Hemlock Grove (TV series)

Plot

The series is set in the town of 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 Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies and Hemlock Acres Hospital. Heading the Institute — which is rumored to conduct sinister experiments on a daily basis — is the imposing Olivia Godfrey (Famke Janssen), while Hemlock Acres' lead psychiatrist is Olivia's dead husband's brother, Dr. Norman Godfrey (Dougray Scott).

As season one opens, the town's rumor mill turns even more twisted, as two teenage girls are brutally killed and their bodies left for unsuspecting people to find the next day. Peter Rumancek (Landon Liboiron) a 17-year-old Romani boy, is suspected of the crimes by some of the townsfolk; he is also rumored to be a werewolf. Secretly he is a werewolf, and, along with the heir to the Godfrey estate, the troubled Roman Godfrey (Bill Skarsgård), he sets out to solve the mystery.

Rounding out the main cast of characters of the first season are Norman's daughter (Roman's cousin), the beautiful, Letha Godfrey (Penelope Mitchell) who claims the father of her unborn child is an angel from Heaven, and Christina Wendall (Freya Tingley), a lonely girl who becomes interested in Peter.

For season two, two former supporting characters were promoted to the main cast of characters: Peter's con-artist older cousin Destiny (Tiio Horn), who makes her living as a psychic medium, and Dr. Johann Pryce (Joel de la Fuente), the lead scientist of the Godfrey Institute, a brilliant but ruthless man of science, gifted with super-strength. A cult has arisen that is bent on destroying the supernatural creatures in Hemlock Grove by any means necessary. To make matters worse, both Peter and Roman struggle with their nature, as Peter risks becoming the same killer from the first season and Roman, after his full immersion with his true nature in the first season, has developed an insatiable hunger to kill. As they fight their enemies and deal with their situations, they must also deal with the monsters they are becoming, or have already become.

Main

Recurring

Guest

Development and production

In December 2011, Deadline.com reported that Netflix and Gaumont International Television were finalizing a deal for a 13-episode series order for Hemlock Grove. The project was officially announced in March 2012. Eli Roth serves as an executive producer and will direct the pilot, Jellyfish In the Sky. Deran Sarafian, who signed on in mid-March as an executive producer/series director, directed six episodes.

After McGreevy pushed for the series to be filmed in the Pittsburgh area, production was expected to start in early June 2012 and last until November. In mid May, Gaumont International Television pulled out of Pennsylvania in favor of production at the Cinespace Film Studios in Toronto. The move came about after Gaumont management had a misunderstanding on how the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit program works. Filming began on July 13, 2012 in Port Perry, Ontario; a small town about 40 miles (63 km) northeast of Toronto that has been transformed to look like Hemlock Grove, the fictional Western Pennsylvania town the series is set in.

The budget for the first season of Hemlock Grove is reportedly about $45 million.

Filming took place in Toronto at St Clair and Yonge at the Deer Park United Church and in Hamilton, Ontario at Hamilton Cemetery. Hemlock Grove High School was filmed at Ursula Franklin Academy/ Western Technical Commercial School in Toronto. It was also filmed in Oshawa at the Parkwood Estate; the opening scene of Season 1, Episode 1 is on Queen Street in Port Perry, Ontario.

Casting

In March, Netflix announced that Famke Janssen and Bill Skarsgård would star in the series, Janssen as Olivia Godfrey and Skarsgård as her son, Roman Godfrey. In early April 2012, it was revealed that Peter Rumancek would be portrayed by Landon Liboiron. On April 4, Penelope Mitchell was cast as Roman's cousin, Letha Godfrey. Freya Tingley was cast as Christina Wendall on April 10. On April 12, Dougray Scott was announced as Dr. Norman Godfrey, Olivia's brother-in-law and Letha's father. On July 2, Lili Taylor was cast as Peter Rumancek's mother, and Kandyse McClure was cast as Dr. Chasseur. Aaron Douglas was cast as Sheriff Sworn on July 8. In late July 2012, Kaniehtiio Horn joined the cast as Destiny Rumancek.

Music

The music for seasons 1 and 2 was composed by Nathan Barr. In October, 2015, it was announced that Todd Haberman would join Barr to score season 3.

Viewership

After its opening weekend, Netflix announced that "Hemlock Grove was viewed by more members globally in its first weekend than House of Cards."

Critical reception

Hemlock Grove has received generally mixed reviews from critics, with a Metacritic score of 46/100.

Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times called Hemlock Grove "terrible", and Alison Willmore of IndieWire, "a mess". Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the series an F, calling it "a shockingly inane misstep, a ponderous mess." Dante D'Orazio of The Verge said the show was "universally panned" on account of its "poor acting, slow plot development, and ... style that's off-key." Patrick Smith of The Daily Telegraph said that Hemlock Grove was "corny and emphatically less profound than it thinks it is", giving it two out of five stars overall. James Poniewozik of Time listed the series as one of the worst ten things on television in 2013.

On the other hand, David Hiltbrand of the Philadelphia Inquirer said that the show "manages to be lush, gross, frightening, and ridiculous--all at the same time." Tom Gliatto of People Weekly reviewed the series positively, with a score of 75 out of 100: "The acting is good, especially Bill Skarsgard and Landon Liboiron.... I like the show's languid, dreamlike beauty, but horror fans may be less patient." Jessica Shaw of Entertainment Weekly gave the series a B+.

Accolades

Hemlock Grove received two nominations for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects at the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.