Parents' Guide to The Crowded Room

This series wants to be a show all about a slow-build and a meaningful twist, but it takes infinitely too long to get to where it wants to go. And when The Crowded Room finally gets there, the twist could be seen as detrimental to portrayals of mental illness, particularly dissociative identity disorder (DID). While the episodes are lavishly shot and characters are outfitted in detailed period clothing and surrounded by period-accurate sets, the story itself treads a familiar trope in stories about mental illness, which is portraying mental illness as something linked to violence. Statistically speaking, people with mental illness are more likely to be victims rather than assailants, and while The Crowded Room tries to show nuance regarding mental illness portrayals, the series still reinforces potentially harmful stereotypes.

On top of all that, the series is just too boring to demand its audience to stick around until the story's engine finally starts chugging along. It might also be too much to ask the audience to see Holland in yet another hapless teenager role, despite the twist his character has later on in the series.