#to grotesque corpse faces which are somehow a lot more disturbing than the CGI ghosts which feel much more Halloweenish

[siena-sevenwits]

Disclaimer: These thoughts are more emotionally than logically expressed, and reflect my own experience and preference.

#I have some beef with Lockwood and I say this as someone who really enjoys both the show and the books. #I've been doing a rewatch to introduce it to my dad (who loves it!) but we just hit Episode 5 and - is it just me but does this episode #plunge rather deeper into the darkness than we see in the previous episodes? It makes sense narratively of course #Complete Fiction has the task of structuring it such that there's a proper midpoint shift in the series and in my own works I increase #the stakes around this point and really let the protagonists struggle. So it's not so much that I have an issue with things getting #more focused dangerous and difficult. I don't know that I have a logical reason for the unease I feel with Episode 5 - there's just somethi #vaguely disturbing to me about it. It may be my own personal sensitivities. The interrogation scene at Winkman's has absolutely nothing #graphic about it and I appreciate the discretion - but it's just so intense - the threats to draw on Lockwood's face with the heated #instrument - the whole electric shocks sequence - I have been told I have a particularly vivid and empathetic imagination so I may just #be filling in too many gaps and feeling the scene more intensely than some would but it genuinely bothered me. More so on rewatch #though I didn't like it the first time either. I wonder too if it's because on rewatch I can compare it to the scene in the book #Gosh - the book scene is *comedic!* 'Let's disguise ourselves as ditzy tourists and while you check the backroom I'll let my coins #fall all over the place and crawl around under the tables loaded with antiques and freak the owners out! And when they get caught #Winkman just lifts them off the ground menacingly and chucks them in the street. The fact that we had to turn this into a midnight #torture scene for TV - I don't know - I don't like it. And just the atmosphere isn't as balanced as in the other episodes. So many flashbac #to grotesque corpse faces which are somehow a lot more disturbing than the CGI ghosts which feel much more Halloweenish #Not much love and light carved out in the darkness. There's some for sure! And even in the torture scene that bugs me I appreciate how it #shows Lockwood's heart and allows us to explore some meaningful territory that the ditzy tourist scene doesn't #I'm just griping and mainly hoping that the rest of the series is more how I remember it from first watch. The warmth of the Portland #Row gang means a lot to me. Stacking this dark feel on top of the discomfort I have with the harsh language rubs me the wrong way #(Thankfully I have online filters so the language isn't an issue for me but it does make me more reluctant to recommend to friends.