TALES FROM THE BLACK MANOR and The Rise of Anthologies
Genre anthologies are on the rise, and there’s a good reason why. From Love, Death & Robots to Black Mirror and V/H/S, these short-story collections have found a way to hook viewers who want just enough to get spooked, intrigued, or blown away, without committing to a long narrative.
Tales from Black Manor—a series about a family’s dark legacy with Death itself, stretching from the 1300s to the present—taps into this trend with short, punchy stories that get to the heart of the story fast.
The beauty of Tales from Black Manor lies in its setup: each story is a glimpse into another Black family member dealing with Death in its own way, yet each tale connects to a larger, ominous history.
One story might show an ancestor's willingness to kill in the name of Death in medieval times, while another jumps ahead to a more modern character grappling with that same dark presence.
It’s the kind of approach that lets the story unfold in fragments, keeping each episode fresh while building a deeper, shared story across time.
And because each episode is self-contained, there’s no need for filler or drawn-out explanations.
Genre and short stories go hand in hand. Why? Because the format forces each moment to count. In a short anthology story, there’s no space to relax. It’s about delivering a single, effective idea—like the perfect scare or the perfect moment.
People love the unpredictable nature of anthologies. In an era where binge-watching means hours spent on one story arc, an anthology series feels refreshing.
Think about Black Mirror, where each episode feels like a one-off nightmare of the near future. And in Love, Death & Robots, the short format helps each piece feel like a glimpse into a strange, unfamiliar world, where not everything has to be fully explained.
Tales from Black Manor brings that same focus, but it keeps a shared history, a family story that ties everything together.
Each episode is its own mini-thriller, but it also adds a piece to a bigger puzzle—a family that chooses their immortality over the life of another. This lets the series tell stories in different eras, with different characters, giving each one its own unique look and feel.
An anthology gives a lot of freedom, too. It doesn’t have to stick to one storyline, so it keeps things fresh. You never quite know what the next story might bring.
For Tales from Black Manor, that’s half the fun. We see how the Black Family evolves with the times, how each generation encounters Death a little differently. Each story pulls you in, each setting feels different, and every episode ends with the same question lingering: What other extremes has the Black family reached in their pursuit of immortality?
Nick Trivundza