Aug 21,2020
By Dray Breezy
Lovecraft country was not what I expected. How does an episode begin as a true crime period piece and then end with vampires biting the faces off of racist cops? I’ve honestly never seen anything quite like this and this show looks like it has the potential to be this year’s Watchmen.
For all of you devoted readers I have to warn you, this review will contain spoilers so if you have not seen the show stop here!…and watch the show.
The show begins with an elaborate dream sequence involving the protagonist of the show Atticus Freeman, played by Jonathan Majors. Freeman is an American war veteran and the dream is a parallel to his time spent in the Korean War…except the enemy soldiers are aliens. The intense battle scene between human and alien soldiers and warcraft is interrupted by a comic book style UFO beaming down Jamie Chung in full Star Trek makeup red body paint cosplay. She embraces Freeman but their moment of intimacy is interrupted by a large seven tentacle monster bursting through the ground. Before Freeman can defend his new damsel the monster explodes, revealing none other than Jackie Robinson as the hero, swinging his bat in patriotic confidence. Sounds nuts right? It was but it was a fantastic start to a show which I still know very little about.
Atticus suddenly wakes and we are introduced to the setting of the show, a segregated America. Atticus is traveling to Chicago from a deeply segregated south and the opening scenes all establish that he is an avid reader. He discusses the classic science fiction novel A Princess of Mars with a fellow passenger and the writers don’t shy away from the sharing the hard perspectives of the victims of Jim Crow. During his talk with the passenger we also discover why Atticus is traveling back home, his father has gone missing.
Atticus returns to Chicago to be greeted by his father’s brother George Freeman played by Courtney B. Vance. George Freeman has a very essential but odd job, he travels around the country updating a “Safe Negro Travel Guide” a guide and map as to where black people are safe to travel. Before you ask yes this was a real thing, lynchings and sundown towns are a real thing.
George Freeman owns a book store, we can infer that this is where Atticus ,Tic as everyone in town calls him, picked up his passion for reading. We find out that Tic’s father has been missing for two weeks. Before his disappearance he wrote a letter to Tic saying he had found out where Tic’s mother had come from, the score and body reactions from George suggest there is more to Tic’s lineage than he wants to let on. There is a strong supernatural element that is being introduced throughout the conversation between Tic and George and that vein of fantasy only expands through the episode. The letter directs Tic to go to a place called Ardham in lovecraft country, so the search begins.
We are then introduced to Letitia (Leti) Dandridge played by Jurnee Smollett through a rather tense yet musical scene with her on screen sister. The tension seems to stem from the fact that she’s the sibling that only shows up when she wants or needs something. We all know those people. Dandridge and her sister perform a duet and we establish that she’s gonna be in town for more than a couple of days.
Before Tic and George depart, Tic goes to his father’s place of residence looking for clues. His search isn’t fruitful, however he sits down and makes an international phone call to South Korea which connects. A female voice answers first in Korean then in English asking if it is Tic. She knows it is, we know it is, but he first struggles to form words then refuses to speak. “You went home, you shouldn’t have.” are the last words we hear before Tic hangs up panicked. Something about the voice over the phone sounds frightening and Tic seemed just as scared as I was.
While preparing for the trip, Tic runs into Leti packing up George’s car and realizes that she’s coming along for the trip, its not really explained why, but Jurnee’s portrayal of this character is exciting and her presence very much appreciated in all the coming scenes.
We watch the trio travel along rural roads with a James Baldwin’s scathing criticism of the American Dream in relation to the Negro. The trip begins rather placid, the trio having the dual goals of finding Tic’s father and adding entries to the guide. Things begin to escalate in Simmonsville when they go to a diner for lunch. This diner is an all-white diner but these three black characters take the risk to eat there. Tic is a proud veteran but bubbling within the surface of his nerdy physicality is a pool of deep rage at the virulent racism in his country. The white server greets them once and sneaks off to the kitchen, and because he feared for his life he called the police. The trio attempt to make a quick escape but not before Smollett delivers the best line of the episode in a frantic voice, “ Get yo ass up, we gotta get the fuck outta here!”
She yanks them into the car and they begin a high speed chase and shootout with the local cops. Right when it seems like the mob of angry white guys are about to execute our protagonists, a vintage silver luxury vehicle with tinted windows comes out of nowhere, cuts the truck off, and uses some sort of telekinesis to flip the truck of the lynch mob. As they drive away Tic gets a glimpse of the driver, a wealthy female with piercing blue eyes. Her entire looks gives assassin.This show is turning out to be brilliant.
The group heads to Letitia’s brother’s place where we find out that they are going to a place, Devon County that was founded by witch hunters. After this reveal I am completely in, like completely super duper in. True Blood with black folks, I’ll take it HBO.We then witness a rather touching scene in this episode. While Letitia and her brother have an explosive argument regarding her absence in her mother’s funeral, Tic has a breakdown with George regarding his abandonment issues with his father. He battles George’s defense of his father, but George explains that Tic’s father was the victim of some abuse during his childhood and George failed to protect him. Tic tries to understand but fails and Leti goes too far and is kicked out of her brother’s home. The dual storytelling mechanism in this scene was powerful and well executed.
As the group arrives in Devon County something in me knows shit is about to hit the fan and I couldn’t have been more right. The group takes a quick stop and are ambushed by a very horrible cop. This cop explains to them that they are in a “sundown county” and that he will kill them unless they leave in the next 7 minutes, before the sun sets. Another cop chase ensues as the cop terrorizes them on their drive out his town. As they cross the county line and the sun is setting part of me thinks that our group has survived but before we can breathe a sigh of relief the group runs into a roadblock of even worse cops. The score continues to build, we don’t know what will happen to our group but we do know that they are quickly loosing what little control they have of the situation.These cops are under the impression the Tic,Leti,and George are responsible for some local burglaries of some type. Armed, they kidnap the group and take them into the woods, beginning their extrajudicial lynching. As they cock their shotguns to finish off the group, a strange chorus of noises erupts from the surrounding woods. Thats when chaos ensues.
The entire group is ambushed by monsters of some sort. These monsters are much stronger and faster than humans and apparently view us a food source. They have the ability to bit off whole limbs and torso in one go. They are terrifying and they make quick work of many of the officers. Our group escapes from the chaos and finds an abandoned cabin to hide in. Two officers, one badly injured from a bite wound join them.
These scenes introduce some really interesting power dynamics. Everyone in the cabin is trying to survive but the two cops are also trying to flex their power and racism on Tic because he clearly is the smartest person in the room. His intelligence naturally provokes their rage. After a heated battle of words the two opposing groups decide to send Leti to the car as a rescue attempt. In the initial chaos George had noticed that the monsters were afraid of light and combined that with their consumption of human flesh and surmised that they might be vampires. Once again HBO, I’m so fucking in.
Leti sprints to the car, battling off her own monster with ingenuity and the new knowledge that they have a strong sensitivity to light. Simultaneously the officer that is badly infected in the cabin begins to turn into one of the vampire monsters walking dead style. His turns to his partner who is still more frightened of the black people in the room and chews his entire face and neck off. Right before the officer turned vampire monster has a chance to do the same to Tic and George, Leti smashes their vehicle into the cabin saving Tic and knocking George unconscious. Leti jumps out of the car and they pull George’s unconscious body into the headlamps of the car as the monsters surround the rubble of the cabin. Leti and Tic light dozens of flares and prepare to fight the monsters off when suddenly another odd song erupts from the forest, a light airy siren which summons all the monsters away from the group.
The bloody and battered group are next spotted in early morning walking across a bridge that apparently leads them to the place they had been looking for, Ardham. The bridge takes them to the drive way of a enormous mansion, in that driveway is the silver luxury car of the vehicle that saved them earlier. Before Tic can knock on the door, a very fancy looking lad who we’ve never seen before opens the door and says to Tic, “We’ve been expecting you Mr.Freeman, welcome home.”
This is one of the most exciting first episodes of a show that I’ve seen all year. Lovecraft country has such an original concept and execution that this show can pretty much go in any direction. I’m sure some will compare it to FX’s The Strain, or other HBO cult classics such as True Blood, or Watchmen but since I enjoy all of those shows I will view that analysis as a compliment. Executive produced by Jordan Peele, you can already see his trademark nuance when it comes to depicting black characters, how George’s wife, Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis) is avid star gazer and has a telescope in her kitchen, how their daughter draws comic books and redraws road maps in Dungeons and Dragons esque fashion. The writers anddirector are creating a fascinating world and I hope the rest of the episodes can compete with the brilliance of this one.