Netflix’s New #1 Show Switches Genre After One Episode, And Fans Are Divided

While every episode of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen is well worth watching, the show’s approach to its genre has fans online debating about its big tonal switch-up. A lot of shows change their tone as they tell their stories, and this is particularly common in the thriller genre.

What starts out as a deadly serious show may get campier and more playful as its increasingly absurd twists are revealed. In contrast, Netflix’s His & Hers is a classic example of a psychological thriller that starts out as a relatively straightforward whodunit but ends up having a devastating, jaw-droppingly dark twist ending with its shocking conclusion.

More recently, Netflix’s latest thriller Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen takes the opposite approach and left some viewers surprised as a result. The story of Camilla Morrone’s Rachel, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen follows the uncertain heroine in the week leading up to her marriage to her fiancé, Nick.

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s First Episode Is Its Scariest

Although Nicky is seemingly a genuinely good guy, it is hard not to fear for Rachel from the moment Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s story begins. The show’s opening sequence sees a sleepy Rachel almost drive straight into the path of an oncoming school bus, and this accurately sets the tone for the rest of the first episode.

Things go from bad to worse as Rachel and Nicky try to reach Nicky’s isolated family holiday cabin, with the couple encountering increasingly surreal, bizarre nightmare scenarios along the way. First, Rachel and Nicky happen across a crying baby, seemingly trapped in a family car, and abandoned in a car park.

When Rachel leaves Nicky with the baby to go get help, she instead ends up at a deeply creepy, almost-empty bar where a man peers in on her using the bathroom before cryptically asking if she’s sure Nicky is ‘The one.’ As well as dealing with this creepiness, Rachel also finds a horribly killed fox in another public bathroom.

While the meaning of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s foxes is eventually explained, the majority of episode 1’s nightmarish events simply pile up without justification or explanation. After a while, it becomes clearer and clearer that the show is heading into psychological horror territory.

Owing something to the likes of 2003’s Dead End and 2021’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen delves deeper and deeper into hallucinatory, surreal horror the closer the couple gets to the cabin. Then, it turns out that the rest of the series is nowhere near as weird, at least until its ending.

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s Tone Switch Is Secretly Genius

In a shocking, daring tonal swerve, episode 1, “Never Get On One Knee,” is the most classically horror-coded episode of the series until its finale. It serves to make the rest of Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen feel like a big tonal swerve, as the show becomes more of a dry, albeit still creepy, dramedy.

“Never Get On One Knee” gives viewers fair warning that Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen will live up to its title and be a scary, gory, bleak show, which means that episodes 2 and 3 are a comparative relief despite their own cringe-inducing moments. This ingenious approach makes the horror scarier and the comedy funnier.

In another show, the awkward interactions between Rachel and Nicky’s family could have been painful. Instead, after the outright horror of “Never Get On One Knee,” these scenes are comparatively easy to sit through. Until Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s curse comes into play, most of the show’s episodes feel like a darkly funny drama.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, creator Haley Z Boston admitted this approach was intentional. Per Boston, “The most challenging thing is that the show feels so different in the first two episodes than it does in the rest… The pilot has a lot of jump scares. The second episode is really tense, and then episode three is much more of a family drama.”

Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s Brilliant Pacing Has One Problem

While this approach might sound highly risky, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s stellar reviews prove that the series managed to pull it off. With an 84% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 64% audience rating, it is clear that critics appreciated the early tonal switch more, but both of these scores are impressive achievements.

That said, there is one problem with Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s approach. Until its finale, the show can juggle its balance of dark comedy, psychologically ambiguous unease, and outright horror elements. However, like the aforementioned inspirations, Dead End and I’m Thinking of Ending Things, eventually, the show has to reveal its hand.

Without getting into spoilers, it can safely be said that Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen’s ending definitely does not invite a second season. Although the show can string out the viewer with its clever ambiguity to a point, eventually, Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen finally has to decide whether the show is a full-blooded horror or not.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter