Fans of the critically acclaimed series, The Haunting of Hill House, a show that tracks the lives of a fractured and tormented family and the estate that forever became a fixture in their lives, were undoubtedly thrilled to hear that showrunner Mike Flanagan would put his talents to work on a similar series (though not a sequel), The Haunting of Bly Manor, an adaption of the infamous Henry James novella, The Turn of the Screw.
The Haunting of Bly Manor takes the viewer far from Hill House and across the pond to England, where a young woman, Dani Clayton (played by Victoria Pedretti) takes an assignment as a nanny to the two orphaned children who live on the estate, Miles and Flora (played by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Alice Come, respectively). Upon arrival, Dani meets housekeeper Hannah Grosse (played by T’Nia Miller), estate chef Owen Sharma (played by Rahul Kohli), and the gardener, Jamie (played by Amelia Eve). For as strikingly beautiful as Bly Manor is, it is quickly apparent that all is not well. The housekeeper never seems to eat, and the children often behave as if they are staring off into the distance, with their attention on things that are unseen. Soon after arriving, Dani is sure that she has seen a strange man on the property, someone who is quickly revealed to be that of Peter Quint (played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a disgraced employee of the property owner, and uncle to the children, Henry Thomas (played by Henry Wingrave). To complicate this, Dani learns that the former nanny, Rebecca Jessel (played by Tahirah Sharif) met an untimely end while stationed at Bly. What unravels, episode by episode, makes each of these characters face the truths of their own pasts and identities, as well as an Evil that has been lurking at Bly for over a century.