.  I didn't get the Shelley/spare body thing at all.  I think I got distracted during part of that explanation because I couldn't understand how they both were alive and talking but I didn't care enough to go back and listen.  My biggest LOL moment was the dragon.  We saw a lot of messed up, crazy stuff over the past two seasons but the dragon still took me by complete surprise.  I was unexplicably sad when Norman was killed.  He was never a good person, but for some reason his death saddened me.

So I just watched that episode last night and I laughed out loud when Doc Dragon showed up.  It was just so very cheesy.