Lore (2017)

I know that I have been in a retro mood lately, but I decided to change things up as we creep closer to Halloween. With that in mind, I decided to marathon the Amazon Prime series Lore.

Plot/ This anthology series brings to life Aaron Mahnke's "Lore" podcast and uncovers the real-life events that spawned our darkest nightmares. Blending dramatic scenes, animation, archive, and narration, Lore reveals how our horror legends - such as vampires, werewolves, and body snatchers - are rooted in truth.

This was a series that I was actually looking forward to seeing. As a huge fan of folklore and the supernatural, this seemed right up my alley. Now that I have watched all six episodes, I can tell that this will be one of those series that falls into the love/hate category and there will be little middle ground. For me, I thoroughly enjoyed the series and found it both entertaining and informative. Yes, it was not perfect, but the positives definitely outweighed the negatives. The subject matter was awesome and there were some interesting elements sprinkled in, the combination of narration and reenactments provided a nice blend of storytelling techniques, and the production values were solid. Yes, the pacing felt uneven, the performances seemed a bit flat and subdued, and there were times, where the episodes jumped in odd ways, but those elements did not deter my viewing experience. I felt that the best episodes were They Made a Tonic and Black Stockings, while my least favorite was Passing Notes, which seemed to drag on a bit and try to pack way too much information into the allotted time. In the end, I found this series a worthwhile watch. Sure, it has some flaws during the transition from podcast to show, but that is to be expected. It is definitely a series that has potential and they should be able to build upon and fix the flaws as they move forward.