Latest / Cozy Comfort Club Podcast / Gothic British TV: Haunted Houses & Hidden Secrets on PBS Masterpiece, BritBox & Acorn TV

Transcript

Gothic British TV: Haunted Houses & Hidden Secrets on PBS Masterpiece, BritBox & Acorn TV · Cozy Comfort Club Podcast

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Cozy Comfort Club,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: the podcast where we talk about comfort movies,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: cozy stories, and the little moments that make them memorable.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Leah,
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: a stay-at-home mom of three,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: a lifelong lover of cozy stories and someone
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: who can spend way too much time thinking about fictional characters
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: and why they make the choices they do.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoy cozy mysteries,
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: period dramas,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: character-driven stories,
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: and comfort TV with a little emotional depth, you are definitely in the right place.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here, I talk about how stories feel,
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I share what worked,
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: what didn't,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: and even the moments that made me side-eye a character,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: all so you know was worth adding to your watchlist.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, welcome back.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Spooky month continues,
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: and this week we're going to step inside some houses
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: where I would definitely have questions before agreeing to stay the night.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful rooms?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, wonderful.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Strange noises, mysterious dolls, and people refusing to explain anything.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to need a little bit more information.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to explore gothic storytelling through three picks on Acorn TV,
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: PBS, Masterpiece, and BritBox, plus a darker bonus outside of our usual platforms.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll start with something light and funny and then we'll work our way
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: toward more creepy and unpredictable stories.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: But first, what actually makes a story gothic?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is it an old house,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: a ghost,
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: a woman wandering down a hallway in her nightdress
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: when she really should be leaving?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Those things can certainly help, but there's more going on beneath the surface.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So for this episode,
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I did some reading,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: including John Bowen's discussion of gothic motifs for the British Library and
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: the British Film Institute's writing on gothic film and TV.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'll link my sources in the show notes if you'd like to explore them too.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now one thing I What I found helpful is
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: that Gothic stories don't all follow one strict checklist.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: They share these recurring ideas,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: unsettling places and buried secrets,
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: unequal power and a past that refuses to stay in the past.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes there are actual ghosts and then other times people are haunted
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: by grief and guilt and obsession or something
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: that their family would rather keep hidden.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: The British literary tradition is usually traced to Horace Walpole's The Castle
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: of Otranto, published in 1764.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Its second edition carried the subtitle A Gothic Story.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So writers such as Anne Radcliffe helped develop the tradition.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then later came stories including Frankenstein and Jane Eyre,
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Dracula and The Turn of the Screw.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And those stories gave filmmakers so much to work with.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So think of isolated houses,
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: dangerous attractions,
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: strange creatures,
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: and questions about what happens when people cross boundaries
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: that they really don't understand.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a few classic British films to explore alongside this week's picks,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: there's The Innocents from 1961, another adaptation of The Turn of the Screw.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's The Haunting from 1963, adapted from Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's Hammer's Dracula from 1958 with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And speaking of Dracula,
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure some of y'all saw that video of Jonathan Bailey narrating for Audible.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was very extra.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: But the people loved it.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so did I.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So go on YouTube.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can Google it.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, those are all additional titles to look into rather than recommendations
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: from today's three streaming platforms.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: They also show how varied gothic cinema can be,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: from uncertainty about a haunting to a much more recognizable supernatural monster.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Gothic influence extends beyond books and screens.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can see related imagery and fashion and music and art,
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: even video games,
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: from dramatic silhouettes and ruined buildings and eerie landscapes,
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: and this fascination with beauty, death, and the mysterious.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Gothic fiction and the goth music and fashion subculture that we all tried to copy
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: in high school aren't exactly the same thing.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Gothic architecture has its own much older history.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: But those different uses of the word do help explain So
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Halloween didn't begin
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: with gothic novels,
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: but the two share so much of the imagery that we associate with spooky seasons.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So ghosts and vampires and Old houses,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: darkness, and the possibility that the dead aren't really finished with the living.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So for me,
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: there's always this pleasure of experiencing something kind of frightening
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: from somewhere very cozy.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I can enjoy a fictional haunted house while sitting in my home with tea and
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: a blanket,
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: but I do not like all that mysterious noises upstairs or none of that running water.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-uh.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's most interesting
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: to me is how these stories make really familiar things feel strange.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So a home should offer safety, but it usually becomes threatening.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: A relationship should offer trust, but someone is keeping secrets.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And a character does start wondering whether they can believe what they're actually seeing.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So that gives us a lot to talk about,
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: especially when it comes to the characters and their relationships,
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: which you know is my favorite part.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll keep the recommendation spoiler light,
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: share what I enjoyed,
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: and then let you know how cozy or not so cozy each one felt to me.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now my bonus is a first impressions pick.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: I've only watched the opening episode,
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: but the gothic atmosphere was enough to get my attention and to bring it to
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: the podcast.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So go ahead and grab your tea,
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: get cozy, and let's begin with Agatha Raisin and a little ghost hunting.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're starting on the lighter side of Gothic Week with The Haunted House and
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: A Little Ghost Hunting and Agatha Raisin.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: First is Agatha Raisin and The Haunted House on Acorn TV.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is Season 3, Episode 1, starring Ashley Jensen, Matthew Horne,
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So pick them up if you enjoyed this episode.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can also enjoy this mystery without watching the entire series first.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: You will be joining some relationships already in progress,
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: but if you love a campy, silly,
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: colorful, cozy mystery with a quirky and eccentric lead, Agatha Raisin is your girl.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: At this point,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Agatha and James are already together and she has a detective agency
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: that has officially opened.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, it's just as eccentric as she is, but the agency needs clients.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So James comes up with an idea to drum up business, a little ghost hunting at Ivy Hall.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Olivia Witherspoon, who lives there, swears the place is haunted.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: There are ghost stories connected to the house and its history stretching back to
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: the, I think it was the English Civil War or something.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: But what begins as an investigation into a haunting becomes a murder mystery
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: where Olivia is found dead.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So Agatha and her crew start trying to figure out who had a reason
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: to frighten Olivia and who might have wanted her dead.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So there are family members,
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: local personalities, and plenty of suspicious behavior to keep them busy.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I chose this one for Gothic Week because it takes some familiar Gothic ingredients
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: and then gives them the Agatha Raisin Treatment.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So first we have Ivy Hall.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's an old house with a troubling history and story of ghosts.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: In Gothic storytelling,
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: a house often does And it's history becomes part of the threat making
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: the people living there feel that something from the past still has power over them.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're investigating here.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is the house actually haunted?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is someone using this history to frighten Olivia?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Who should we actually believe?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that uncertainty connects to the Gothic 2.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You don't always need a real ghost.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the fear that something supernatural might be happening is enough to make
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: a seemingly normal place feel threatening.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: A home should offer protection, but Olivia feels unsafe in hers.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then her death gives that fear a real consequence.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I would describe this as a cozy mystery that borrows gothic elements.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So the unsettling house,
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: the returning past or going back to the past,
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: and the doubt about what's causing the haunting.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But Agatha's humor changed.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to investigate a creepy house
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: but would appreciate Agatha Raisin making you laugh along the way,
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: this is your pick.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I gave this one 4.25 out of 5 stars.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's enjoyable.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's perfect when you need something lighter and want to giggle.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Agatha is silly.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, the banter is one of my favorite parts.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't quite as cheesy as The Good Ship Murder.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Which, by the way, I enjoy it for what it is.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: But my cozy rating is a 4.75 out of 5.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Very, very cozy.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's a murder and some spooky atmosphere,
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: but the humor and the group of characters kind of make this
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: a really comfortable watch for me.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch Agatha Raisin in the Haunted House again on Acorn TV.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's rated TV 14.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: It runs about an hour and 37 minutes.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you can make a whole cozy, spooky evening of it.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're moving into something a little bit more atmospheric,
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: more secretive, and definitely heavier.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So this is The Miniaturist.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: So The Miniaturist is a period thriller and it's adapted from Jesse Burton's novel
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: of the same name.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: So Amsterdam had become incredibly wealthy through international trade and
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: the sugar trade plays a part in the world.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: But alongside that wealth you have strong Calvinist expectations about religion
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: and morality and how people should behave.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you have people surrounded by very beautiful things but pleasure
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: and desire are treated with suspicion.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So Petronella,
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: or Nella, arrives at the Brandt household after agreeing to marry Johanna's Brandt.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: He is a wealthy businessman with really deep secrets.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: The marriage is meant to help her family out of financial hardship.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: The household is run by his sister,
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maren Brandt,
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: who is very religious and she's cold and has a complicated relationship
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: with her brother.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: They also have a maid
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: We learn early on that Otto was previously enslaved aboard a Portuguese ship
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: before Johannes brought him and freed him.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: His experience also brings racism and the realities of slavery into the story.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Petronella feels isolated by Yohannes and is treated really poorly by Marion.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: But Yohannes gives her a dollhouse as a wedding gift.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: She orders pieces from the miniaturist,
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: but it seems that whoever is making these miniatures knows everything happening in
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: the household.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Petronella starts to realize that everything is not as it seems.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much hidden within the house and within the minds of the people who occupy it.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: what I loved about this was how some of the relationships developed between Nella
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: and the other people.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: This
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: is definitely gothic to me.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: You have this house,
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: this imposing house,
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: dolls and secrets,
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: this really dark atmosphere, and this mysterious miniature maker and paranoia.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have the tension that builds from the beginning to the end.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: The miniatures also bring in the uncanny,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: something familiar, but, you know, like a replica of your own home.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it becomes unsettling when it seems to know more than you do.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: But what really makes this unsettling is that Nella enters this house as a new bride
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: and she doesn't know the people that she's living with or who she can trust.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: A home obviously should feel safe.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: This one doesn't.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: So to me...
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's a big part of what makes it gothic.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: This was just so good in so many ways.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the lead and supporting actors are incredible.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Anya Taylor-Joy is obviously a wonderful actress.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: You probably know her from The Queen's Gambit or Pearl Harbor.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: My personal favorite of mine, Peaky Blinders.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have Alex Hassel.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: His dedication to the role was spectacular.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: You may know him from Rivals or Cowboy Bebop.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Then we have Marion played by Romula Garai.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: She was brilliant.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: You may know her So if the plot isn't enough to convince you,
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: then watch it simply for the amount of talent that's actually in this.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I gave this 4.75 out of 5 stars.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: This gives the best gothic vibes without being full on horror.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's enough suspense that you want more but it didn't feel overly bloody to me.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: There are heavier themes though so content warnings including death
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: and distressed It's in childbirth scenes,
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: in violence,
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: harm to animals, racial bigotry, persecution, homophobia, and sexual content.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is still rated TV 14 and my Cozy rating is a 2.75 out of 5.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it, but there is quite a bit here that makes it a heavier watch.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch it on PBS with either PBS Passport or PBS Masterpiece, which is what I cover here.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's a three-part series with episodes around 53 minutes each.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, from a house full of secrets to a country estate
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: where we can't quite trust what we're seeing,
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: next is The Turn of the Screw,
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: the 1999 TV movie starring Jody May, Colin Firth, Pam Ferris, and Caroline Pegg.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to say,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: they should have left Colin Firth out of the promotion because he was barely in it.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're watching this for him, just know you ain't really gonna get him.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just a few minutes, okay?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is based on Henry James's gothic horror novella, and it was published in 1898.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: The story takes place in Victorian England at a remote country estate called Bly.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Jodie May plays a young governess known simply as Miss,
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: who was hired to care for Now that sounds great, right?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now before we go...
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: You may know her as Ms.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Trunchbull from the original Matilda and Ms. starts experiencing things around
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And as viewers, we're trying to figure out, okay, is this house really haunted?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or is she misinterpreting what she's seeing?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or can we trust her perspective at all?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: There are also questions about Ms. Jessel,
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: and this is the governess who worked there before her,
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: and she's played by Caroline Pegg.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Miles has been expelled from school, but the reasons aren't really cleared.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So there is quite a bit here to make you uneasy before you even get to the ghostly encounters.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what makes this gothic to me is obviously the isolated country house again.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: The secrets left behind by the people who were there before and the uncertainty
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: about what's actually happening.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: So Miss is supposed to be protecting these kids,
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: but she starts to fear that something sinister has a hold on them.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So there goes that paranoia again.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Jodi Mae plays this so well.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: We see her arrive at the manor and she's looking bright and excited.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then she starts to lose that spark day by day.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just watch her eyes as the movie goes on.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And at times she almost seems haunted herself.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: So watching that change was definitely the strongest part for me.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a little slow sometimes,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: at times,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: but I think it's the right amount of spooky for those of us who aren't too keen
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: on horror.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's about the level of fright, though,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: because the themes themselves But since this is spooky month,
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: please expect it to be darker than a lot of the TV and films I usually bring to
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: the podcast.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to keep the ending to myself,
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: but this left me with a lot to think about and with my mouth left open
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: because I've never watched this movie.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, content warnings include suicide,
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: death, disturbing scenes involving children, and themes of child abuse.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch this version of the Turn of the Screw on BritBox.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's about an hour and a half,
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: so this is a shorter watch if you want a gothic story without committing to it.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to see those two in a movie together again, go ahead and watch that.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Turn of the Screw and it came out in 2009.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if this story really interests you,
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: another adaptation to explore is The Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: It reimagines the turn of the screw alongside other Henry James stories,
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: moving the setting to the 1980s.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay friends,
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: now we've reached our bonus pick and based on the first episode,
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: this is the darkest of today's selections.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's The Living and the Dead,
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: a supernatural horror drama originally released in 2016 by the BBC.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's just one season with six episodes and each are around an hour.
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  SPEAKER_00: So we're in Somerset, England, it's 1894.
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  SPEAKER_00: Colin Morgan plays Nathan Apeby,
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  SPEAKER_00: a Victorian psychologist,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Charlotte Spencer plays his wife, Charlotte, who is a photographer.
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  SPEAKER_00: So they return from London to Nathan's family farm,
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: and after his mom dies, they take on the responsibility of keeping it going.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: But this return home brings a lot more than just farming problems.
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  SPEAKER_00: There are strange things happening.
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  SPEAKER_00: Nathan finds himself investigating experiences that seem supernatural.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's someone who's trained to really understand the mind and to look for rationality
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  SPEAKER_00: or rationality.
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  SPEAKER_00: Rational explanations.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the question,
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
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  SPEAKER_00: is what happens when he encounters something that his training can't really explain?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so Nathan is also carrying grief from the death of his young son.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: So returning to his family home means returning to a place connected to a lot of penguins.
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  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it raises a question, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: How is it shaping how he's viewing other people and all this?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Supernatural things going on and what he believes and what he wants to be true.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Can we trust his perspective?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I chose this partly because I am a sucker for a show where the main character is
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: a psychologist.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can give me someone trying to understand people's minds and then
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: a complicated past and I'm going to be hooked.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And someone over on TikTok actually recommended this to me too.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm recording, I've really only finished episode one.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: So these are only my first impressions, but I really enjoyed it.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I'll finish the season for Halloween.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, the gothic feeling was there immediately.
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  SPEAKER_00: An isolated setting.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's on a farm.
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  SPEAKER_00: An inherited family home, grief, a past that is not going to stay in the past.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's also this tension between the supernatural possibilities and science.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then Nathan brings his knowledge of psychology into a community
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: where these older beliefs have a hold on everybody.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that clash feels very gothic to me.
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  SPEAKER_00: The confidence that we can explain the world meaning something
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: that makes us question that confidence.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I also think the contrast between the beautiful countryside and
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: the disturbing events matter too.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: It can look kind of peaceful, but then it's deeply just weird.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And Nathan's connection to the farm makes it a lot more personal.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's his family's home.
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  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, the memories and losses attached to it.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this possibility of like this haunting with all these emotions is
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: that combination really is what kept me watching.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is my pick for listeners who want to venture further into some supernatural horror.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Based on episode one, it does feel darker than the other selections.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would not approach it the same way that I would approach Agatha Raisin or even
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: the miniaturist.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: The opening episode does include bereavement and references to the death of a child
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: and disturbing possession-like scenes involving a teenager.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to save my full review and ratings until I've watched more,
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: but as a first impression, it caught my attention.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you can watch The Living and the Dead free with ads on Tubi,
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: and it's also currently available with a Prime Video subscription.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just make sure you're choosing the 2016 British TV series with Colin Morgan
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: and Charlotte Spencer.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: All right, before we finish, friends, I have two books to connect to this week's theme.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: One is a five star read from last year and the other is a book I'm currently halfway through.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So first is Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: This takes us to Mexico in the 1950s.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're receiving a disturbing letter from her cousin, Catalina.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Noemi travels to High Place,
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: the remote house where Catalina lives with her husband and his family.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we're back to one of this week's recurring situations,
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: entering a household where something feels wrong,
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: but the people around you aren't giving you any clear answers.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm only halfway through this one as I'm recording,
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: so this is a reading in progress pic rather than a full review,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: but the gothic connection is pretty clear.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: We have the isolated house,
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: a secreted family,
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: a young woman,
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to understand what's happening to someone that she cares about.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Catalina is being diagnosed or was diagnosed with tuberculosis,
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: but we don't really know if that's the truth.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: She's totally different than the way that she used to be.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: She's seeing things and the house just feels so oppressive and there's uncertainty
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: about what Noemi can trust.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that brings us back to the uncanny to these ordinary surroundings and they begin
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: to feel strange and threatening.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: It also moves the gothic story beyond the English country house.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a Mexican setting and the family's relationship to a place that,
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: you know, will question race and belonging and power.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if this week's houses full of secrets have caught your attention,
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: because clearly that's the part of gothic that I love, this is a book to look into.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll save my final rating until I'm done.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: My second book is The Clinic by Kate Quinn.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: I read this in May 2025.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: I gave it a five out of five stars at that time.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's set at a remote luxury rehabilitation clinic on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: After her sister dies there, Meg enters the clinic.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: So once again,
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: we have someone who's entering an unfamiliar place trying to uncover secrets
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: and question who deserves her trust.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: I would describe this as a,
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think they actually described the book as a psychological thriller
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: with gothic elements.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: The gothic connection for me is partly the setting.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we moved from the old manor house to this isolated institution,
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: but we still have a place that supposedly promises safety while becoming a source
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: of fear.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: A clinic obviously is supposed to offer care and recovery,
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: but Meg is entering because she suspects something went terribly wrong.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's also an imbalance of power between the people receiving the treatment and
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: the people responsible for their care.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that makes questions about trust and control really unsettling.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the characters bring their own histories with them.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's trauma, addiction, grief, and complicated relationships.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's another connection to our theme.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: People can be haunted by their past without the story needing a literal ghost.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when I finished it,
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote that this was definitely And I love the combination of like plot
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: and character development and how much the character's flaws mattered here.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Very complicated people and it gave you a lot to think about.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And my notes described it as dark,
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: emotional,
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: mysterious, sad, because I put this all in story graph, intense with a medium pace.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a five star recommendation from me, but it is a heavier recommendation.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: So these two books gives us different ways into the theme.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mexican Gothic brings us that ominous house and secretive family.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Clinic brings us this institution that's isolated,
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: psychological suspense,
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: and questions about whether the people offering care can actually be trusted
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: and bolded.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Both connect to the question running through pretty much all of the pics I had today.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when a place that should protect you becomes the place
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: that you're really afraid of?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you'd like to explore these books,
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: you can find my bookshop.org affiliate link in the show notes.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Purchases through that link may earn me a commission at no extra cost to you.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, friends,
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: that's our little trip through gothic storytelling
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: from Agatha Raisin's ghost busting to mysterious miniatures and the secrets of Bly.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you found something to add to your watch list and maybe your TBR too.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: What I've enjoyed about this week is realizing how much there So
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: let
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: me know
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: which pick caught your attention.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do you prefer your spooky stories with some laughs?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Are you heading straight for the darker bonus?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can leave a comment on Substack.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear your recommendations too.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: You'll also find my sources in the show notes if you'd like to explore
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: the gothic tradition a little further.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're joining us for Spooky Month,
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: subscribe to Cozy Comfort Club on Substack to get your free bingo board.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: My $5 Cozy Fall Watchlist Tracker is also linked in the show notes
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: if you'd like somewhere to keep track of your picks.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for supporting the club,
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: whether you're listening or sharing or joining us over on Substack.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for spending partying a day with me.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this episode,
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: share it with a friend who loves British TV,
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: mysterious houses, or a good book full of secrets.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And until next time,
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: keep your tea warm,
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: your blanket close, and maybe leave those unexplained noises to somebody else.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Come for murder and stay for tea.
• 26:06
  [music]