User Reviews

Can't say enough about this episode/finale. Twins Roderick and Madeline are slowly, methodically coming to the realization that the Verna from 1980 was and is real.. and she's come to collect. Of course, Rod and Mad knew all along that they had sold their souls to the devil but denial is bliss and they had their self-indulgences to distract them. I think in the end they both knew their worst fears would come to fruition. No their fixer Arthur didn't flip although he did entertain Verna's offer. He just had no "collateral" to offer her. Their worst fear was that their beloved company would implode and all of the secrets would be uncovered. Death was preferred to the shame and humiliation that would have become their existence. There would never be enough spin and PR to recover.

Rod and Mad's worst fear: that non-blood, non-visionary, undeserving, useless people would take control of the fortune that they had murdered, stole, and deceived for. And that their fortune would be unceremoniously turned over to people like Juno and Morell who would do something stupid with like actually help Millions Of People.

I might be in the heat because I watched this episode a couple of hours ago, before a very boring Zoom meeting, but I think this time away from IMDB gave me distance to think about what I've just watched and felt.

First I must thank to the Fate sisters who pulled their strings to make me have the joy of watching it in my Halloween night. It was surely a conjunction of feelings to be home alone, with my cat sleeping by my side, right after the sunset. I was already expecting something grand, but I wasn't expecting for something THIS grand. This was almost like the final act of a Wagnerian journey on the Nibelungen Ring.

It plucked my nerves we didn't have explanations of any kind of explicit information on why Death was surrounding this family, but it just took me a couple of seconds to see I was getting it as I watched the Ushers bloodshedding themselves, seeing their house, their mansion, their empire to crumble.

It's my dream as an actress to play Mephistopheles in a Faust adaptation. There's something I love so much about it, to see the construction of human corruption, about they truly believing what they're doing is for a greater good then their own greediness. Cudos to you, Carla Gugino.

Another highlight must be how Flanagan almost got me in tears. Not that I was moved by the scene, but I was moved by how he managed to evoke all the sad beauty and imprint the suffering in Roderick as the Poet in "The Crow", grieving his beloved Lenore. The very moment when you see the grandfather realizing the weight of his past decision, when he didn't think twice before accepting the terms of his Faustian Bargain. The construction of this segment is perfect, from the moment when Death/Devil/Mephisto approaches Lenore and tells her the future she allowed to happen, the IA robot saying "nevermore" as the relentless crow from the poem and finishing with Roderick walking through the empty mansion, haunted by his dearly beloved Lenore's demise... While the very crow stares him from the top of Pallas' bust just like the poem text. I was in awe.

What a great way to wrap up a great miniseries.

Masterclass in creating atmosphere and delivering a memorable ending of memorable mini series. This is what I have to start with.

While hardly anyone can argue that the majority of actors DELIVER in this, I think that the Roderick-Madeline-Verna-Arthur quartet are a level above the rest.

The music, the lighting, the delivery of the lines, all of the well-chosen words from Edgar Allan Poe himself, the shadowy scenes which are more dreadful and heart-wrenching than cheap horror and jump scares.

Of course, I so wanted for Lenore to live, but by episode seven knew that she was doomed, even if not one of his direct descendants. And yet, that end for her, while beautiful, nearly made me cry.

True, all of the Ushers were monsters, in their own way. Roderick and his sister mainly, inflicting so much pain and destruction on the world. But who can say what would have happened in different circumstances? They grew up in poverty, trauma, and after discovering the true story of their father, jealousy of everything they didn't have, a sense of injustice that drove them to all those despicable acts. The show did not have many likeable characters at all, but god, were they compelling. Even if all seemed doomed by the last few episodes, a part of us still wanted them to somehow stop this all, have one last great escape.

Beautiful, beautiful and dark storytelling. I was going to have an 8/10 for the series, but the last 4 episodes put this undoubtedly at a 9/10.

The Ushers flew too close to the sun and burned, but did they not produce a bright, even if terrifying flame?

(S1. E8) My Live Reaction / Review for The Fall of the House of Usher Season 1 Episode 8 ''The Raven''. The previous episode was good and I gave it a rating of 9/10. Let's see if this one is better or worse. This is the final episode, I expect something great and also many many answers to my questions. Wow Roderick and his sister killed the boss? Ok I saw that coming to be honest but still it's brutal. Finally we get to see what happened in 1979 new years eve. So they made a deal with the devil? Is that mysterious woman satan himself? They sacrificed their own kids to be rich and famous? The conversation between Verna and Arthur was pretty interesting. I hope Roderick's granddaughter wont die like the rest. She died too? That sucks! Everybody is dead. Roderick (almost) killed his sister? I didn't see that coming. This episode was perfect, a perfect way to end a pretty good show. Overall this episode was good, my rating is 10/10.