Lightning never strikes twice in the same place and the second season of Hunting is not as good as the first season. Even though the first season had some serious flaws, it was still really good. But despite having the same cast and showrunner, this season is less good.
This season is based on "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. So many movies are based on this book yet they all fail to realize that this book is great because it is ambiguous. This show is the same. It is very clear cut, while in the book, which is very metaphorical, you don't know what really did happen, and what is imagination gone wild.
Carla Gugino is the storyteller of this show. She tells the story of Bly Manor as a ghost story. A young nanny, Dani (Victoria Pedretti) comes to the house to help raise the two children after the previous nanny, Miss Jessel (Tahirah Sharif) goes missing. Miss Jessel was seduced by Peter (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), the family's uncle confidence man. The uncle, Henry (Henry Thomas) has lost his brother and the brother's wife in a tragic accident. It is their children that he needs to look after, but he doesn't. He never steps foot in the house.
Just like any good horror show we don't know how the kids are related to everything, but they are very good at being creepy. Amelie Bea Smith and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth do an excellent job as Flora and Miles. They are just the right amount of creepy. You don't know if they are odd because they lost their parents and are stuck living in this house with no other children or is there something sinister going on with them.
There are other people living in the house as well. Jaime (Amelia Eve) is the gardener, Mrs. Grose (T'Nia Miller) is a servant, and Owen (Rahul Kohli) is the chef. They all develop a complex relationship with each other and the other residence in the house.
Clearly there is something hunting the house, but maybe the characters are also being hunted by their personal demons are well. While this delicate balance is maintained then the show is good, mysterious, thrilling and compelling. Dani is a wonderful character. She is just a ray of sunshine. She tries to bring her positivity to the children, but they are stuck in their own little world together. Occasionally this world seems sinister, and occasionally just odd. You don't know if they are being mischievous or malicious. Dani doesn't know either. The other employees always listen to her and try to help, but it seems like only the absent uncle can help. On top of that, Dani has a heartbreaking life story that makes everything more difficult.
There are even a few love stories in this show and some of them are really good. And some make you wonder why they are there. Dani's love life is the most interesting, not just because she is the main character, but because she has a really interesting personality and relationships with the people around her.
The mystery of this show isn't as good as that of the previous season. The atmosphere isn't so much hunted house, but more like just really odd, but compelling. It is more mystery then horror, while the previous season was clearly horror. You care more about the characters then the horror and mystery around them. But once all of the mysteries are explained and revealed, you are not sure that you like the explanation. Or that you actually wanted an explanation this detailed. But at least the show had a really satisfying ending, unlike the ending of the previous show.
If you are a real horror buff you will enjoy some aspects of this show, if not, you might not find it so interesting. It's good, just not as good as it could have been.
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