The horror romance miniseries, coproduced by “Stranger Things” creator The Duffer Brothers, debuted on the streamer to mixed reviews.
“Something Very Bad is Going to Happen,” one of Netflix‘s latest series, may want to be careful about speaking things into existence.
The horror romance miniseries, starring Camila Morrone and Adam DiMarco, debuted on the streamer to mixed reviews Thursday, March 26. The show, created by Haley Z. Boston, is co-executive produced by “Stranger Things” creator The Duffer Brothers.
“Something Very Bad” follows star-crossed couple Rachel Harkin (Morrone) and Nicky Cunningham (DiMarco) as they embark on a whirlwind engagement. An impulsive plan to get married in one week begins to unravel as Rachel gets to know Nicky’s family, who have an ominously serious stance on marriage.
“It is up to you now to protect the soul in front of you,” Nicky’s mother, Victoria (Jennifer Jason Leigh), cautions her son and his fiancée during a family dinner.
“Morrone has an irreducible strength and spirit to her that lends the whole affair its needed credibility,” wrote Lucy Mangan of The Guardian, giving the show four out of five stars. “And then there’s the underlying terror of the message.
“What does marriage really mean? Do we ever really know someone? Can you think of anything worse than being trapped by sacred ritual to the wrong person? Of being absorbed into his family and never let go? Actually, I may never sleep again.”
Here’s what other critics are saying about “Something Very Bad is Going to Happen.”
‘Something Very Bad is Going to Happen’ charms with ‘unexpectedly sincere’ love story
Rachel and Nicky’s seemingly doomed romance earned praise from Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter, commending series creator Boston and director Weronika Tofilska for “draw[ing] out the gruesome undertones of familiar nuptial tropes with a sly and twisted sense of humor.”
“The show excels at casting a spell through odd details, nasty red herrings [and] disturbing clues,” Han wrote. “And underlying them all is an unexpectedly sincere exploration of what true love can or should feel like, pitched right on the knife’s edge between sentimentality and cynicism.”
IndieWire‘s Ben Travers similarly applauded the series for its compelling blend of horror and romance, which infuses “Something Very Bad” with “smart twists, astute observations and wicked embodiments of universal anxieties.”
But while Han was head over heels for Morrone and DiMarco’s performances, the THR critic lamented the lack of character development for the show’s remaining cast.
“Leigh has quite the entrance as an almost ghostly figure roaming the halls but then is so thinly drawn that dialogue is required to explain that we’re supposed to find her extremely narcissistic,” Han wrote.
“On the flip side, characters like Jules and his wife Nell (Karla Crome) and Nicky’s dad (Ted Levine) do get more intriguing as we learn more about them but then aren’t granted enough screen time to grow beyond mere foils to Rachel and Nicky’s story.”
‘Something Very Bad is Going to Happen’ panned for slow pace, lighting
Although “Something Very Bad” consists of just eight episodes, the Netflix miniseries was criticized for its consistently slow pace and winding storylines.
“It’s hard to shake the feeling that this would have worked better as a feature film,” Louis Chilton of The Independent wrote. “The pacing drags, and some of the tortuous plotting feels as if it is simply stalling for time.”
Time magazine TV critic Judy Berman echoed the sentiment, saying the show’s explorations of marriage and true love are muddied by the episodes’ sluggish timing.
“Netflix allows users to change the playback speed of its videos. I hate this feature,” Berman wrote. “Yet as I was watching … I had to fight the urge to toggle up the speed to 1.5x. By the third aimless episode, I felt more dread about having five more installments to go than I did about anything that was happening to the characters.”
While the dark plot of “Something Very Bad” was welcomed by critics, the series was knocked for its sparse lighting, with Chilton reflecting that the show’s “dark and color-washed” aesthetic makes it “hard to tell what you’re even looking at.”
“It’s a tedious axiom at this point to complain about Netflix’s allergy to good lighting set-ups. The issue pervades nearly all of its shows [and] most of its original films,” Chilton wrote. “But the drab and colorless look of ‘Something Very Bad’ undermines everything else about it, neutering horror and drama alike.”
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