Review of Shadows House

“Shadows House” is what happens when a pretty awesome idea is held back by unfocused writing and inorganic infodumps. I wasn’t expecting this show to be that much right up my alley. A slow burn mystery. Questions piling on with each episode. Every answer is earned and not given. Methodical world building. The MC is more passive than active but we can’t have it all. And then… episode 10 happened and destroyed everything but I’ll get to that. Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people,so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

The story in this show is a rather simple one. A story about one unique resident of the house ruled by mysterious creatures with mysterious powers. Her living and learning her role in that world. Simple, not very flashy or grand but enough for a good plot.

And here lies the problem. I would divide those 13 episodes into 4 parts.
Episodes 1-4 are a slow methodical, incremental world building. We see Emilico (the MC) learning the ropes of her duties as a “Face” and “Living doll”. Those are pretty solid. With each episode questions about the house and its inhabitants pile up and we get surprisingly little answers.
Episodes 5-9 are the Debut episodes. Those are more focused on a sort of a survival game. On paper it’s a solid idea and it even doubles as another way to pile up questions about the house. Unfortunately those episodes are also unfocused and a bit lazy in the details. At one point the dolls are given a time limit to “save” their masters. This should work as a drama point that would add stakes and urgency to the plot. It doesn't. Despite having a strict time limit and a rather challenging mission, most of the time everyone is surprisingly calm and doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. Those episodes work more as relationship building episodes rather than a tense survival situation, that is according to the rules of the house.
Episode 10 is the episode that destroys most of the mystery about the origin of the Shadows and Dolls. And does it incompetently.
Episodes 11-13 are the "Defeat the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy)” episodes and are surprisingly adept at using tension and twists. It was a nice surprise after the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot that Episode 10 served.

There are actually a number of mysteries in this show.
1. What are the Shadows?
2. What are the Living Dolls?
3. Why Living Dolls require food. If it’s a doll then a chemical source of energy is not very efficient.
4. Why do Shadows have an almost symbiotic (parasitic?) relationship with their dolls and how it’s managed?
5. Why do shadows emit soot?
6. Why do some Shadows seem to have supernatural powers and others don’t?
7. What are the veiled dolls?

Those are just some of the mysteries that we are presented in the worldbuilding episodes. Later that list expands but mentioning more would be spoiler territory.
I like how each episode gently adds a mystery or two to the stack. It’s done in an interesting and actually mostly organic way. Because our POV character is a Living Doll we get new information as she stumbles on new situations or people related to them. Does it slow down the pace? A little, yes. I’m not going to lie to you that this is a fast-paced show, but the slow burn is actually preferable in a mystery show like this. It gives You time to soak in everything that is going on and reflect on the mysteries themselves.

Emilico as a character is a hit or miss. Depends what you like. She’s cheerful, curious, thinks outside the box and is a bit too compassionate for a creature that is called a Living Doll. Unfortunately she doesn’t grow in her personality. She starts this way, and actually ends the season the same way. No new traits. Just a cheerful, optimistic Living Doll that wants everyone to be friends. Even when episode 11 gives her revelations that should shatter her perspective on herself, the Shadows House and the whole situation she finds herself in. That revelation doesn’t seem to have any effect on her, or others. Despite being rather powerful and important for the existence of Living Dolls, everyone just acts like it’s nothing. It’s the biggest letdown when it comes to her character. I was hoping for growth and not stagnation.

The Debut is also a mixed bag. There are some pretty good ideas when it comes to strengthening the relationships between the dolls and their masters but there is just one problem. The hedge maize. The dolls get a quest. Find their masters. Seemingly simple but there is a catch. They only have 2 hours to do it. The person giving them this mission, despite wanting them (or at least a few) to fail does give them proper clues to that mission. I really liked that. Yes, the man is an asshole but he does give them a fighting chance and mostly doesn’t interfere with anything. That said, those 2 hours are the problem for the type of plot we are presented with. The setup is that the situation is pretty bad. They have limited time and on top of that they have more rules to follow if they want their masters to complete the debut successfully. All that screams urgent. And yet, no one acts like it is. Yes, they verbalise the direness of the situation but they don’t really act like that. They move slowly, monologue and even have conversations between each other. I’m not saying they should run around like headless chickens but at least a little tension would be nice. This feels more like a picnic or a simple, child friendly scavenger hunt than a test, with the futures of the dolls and their Shadows on the line. Apart from that the debut is a solid arc. Everyone has a chance to show off their personalities and uniqueness. The characters stop functioning like background NPC and evolve into more fleshout and actually supporting cast members. Even if the ending is a bit heavy handed.

Now for the worst part of this whole season. Episode 10. Who the hell thought that having an episode that destroys most of the mysteries by a dumb, badly written, inorganic infodump was a good idea? I jest. We all know who did that. The effing, lazy writer. We had 9 episodes of a slow burn, during which mysteries started to pile up. We get more questions than answers. I loved that. Apart from the problem of barely having any clues for solving them of course. And at least 3 of the most interesting mysteries get effing spoiled in episode 10. What are the Shadows? What are the living dolls? Why do Shadows need the dolls? We get answers for those questions in a fucking exposition dump, and not even an organic one. People who already know all that give those dumps to people who already know all that. WHY? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? It destroyed my will to watch the rest of the episodes. Yes, it presented some other questions in the place it answered but they are far less interesting.
I wouldn’t mind this info dump that much if it was organic and logical. Why not let Emilyco find some sort of journal or a log with information (System Shock style)? It would still be lazy AF but at least it would be logical. There is no reason for people who know everything to infodump each other. I could write an essay about how this episode shits on everything competent writing stands for, but I doubt many people would read this. Moving on…

Episode 11 has mostly the same issues as episode 10 but at least makes it a little more organic. Yes, there are a ton of info dumps but at least they are as a conversation between people who know somethings, the those who don’t. Not the best way but at least more logical so in contrast I’m not against it as much. Plus it starts the final arc - the BBEG arc.
This arc is surprisingly short but, apart from the very ending that is a giant Deus ex Machina, surprisingly competently written. The only real downside (apart from the ending that is) of it is that it wastes a lot of characters. It shows them in the beginning and later just leaves them with nothing to do. Yes, the characters that got the most growth during the debut were used and even done so competently, for the type of plot this is, but I was hoping the other cast members that got less development would get a chance to shine properly this time. Oh well, c'est la vie.

In general I think it’s a good show, but episode 10 really is something that should have been cut. In its place should either be nothing or something at least that pretends to be organic.
But since the beginning and ending are pretty solid I still like it. But if I ever rewatch it I intend to skip episode 10.