13 Years Later, Hemlock Grove Still Can’t Decide What Kind of Show It Wants to Be

Netflix’s first swing at original horror television arrived on April 19, 2013, when all 13 episodes of Hemlock Grove were dumped online at once. The pitch was strong: a small Pennsylvania steel town, a murdered girl, a werewolf, and a teenage heir to a family that runs a biomedical institute nobody trusts. Brian McGreevy developed the series with Lee Shipman from his own 2012 novel, and Eli Roth produced it. The result runs three seasons and 33 episodes, ending October 23, 2015. It never earns the length.

Trailer, via Netflix.

A Steel Mill Town With Two Bodies in the Woods

Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, is a town split between extreme wealth and poverty. The steel mill closed years before the series opens, and the jobs never came back. What’s left is the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies and Hemlock Acres Hospital. Olivia Godfrey, played by Famke Janssen, runs the Institute. Her brother-in-law, Dr. Norman Godfrey, played by Dougray Scott, is the lead psychiatrist at Hemlock Acres.

The Institute is rumored to run sinister experiments daily. That rumor is the show’s engine, and it is also the show’s problem.

As season one opens, two teenage girls are killed and their bodies are left for other people to find the next morning. Peter Rumancek, a 17-year-old Didicoy played by Landon Liboiron, becomes a suspect. He is rumored to be a werewolf. He is, in fact, a werewolf.

Roman Godfrey and the Heir Nobody Can Fix

Peter teams with Roman Godfrey, Bill Skarsgård’s character and the heir to the Godfrey estate. Roman is troubled in the vague way television prefers. The two work the murder case together while hiding their own secrets. The synopsis promises one man who cannot quench his all-consuming thirst and another who cannot tame the beast clawing its way out. That is the whole arc, stated plainly, and the show spends 33 episodes not improving on it.

The supporting cast is where the show’s better instincts live. Penelope Mitchell plays Letha Godfrey, Roman’s cousin, who says the father of her unborn child is an angel from Heaven. Freya Tingley plays Christina Wendall, a lonely girl drawn to Peter. Madeleine Martin plays Shelley Godfrey. Camille De Pazzis plays Annie.

A Cult, a Psychic, and a Ruthless Scientist

Season two promoted two supporting players to the main cast. Tiio Horn plays Destiny Rumancek, Peter’s older cousin, a con artist who works as a psychic medium. Joel de la Fuente plays Dr. Johann Pryce, the Institute’s lead scientist, described as brilliant, ruthless, and gifted with super-strength.

Season two also adds a cult determined to destroy Hemlock Grove’s supernatural creatures by any means necessary. That is a real escalation on paper. On screen it mostly adds another faction to a show that already could not decide which one it cared about.

The Emmy Night That Flattered Everyone

On June 19, 2013, Netflix renewed Hemlock Grove for a second season of 10 episodes. On July 18, 2013, Netflix earned its first Primetime Emmy nominations for online-only streaming television at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. Three of its originals were nominated: Arrested Development, House of Cards, and Hemlock Grove.

That third name has not aged well. House of Cards was a genuine event. Arrested Development had a devoted audience and a real comic voice. Hemlock Grove was nominated in the same breath and is the one nobody rewatches.

The second season premiered July 11, 2014. On September 2, 2014, Netflix renewed the show for a third and final season of 10 episodes, which premiered October 23, 2015.

Hemlock Grove Against Its Netflix Siblings

The table tells the story better than any synopsis. Hemlock Grove got the same institutional recognition as two shows with clear identities. It had none.

The Removal Nobody Fought For

Netflix announced on September 21, 2022 that all three seasons of Hemlock Grove would leave the service on October 22, 2022. In November 2022, FilmRise acquired the streaming rights.

A show getting pulled and picked up elsewhere is routine now. What matters is the speed. Nine years after premiere, Hemlock Grove left Netflix with no campaign to save it, no fan mobilization worth reporting, no revival talk. Compare that to the noise that follows a cancellation of something people actually loved. The silence is the review.

What the Werewolf Show Gets Wrong

The premise has everything a horror series needs. A town hollowed out by a closed mill. A wealthy family with a research institute and a rumor problem. Two young men with secrets that make them suspects and predators at once. A cult hunting them.

Hemlock Grove never commits to any of it. The murder mystery from season one is solved and then the show keeps going, because the mystery was never the point. The point was atmosphere, and atmosphere without a story is just a mood board with dialogue. Roman and Peter have a bond the show keeps asserting and rarely dramatizes. Olivia is imposing because Janssen is imposing, not because the writing gives her anything to do.

The casting is genuinely good. Skarsgård went on to much better work, and Liboiron is credible as the outsider. Mitchell and Tingley get the two most interesting threads in season one and the show drops them when it loses interest.

The Score

Hemlock Grove holds a Metacritic score of 45 out of 100, which is a 4.5 out of 10. That is the right number. The show is not a disaster. It is a collection of good parts that never assemble. Three seasons, 33 episodes, and a final episode in October 2015, and the most memorable thing about it is that it shared an Emmy nomination night with House of Cards and Arrested Development and earned none of the reputation.

The first season is the only one worth attempting. It has the murders, the werewolf reveal, and the Letha thread, which is the strangest and best idea the series ever had. Everything after is a show running on the momentum of a renewal it did not deserve.

4.5 of 10.

Bill Skarsgard · Eli Roth · Hemlock Grove · Netflix Horror · Streaming · TV Review