Netflix's 'Hemlock Grove': There's 'No Shortage of Monsters' (Video)

Sophie Giraud for Netflix

"Hemlock Grove"

Netflix's original drama Hemlock Grove is more than a murder-mystery.

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The series, based on the book by Brian McGreevy, revolves around the murder of a young high school girl in Hemlock Grove, a former steel community, and centers on the bizarre collection of characters connected to it -- who each have varying reasons for getting caught up in it.

"There's no shortage of monsters on the show and they tend to fall on different varieties --  like what separates a human from a monster," McGreevy told reporters Wednesday at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour in Pasadena, during Netflix's first ever presentation at the semi-annual event. "The short answer to how supernatural the show is, is very."

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Producers noted that they shopped the series to cable networks but held out for Netflix, with their straight-to-series model more of a fit for their creative vision. "The architecture of Netflix's model, when you're writing a pilot and trying to get that sold, you approach story different than when you're looking at essentially a 13-hour movie," McGreevy said of the series, which he compared to being in tone to that of a HBO or Showtime level.

Battlestar Galactica veteran Mark Verheiden, who exec produces Hemlock, said the freedom of Netflix's business model -- no commercial breaks, no time limits, liberal language and standards limitations -- were among the key differences from his former Syfy cult series. "We were working from Brian's novel, so we knew where we wanted to go the minute we sat down," he said. "It's novel for TV to have a beginning, middle and end when you start out and we really embraced that. It's like a long 13-hour movie as opposed to episodic television."

EP Lee Shipman also noted that the first season is based on McGreevy's book with plans for a second season already under way.

Framke Janssen, Dougray Scott, Bill Skarsgard, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell and Freya Tingley star.

Watch the trailer, below. All 13 episodes of Hemlock Grove will be available for streaming on April 19.

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