Oni - Strach

The first season is excellent, a nice mix of horror and social drama with a touch of Jordan Peele. The second season is completely different and may disappoint a lot of people. It’s much more crime drama with elements of the supernatural, and there is much less horror than expected, but when I step back from that I still found it very fitting. It's reminiscent of the best serial killer hunting crime dramas with a nice 90's vibe, a gritty Los Angeles setting full of gangs, nasty murders, honorable mentions to Bundy, the Night Stalker, Son of Sam and more, an attractive main character to root for. The short episodes also make it nicely paced and I really enjoyed all the detective work. I enjoyed a lot the line of the eternally rejected actor who found a liking for serial killers and inhabited the role perfectly, to the point of being totally absorbed. The horror ending was directed by Ti West himself and it's satisfying. 7/10. (05.05.2024)

In the end, quite disappointing. The opening episodes were great, they had atmosphere, horror, an interestingly played out plot and drew me in solidly, but as the episodes went on, the horror elements slowly faded until they died out and at the very end we don't even get an explanation of "HOW" it all happened and what was behind it. The big upsides for me are the relatively short episodes, so it's easier to stick with them, but in this series, I find Jordan Peele and his signature drastically lacking to the atmosphere, and the whole plot ends up being rather odd, without a sophisticated idea or anything that's downright enticing. Then at the end we get at least some connection to the characters from season 1, but it doesn't really tell us anything, and it's hard to tell if the creators threw this at us because they want to build the franchise further or just to "somehow" connect the dots. From my perspective, and judging by the sheer "mediocrity" of this series, it's more likely the latter... (03.05.2024)