Hemlock Grove (TV series)

Lore & Background

The series is set in Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, a town of extreme wealth and poverty following the closure of its steel mill. The Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies and Hemlock Acres Hospital are the main employers. The story follows Roman Godfrey (Bill Skarsgård), heir to the wealthy Godfrey family, who befriends newcomer Peter Rumancek (Landon Liboiron), a secret werewolf. Together they investigate brutal murders while hiding their own dark secrets. The first season's main cast includes Famke Janssen as Olivia Godfrey, Penelope Mitchell as Letha Godfrey, and Freya Tingley as Christina Wendall.

In season two, supporting characters Destiny Rumancek (Kaniehtiio Horn) and Dr. Johann Pryce (Joel de la Fuente) were promoted to main cast. A cult arises bent on destroying supernatural creatures, while Peter and Roman struggle with their natures. The third and final season premiered on October 23, 2015. Netflix announced on September 21, 2022 that all three seasons would be removed from the service on October 22, 2022. In November 2022, FilmRise acquired the streaming rights.

Reader's Guide

Hemlock Grove was notable as one of Netflix's early original series, helping establish the platform's foray into original programming. On July 18, 2013, Netflix earned its first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for original online-only streaming television at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, with Hemlock Grove receiving a nomination alongside Arrested Development and House of Cards. The series was filmed primarily in Ontario, Canada, including Port Perry, Toronto, Hamilton, and Oshawa, after production moved from Pennsylvania due to a misunderstanding about the state's film tax credit. The first season's budget was reportedly about $45 million. The show's removal from Netflix in 2022 and subsequent acquisition by FilmRise marked a shift in streaming rights for early Netflix originals.

Did You Know?

• The series was based on Brian McGreevy's 2012 novel of the same name.
• All three seasons were removed from Netflix on October 22, 2022, and FilmRise acquired the streaming rights in November 2022.
• The first season was filmed in Port Perry, Ontario, transformed to look like the fictional Western Pennsylvania town.

Production & Streaming Debut

Hemlock Grove arrived on the streaming landscape as a bold entry into the horror genre, produced by the acclaimed filmmaker Eli Roth and developed by writer Brian McGreevy alongside Lee Shipman. The series was a production of Gaumont International Television and drew its narrative foundation from McGreevy's 2012 novel of the same name, translating that literary source material into a television format. Netflix served as the exclusive home for the show, which debuted on April 19, 2013. In keeping with the platform's then-nascent model for original content, all thirteen episodes of the first season were released simultaneously, allowing viewers to consume the entire run in one sitting rather than waiting week to week. This approach gave the series a distinctive identity within the streaming catalog, positioning it as a complete narrative arc from the moment it became available. The combination of Roth's genre sensibilities, McGreevy's gothic storytelling, and Netflix's all-at-once release strategy created a viewing experience that felt closer to a feature-length saga than a traditional television season.

Plot & the World of Hemlock Grove

The story unfolds in the fictional Pennsylvania community of Hemlock Grove, a place scarred by economic decline after the town's steel mill shuttered years earlier. That industrial collapse left a deep divide between extreme wealth and grinding poverty, with the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies and Hemlock Acres Hospital now serving as the primary employers. The Institute, led by the formidable Olivia Godfrey, carries persistent rumors of sinister daily experiments, while her brother-in-law Dr. Norman Godfrey heads the hospital's psychiatric wing. The central mystery ignites when two teenage girls are found brutally murdered, their bodies left for ordinary residents to discover. Seventeen-year-old Peter Rumancek, a newcomer to the town, becomes the prime suspect among locals who whisper that he is a werewolf—a secret he indeed harbors. He teams up with Roman Godfrey, the troubled heir to the Godfrey estate, and together they investigate the killings while each concealing a dark truth about his own nature. By the second season, the stakes escalate as a cult forms to eradicate all supernatural beings in the town, and both Peter and Roman must confront the violent impulses consuming them.

Cast & Character Portrayals

The ensemble cast anchors the series' gothic atmosphere. Famke Janssen commands the screen as Olivia Godfrey, the imperious head of the Institute, while Bill Skarsgård brings a brooding intensity to Roman Godfrey. Landon Liboiron portrays Peter Rumancek, the young werewolf at the story's heart, and Penelope Mitchell appears as Letha Godfrey in the first season, a character who claims the father of her unborn child is a celestial being. Freya Tingley rounds out the first-season core as Christina Wendall, a lonely girl drawn to Peter. The cast evolved significantly across seasons. Kaniehtiio Horn and Joel de la Fuente, initially recurring, were elevated to series regulars for seasons two and three as Destiny Rumancek and Dr. Johann Pryce respectively. Dougray Scott played Dr. Norman Godfrey through the second season. One of the production's most notable technical achievements was the portrayal of Shelley Godfrey, Roman's heavily deformed but kind sister, played by Nicole Boivin and later Madeleine Martin, with the character's remarkably large physical form provided by stand-ins Amazon Eve and Michael Andreae for wide shots. Recurring and guest roles included Lili Taylor as Peter's mother, Kandyse McClure as the investigator Dr. Clementine Chasseur, and Aaron Douglas as the town sheriff.

Recognition, Renewals & Post-Netflix Availability

Hemlock Grove's brief but notable run left a mark on the streaming landscape. Just two months after its premiere, Netflix renewed the series on June 19, 2013, committing to a ten-episode second season. The show also achieved a milestone in television recognition: on July 18, 2013, it became one of the first online-only streaming series ever to receive Primetime Emmy Award nominations. At the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, Hemlock Grove shared that historic distinction with Arrested Development and House of Cards, marking a watershed moment for the legitimacy of streaming content in the awards world. The second season premiered on July 11, 2014, and was renewed for a third and final ten-episode season on September 2, 2014, which ultimately aired on October 23, 2015. The series concluded its Netflix run after nearly a decade, with the platform announcing on September 21, 2022, that all three seasons would be pulled from the service on October 22, 2022. However, the show found a new home shortly after: in November 2022, FilmRise acquired the streaming rights, ensuring the series remained accessible to audiences beyond Netflix's catalog.