I've watched the entire season of Hemlock Grove now, finished last night. Here's my spoiler-free review, which is naturally all my opinion and not a statement of how anyone else should feel about the show.
It gets better when you get up to around episode 8 or so. I binge-watched the last 4 or 5 episodes out of curiosity to find out who was the vargulf and what was going to happen next.
I'll admit that I had no clue about the identity of the vargulf. That surprised me. And disappointed me, at first. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.
There were no real surprises aside from that, except perhaps who they chose to kill off and some small details about Olivia.
Throughout the whole series, the only people I actually enjoyed watching because their acting seemed good as compared to everyone else's were the people playing Sheriff Sworn, Norman Godfrey, Norman's wife and Dr. Pryce. The actress playing Peter's mom was good, I think, though I can't decide if that character's one-note laidback attitude was her fault or the writers'. Probably the writers'. The best moments were the highly emotional moments, mostly in the last few episodes. I was brought to tears a couple of times when there were certain deaths because the reactions of the grieving seemed so genuine. You'll know those moments when you hit them. Best moments in the show, which seemed, for the most part, greatly lacking in real emotion.
In fact, I almost felt like I liked the show in the ending episodes, and I think that was mostly because they actually made me feel something. I mostly couldn't have cared less about any of them until we were nearing the end.
I kind of got into the way Famke Janssen played Olivia as we neared the end, but I still think someone should have done something about that incredibly terrible accent-that's-there-only-sometimes.
I don't want to spoil anyone, but the best acting in the series came in the last few episodes when a couple of people faced incredible losses. If the whole series could have been like that, I could recommend it to people. As it is, I'm about 2.5 stars out of 5, leaning down toward 2. The acting, truly, so, so bad from people who should be much better.
Every time Letha and Peter were alone on screen, I considering giving up on the damn thing, for instance. Oh my god.
There were some moments throughout that were very, very good. It was as if a different writer wrote that dialogue and had a real feel for the characters. Those were brief. Then we went back to dialogue exchanges with lines that seemed to have little to do with one another. And characters would often be filled with rage and hatred toward someone one minute, but be friends again by the next episode, all without good reason.
If they make a second season, I'll probably watch at least the first episode to see where they go from the rather strange ending. They did intend on a second when they ended it, that much is clear.
I think I'd like to give the book it's based on a try to see if it's any better. It could be a good book that they turned into this unnecessarily slow, poorly-acted show that often tried so hard to be mysterious that it sometimes became overly-obscure and dense instead of just intriguing.
If you love horror and you've got nothing better to do, give it a shot. It picks up in the last third of the season, but not as much as it should have. Chances are that, if you're a huge horror buff, you'll feel mostly cheated in the end that there wasn't more to it all.
I'm still, apparently, filled with The Rage. I'm glad you didn't feel the same way about HG, because I wouldn't wish this feeling on anyone.