Ranking Every Episode Of The Haunting Of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House has very quickly become one of Netflix's most acclaimed and popular original series of all time. And deservedly so.

Creator, writer, and director Mike Flanagan's series takes Shirley Jackson's original novel and Robert Wise's subsequent 1963 film adaptation and boldly uses them as the foundation for an entirely new narrative. Chronicling the story of the Crains, a family of seven who lived in the house in the summer of 1992, the series tells the story of the family twenty-six years ago and in the modern-day.

The sprawling epic of horror has attracted the attention of audiences everywhere since its release several weeks ago on October 12th. Viewers have now had ample time to binge the entirety of the Crains adventures, which means its time to sit back and re-evaluate the entirety of the series, and see which episodes were the best.

To commemorate this Halloween, let's step into Hill House and rank every episode of The Haunting of Hill House from worst to best. Obviously, spoilers will follow.

Let's make something clear: there are no bad episodes of The Haunting of Hill House. Hell, there aren't even mediocre episodes of The Haunting of Hill House. Creator Mike Flanagan has created something truly special here, in which every episode plays like an integral cog in a larger piece of machinery. The episodes' quality ranges from very good to flat-out masterful.

But alas, one of them has to be at the bottom of this list and the first episode is the unlucky winner.

Steven Sees A Ghost is an incredibly solid episode but one that suffers from having to do extensive work to introduce all of the characters and plot threads to the audience. Considering that the show's central cast of characters includes the Crain parents and all five of their children in not just one but two different time periods, starting the show can feel a bit like hopping on an already running treadmill.

Which isn't a bad thing. If anything, Steven Sees A Ghost is immeasurably benefits from repeat viewings, where viewers can come back to the start after finishing the series once through. And there are genuinely great sequences here, such as the cold opening that immediately sets the tone for everything that is to follow or Steven's final moment where he sees Nell's ghost.

This episode does a splendid job of setting the table for later episodes to capitalize on.