After Shirley, Theo. This confirms the character centric narrative as a winning choice. This was really good.
Again a real complex building of the character and her relationships, from childhood to her current situation.
So this explains why she wears gloves, and also why she knew her one night stand was too much trouble in the first episode while they didn't look like they had talked much. Her power is brought up very nicely, subtly through more and more interaction, until it his used knowingly, expertfully in the foster child case.
That obviously makes her the character with most potential, though Nell's episode should have a lot of reveal.
Child psychologist, another interesting way to cope with what happened in the house I guess.
An improvement in the horror part with the elevator and cave scene. Can't wait to discover what she saw when touching her father that night, and her sister corpse. Though shouldn't that nullify the fact that the father supposedly never told them what happened ?
Not gonna lie. I wasn't a huge fan of Theo at the start of this show, but this episode definitely shifted my thoughts about her.
Catching up now, I took awhile to get over the kitten episode. It took like 3 years to recover lol. I going to Horror Nights this year and this is there. I just hope there’s no diseased kittens.
I am still not sure what to make of this show.
After this episode I am not really convinced that there is a plan and think they are just giving us weird moments to talk about that won't be addressed or wrapped up by the finale.
Time will tell if I am wrong, but just another so-so episode in my book
It was late yesterday and I wanted to watch this episode. However, I preferred not to, because it has 8+ rating, and I didn't want to watch it alone, in my room, lights off, with headphones, and right before my sleeping time XD
Edit: after watching, it is not that scary the way I imagined from the cover image.
The episode is really amazing, the characters build up is outstanding, the story line is magnificent really. I like the way Theo came to be.
I've read all these great reviews about this show, I can't help but think I much be watching a different show. This show is completely boring and doesn't seem to resemble anything like horror.
great show! very well made
So far this is my favorite episode and Theo is my favorite character.
She has a lot of secrets and a great "gift". I'm more integrated of what happened to her dad? He seemed to be a little out of control. He pushed the mother. Why??
I like how things are going.
[7.4/10] My love-hate relationship with this show out of the gate stems from its propensity to gild the lily. There’s a lot of good stuff in “Touch”, taking advantage of what appears to be the show’s M.O. in the early going, telling a character story in the present that’s informed by a foundational story in the past. I appreciate that The Haunting of Hill House is more focused on letting us know who each of these characters is, parceling details and scares about the events at the Hill House then and Nell’s death now as we go, rather than being purely plot driven.
But man, so often it goes one speech, one monologue, one beat too far to drive an obvious point home. I really like the central metaphor of “Touch” -- that Theodora is sensitive and feels things, literally and figuratively, more intensely than other people, which caused her to take extra precautions to protect herself, to “build walls” as the show puts it. But rather than just letting that metaphor permeate the episode, it has Theo give her little speech to the kid at the beginning, or have her mom make that point almost explicitly at the end, or includes other on-the-nose dialogue to make sure that we get it.
The same goes for the evil foster dad story, which frankly was pretty easy to guess from the first scene. That said, I like how they did it for the most part, giving you the sense that something’s off and having Theo piece it together little by little. The problem just becomes when she shakes hands with the foster dad and the show sticks with their handshake about two beats too long and she tells the guy she was looking at his smile. It’s emblematic of the biggest flaw in this series so far, where something is conveyed subtly and artfully, and then the show pelts the audience with an exposition snowball to make sure we get it.
Still, I did like this one. The magical realism of Theo being a touch-based empath is done well, both in the ways it would be an advantage for her as a psychologist (one who, given her background, is especially inclined to help kids who’ve been through trauma), and also a curse when she has to feel the horror’s of the world and experience them firsthand without easy ways to turn them off. Again, there’s some moments where that idea is played a little too loudly, and I don’t necessarily love the trite “I just need to feel something other than the trauma” direction they go with it, but the episode sketches out Theo, and the way her past and her powers have shaped her, nicely.
At the same time, I’m liking the structure of the show more and more. While the first episode is kind of a jumble of introductions, the second and third seem to reveal a strong structure for a series like this one. The Haunting of Hill House manages to balance procedural storytelling, with Shirley and Theo facing the equivalent of the crisis of the week, and then ties into telling instances from their past -- like the box of kittens or the discovery of a bootleggers hideaway. At the same time, the show parcels out bits and pieces of what happened on that fateful night in the past and also the horrible event in the present, while weaving the moments, past and present, we’ve already seen together. It’s ambitious, and the structure alone helps prop the show up when some of the clunky dialogue in particular is threatening to take it down.
Overall, this show has at least one thing every ten minutes that makes me roll my eyes, and the scares are still a bit underwhelming (though the zombie in the basement was solid), but I’m more and more on board with the character-based, interwoven stories that the series is telling, even when it puts too fine a point on certain themes or ideas.
5/10
Meh
One more episode
to go then I'm
Tapping-Out.
Hello "AHS"
Finally someone showed that there's an upside to what seems like an awful ability/superpower to have... I guess that also explains why they are five children. =P
Definitely my favourite episode so far. Leo is my favourite character.
literally fuck me UP honestly oh my GOD
I'm her and I do not take off my gloves, never
Not a good choice if you’re home alone. Well I live alone so... too bad!. Altought I’m terrified and can’t even go to the bathroom with no lights on, this show is amazing. Can’t stop watching!
For some odd reason I like child Theo but not her as an adult lol.
We learn why middle daughter, Theo, wears gloves, and it has nothing to do with hygiene. Her career choice as a child psychologist is another understandable one for a Crain child. In terms of the character herself, the difference in the likability of young Theo versus adult Theo is even more pronounced than last episode's difference in the two Shirleys and it took something away from things for me. Fortunately, that dumbwaiter scene alone is worth the price of admission. Holy cow. Just a terrific scene all around and I can't remember the last time I was spooked to that degree by something on a TV or movie screen. Very impressive.
what people like and call good shows these days is quite more horror ;-)
This show is really good
Shout by kinkyVIP EP 6BlockedParent2018-10-15T21:10:18Z
I totally shat my pants during that small elevator scene! I wish this show would explore more that kind of psychological, claustrophobic horror, since apart from the pilot episode, everything's mostly been just talk and family drama and not enough suspense or horror to set this apart from everything else flooding the genre. It's like a soap opera that's occasionally disturbing.