Shining Vale

The finale’s payoff also cleverly drives home the message that those genre-spurred frustrations are pointedly there so we didn’t forget that this is a story about a woman who is ignored. It also comes with some brilliant one-liners (“You can’t ever get rid of mental illness. That shit is like glitter,” Joan says in the premiere episode) and comes with a stacked cast of character actresses.

“Shining Vale” has a honed sense of humor, usually (and especially) when it’s least expected. ... What’s more surprising about “Shining Vale” is how it ably counterbalances the writing’s comedic throughline with genuinely creepy touches of horror that might feel familiar to fans of the earlier, most effective seasons of “American Horror Story.”

Pat’s psychiatric facility, with its generically inky green light, screaming patients strapped to gurneys, and generally depressing air is pretty over the top, and a house creaking in its joints and beckoning people through suddenly open doors doesn’t really grab us. It’s almost like Shining Vale needs to go for the horror jugular first, before it integrates its solid jokes and noteworthy themes.

Ultimately, Shining Vale wants to be a horror-comedy, but doesn’t go hard enough into either genre. ... Luckily, the characterizations by a talented cast are enough to draw you in and keep you entertained, even if Shining Vale's genre trappings leave a lot more to be desired.

Rosemary, Joan, Pat and Gaynor represent unhappy women from four generations facing different kinds of societal pressures, internalizing dissatisfaction in similar ways. That element of the show is thoughtful and maybe even provocative, and in 28-minute episodic doses — critics have been sent seven of eight episodes — the intellectual points land often. The genre points, less frequently.

While the story whips up some acute psychological comedy about women in different generations experiencing and wrestling with the same mental illness, its supernatural attempts are junky. ... “Shining Vale” is the kind of series that just does not warrant its length, especially as its frugal supernatural points just barely nudge Pat to its larger scheme.

All snark and no wit makes this miserable misfire of a horror comedy a chore to even describe. [14 - 27 Mar 2022, p.7]

Shining Vale is neither funny or horror inspiring. Ms Cox delivers a lifeless and sub par performance, the writing is uninteresting, and the story while potentially interesting is ruined by the post modern cynical content that composes the only connective tissue of the show.