Watch The Haunting of Hill House in quarantine

The argument

Quarantine is, by nature, an isolating experience. You might be feeling alone — so turn off all the lights and watch a horror movie, and then you won't feel alone anymore. The joke carries the actual recommendation: horror is the one genre that turns an empty house into a crowded one, converting the very conditions that make quarantine unpleasant, the quiet and the dark and the hours indoors, into the conditions it needs to work. The Haunting of Hill House is the perfect series to binge while you're stuck indoors. Based on the 1959 novel of the same name, the miniseries focuses on the Crain siblings, who grew up in what is now considered the most infamous haunted house in the world. When the siblings must return to the house as adults, they are forced to come to terms with the traumatizing events of their childhoods — not to mention the horrors that are still locked inside the house. The premise gives the series two engines at once, a haunting and a family reckoning, which is why it can sustain a long run of episodes rather than a single scare. By giving classic ghost story tropes a refreshing new look, The Haunting of Hill House captivates and terrifies the viewer, so it rewards someone watching closely rather than half-watching to pass the time. Praised by fans and critics alike, the series has an affinity for cliffhangers, making it a binge-able quarantine staple — and a cliffhanger structure suits a viewer with nowhere else to be and no particular reason to stop at the end of an episode. Being stuck in your house might suck, but hey, at least you're not holed up with any ghosts... that you know of, at least. For anyone deciding what to put on, that is the case for watching something scary.

Context

Based on Shirley Jackson’s horror novel of the same name, The Haunting of Hill House is a 10-episode miniseries, aired originally on Netflix in October 2018.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Watching a horror series while stuck in the house is nothing short of self-destructive. During quarantine, it’s important that you keep your anxiety levels to a minimum, and keep your sleep schedule on track-both of which are much harder to do after binging a series like this. Steer clear of such harrowing shows like these, and save them for a time where the outside world isn’t so scary as well.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The reasoning is that fear substitutes for company, which is not how loneliness works — a frightening series watched alone in the dark is still watched alone. No account is given of why fear would address isolation, and the counter identifies the more likely effects, on anxiety and on sleep. [Rejecting P2] This is a synopsis rather than an argument. "Refreshing" is asserted, and nothing in the description distinguishes the series from a large number of others that would satisfy the position equally well. [Rejecting P3] Cliffhangers and bingeability are reasons a series is hard to stop watching, which is not the same as a reason it is good for someone in quarantine; taken with the counter's point about sleep, the premise arguably counts against the recommendation. Critical praise likewise supports the view that it is well made rather than well suited to this particular circumstance, which is what the position claims.