Unwell combines a grounded, compelling family drama with supernatural mystery to excellent effect. Despite its genre fiction roots, it defies expectations at every turn, and it does so without feeling contrived or needlessly subversive. Season after season, the character of Mount Absalom grows more complex and distinct just as its people deepen and complicate their relationships with one another.
Despite its slow pace, every episode feels impactful, and it handles its foreshadowing masterfully. Many of its mysteries can be solved prematurely — if you're paying attention. It tosses out its fair share of red herrings, too, and characters must repeatedly confront their own incorrect assumptions. The ensemble cast gives way to a variety of contrary mindsets, and it's always great to see the tenants of Fenwood House come together to puzzle out one strange happening or another.
Above all else, it manages to recapture the dark allure and bubbling unease of a genre whose heyday has long since come and gone. Mount Absalom feels like a genuinely magical place, and its secret societies and supernatural inhabitants are suitably strange and otherworldly, eschewing or subverting cliche whenever it's appropriate to do so. I highly recommend it.
Slow-burning and Sublime
Unwell combines a grounded, compelling family drama with supernatural mystery to excellent effect. Despite its genre fiction roots, it defies expectations at every turn, and it does so without feeling contrived or needlessly subversive. Season after season, the character of Mount Absalom grows more complex and distinct just as its people deepen and complicate their relationships with one another.
Despite its slow pace, every episode feels impactful, and it handles its foreshadowing masterfully. Many of its mysteries can be solved prematurely — if you're paying attention. It tosses out its fair share of red herrings, too, and characters must repeatedly confront their own incorrect assumptions. The ensemble cast gives way to a variety of contrary mindsets, and it's always great to see the tenants of Fenwood House come together to puzzle out one strange happening or another.
Above all else, it manages to recapture the dark allure and bubbling unease of a genre whose heyday has long since come and gone. Mount Absalom feels like a genuinely magical place, and its secret societies and supernatural inhabitants are suitably strange and otherworldly, eschewing or subverting cliche whenever it's appropriate to do so. I highly recommend it.