#'he hasn't grieved'??? what else is he DOING in the long lamplit hours of his solitude?

[oldshrewsburyian]

Even though I continue to be a wimp about horror, I am increasingly into Chapelwaite (and halfway through the series, which turns out to have 10 episodes instead of 6. Still more chances for people to become Less Okay! Help.) It's primarily a gothic horror show, but the characterization is so interesting. For instance:

the hypocritical minister™ is also genuinely trying to be a good man, and to fight for a version of his community where neighbors are more genuinely loving to each other

the dour minister's wife™ is also a grieving mother who is depressed and anxious and who feels estranged from her husband and doesn't know what to do about any of this

Honor, the sweet and solemn eldest of the Boone children, is negotiating her own place on the cusp of adulthood, but still possessed of a childlike innocence, even impulsivity sometimes. Also it turns out that she will fire a rifle at a crowd of racists trying to kill her dad (#goodforher)

I also love her siblings: Loa who is grieving and angry and not quite in her teens yet, and Tane who runs wild in the barn and garden and fights in school but also is still young enough to hold his dad's hand. I'm feeling guilty for preemptively deciding these kids were Unnecessary Additions To The Narrative because now I'm invested. And at the halfway point, Charles is practically trembling with the nervous strain of trying to protect them from isolation, grief, racists, vampires, and his own incipient madness. I am not okay about it.

Also, the acting is strong all around, and when Jennifer Ens gets her breakout role I will say aha because I love her so much as Honor. I was glad to see that Adrien Brody was nominated for an award in this because I can't decide whether watching him in this role counts as therapy (Aristotelian theory of tragedy) or requires an invoice for therapy (Tumblr theory of tragedy) but either way! There was a scene in the latest episode where we see him, in a long shot, confronting... something, we know not what. And we see his breathing change. And I started saying "nonononono" out loud, because whatever was making him look Like That...!