I would have to be honest and say that I checked out this series or just the pilot episode based solely on this poster that they have for it. Hemlock Grove is what I am talking about and it’s a  horror/thriller television series for Netflix from executive producer Eli Roth, developed by Brian McGreevy & Lee Shipman, and produced by Gaumont International Television. THe show premeiered on Netflick on April 19th and I downloaded the first episode via torrents and watched it last night. It is based on McGreevy’s novel Hemlock Grove, which was released on March 27, 2012. Currently Netflix has all 13 episodes of season that you can watch online.

I’m not familiar with the novel but we have Famke Janssen, Bill Skarsgård, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell, Dougray Scott & Freya Tingley as the main cast. Familiar faces Lily Taylor, Aaron Douglas & Kandyse McClure (from BSG). Production wise this show does remind me of Sanctuary and Lost Girl a little bit. The budget for the first season of Hemlock Grove is reportedly about $45 million and filming was done in Port Perry, Ontario a small town about an hour away from Toronto.

The show starts off with one of the lead characters, Roman Godfrey, eating an ice cream cone in a small parlour when a hot girl comes to the glass door and catches his attention. Leaving his cone, he steps outside and follows her to his car where they proceed to have sex and in a bizzarre fetish that he must have, Roman cuts his finger on a blade and rubs a little of his blood on her while she rides him. When done he goes off in his care. Later a teenager, Brooke Bluebell, is murdered in the woods of Hemlock Grove, while she is going to meet her female teacher, with whom I presume she is having a sexual affair. Her car is attacked by an unseen creature and she is chased through the woods and is killed while trying to hide in a playground. Evidence points to an animal attack but suspicions soon fall on Peter, the newly arrived gypsy. Peter is a gypsy and the new kid in town following the death of his uncle and is living in his uuncle’s old trailer park home with his mother. Peter quickly becomes the target of rumors that he is a werewolf.

Roman is a weird kid but that’s because he lives with his weird mother Olivia, who used to have sex with her brother-in-law and Roman’s father’s brother Norman Godfrey. The Godfrey family was well known for it’s steel mill in the little Pennsylvanis town of Hemlock Grove. In the present day, the steel mill has been shut down for years, but the Godfrey family has since moved on to become the owners of White Tower, a cutting edge biotech facility. There’s also Letha, Roman’s daughter, who is exceptionally close to her cousin Roman. Christina is a young novelist and a high school student who is intrigued by Peter. She’s also the first person to meet Peter as he moves in with his mother to the neighbourhood. And we have a mad scientist – a role filled by Dr. Johann Pryce, a visionary who believes that he can create life from death. Pryce is a man who will do anything to pursue his agenda. While the murder is discovered, it’s up to Sheriff Tom Sworn, the man whose job it is to make sense of the mayhem and craziness of “Hemlock Grove” while attempting to keep the town from tearing itself apart.

It’s too soon to say but I hope this one gets better as we go along. I’m looking forward to seeing the next episodes.