LOVECRAFT COUNTRY

oops, ykwim

Topsy and Bopsy were legit terrifying
And the girl who plays Dee was incredible!

I am really loving the show, never seen something that is such a wild unpredictable rollercoaster of actual horrors, supernatural horrors, magic & history but also downright charming at the same time.

I took Christina’s Emmett Till reenactment partly as a way of testing her protection spell/mark of cain, like proving her invincibility to herself, ie that she can survive anything, including torture and death. Hence her laughing at the end? idk whole thing was fkn CRAZY

oh and the effect they use for Ruby’s metamorphosis from white body to black & vice versa looks so incredible and horrific, blows me away every time

Dee slipping through the cracks as every adult around her fails to clue her into the supernatural dangers swirling around them because they're too focused on the prosaic day-to-day dangers swirling around them was *chef's kiss*

I was just confused because I thought Christina had just mentioned her goal is achieve immortality, not that she already has it?

Anway put me in the "this is both the best and sillyest thing". Very high/low all around.

One of my favorite elements of this show is that so many of the characters who were introduced as supporting players early on and who in a typical show would kinda be perpetually relegated to the sidelines have been given their own showcase episodes where I'm like 'okay, that character is great and the actor portraying that character is great'.

xxpost DJP otm

and the sidewalk scene between her and Letty was so well-observed. Dee’s been missing & is clearly FREAKING out but all that takes a backseat to Letty’s own personal crisis in that moment, like kid I can’t spare you anything emotionally in this moment: you’re a big girl: handle it

lots of really subtle but SO true domestic/personal moments in this show

Also that they all assume she's trying to deal with the fallout of her best friend's murder and not that she's being chased by demon pickaninnies

Like, every major character is drowning in magic at this point and none of them even consider the possibility that it might have spilled over onto Dee

totally! also can i just say that ~holy fuck~ the added layer of magic in her scenes w the cops made all of it a whole new level of terrifying

agree with Matt DC. I wish they'd dispensed with all the crap CGI ghoulies and stuck with the more subtle, insidious tone that most of the first episode promised (until the crap CGI ghoulies turned up).

i've only seen the first couple episodes though. happy to stick it out

also i was ride or die with this show from the first ep so i cant help any of you hangback fools itt

/jk <3

I don’t take the opinions of anyone who hasn’t seen episodes 3 and 5 of this show seriously

^^^

Hoping this is going to return for a 2nd series and get even weirder. Could do with them doing more along the lines of psychedelic sequences stroked by Sun Ra.

Actually the one thing I'm not totally into is them moving away from great music roughly contemporary to the action.could do with less much later stuff. Cos the contemporary stuff they picked has been very tasty.

Could do with them doing more along the lines of psychedelic sequences stroked by Sun Ra.

The space lady with the massive hair was one of the greatest things I have seen on television in ages. Apart from the fact that she looked awesome, it was an absolute delight to see something positive and aspirational in a programme so full of dread and horror.

space lady was presumably the character her daughter had been drawing in the travel comic she wrote.
though maybe that's already clear.

oh hey wow i didnt catch that! thanks

Ah, I didn't cop that either. Smart.

I agree that the show sometimes loses its balance, which isn't a surprise given how much it's trying to balance, but the good stuff is great and the bad stuff is mostly just ridiculous rather than aggravating. Honestly, the show it reminds me most of is Buffy — all the horror-as-metaphor, the overarching plot that sort of comes and goes, the characters' interpersonal dramas, etc.

man this week’s ep was harrowing af
i need to lie down

and that requiem floored me
for a moment I thought it was Leontyne Price singing! what an incredible voice

stunning

Greenwood 1921 is getting quite an outing this year.
Presumably this must have been filmed before Watchmen got in on the act.
NOt to mention orange faux pases

catch myself, a dogwhistle said loudly is no longer a dogwhistle and a faux pas done intentionally is not a misstep.

Still wonder how many people knew about the Greenwood massacre before it turned up in public as a sci fi show trope thsi year.
THink there were books selling quite well in certain markets.

That was a terrific episode, although it was driving me a little crazy when Leti was slow walking through the fire and flames back to the portal while Hippolyta was agonizing, trying to keep it open.

Says a lot about our country that prestige HBO shows have done more to teach Americans about Greenwood than 100 years of public education.

was thinking the same thing with Leti yeah.

Great episode, definitely. I really like how every episode (especially the last half) are very satisfying on their own. They tell a fairly compact story with a beginning, middle, end end. This one didn't rely on a cheap cliffhanger and "oh, we're blowing your mind" Lindelhof bullshit, but still fit well into the larger narrative.

last half = last half of the season

Finale thoughts? SPOILERS, since the opening of the thread allows for them. Some talk here and here from the show runner, Misha Green. She dodges the question of Tic returning, but confirms they're open to an unannounced 2nd season, while not providing any spoilers as to its content.

Semi-trained not to accept deaths as final, particularly in an episode where they brought back Titus, but Tic's sacrifice had weight. Ruby choosing Leti over Christina, also impactful. One of those series that feels self-contained and complete, and not the first part of a five-year effort. I want more, but if not, this was good tv.

It's oddly difficult to get a sense of whether I should read the book or watch the series in this case. Opinions are divided? I have some irl friends who love the book and aren't that into the show.

I loved it. I was hoping that they would find a loophole for Tic to avoid sacrificing himself but they did a good job of not only making his sacrifice feel inevitable but an earned, premeditated choice.

I also loved the emotional arc of all the characters. If there’s one thing I wish had happened, it’s that Sammy had also been accepted by the family. It’s certainly a thread a second season could pick up, but I also am not sure what story a second season would tell; they resolved the central conflict and effectively destroyed Lovecraft Country. They can all make themselves impervious to harm. It might be fun to see where these characters go when unencumbered by the fear of oppression as well as exploring what limits there are to the magic they have reclaimed but how do you do that in a way that keeps them heroic and doesn’t invite lazy comparisons to Randian philosophy? I’m willing to give a subsequent season the benefit of the doubt but story wise, this was satisfying for me.

Thought it was excellent and very satisfying without quite hitting the highs of some previous episodes.

Assuming the book was a one off and it's all been told in this first season?

Yes, there are some differences in the overaching plot but they covered all of the same material.

(I haven't read it yet, just the Wikipedia synopsis)

Hoping this at least opens that gates fopr further explorations along similar lines while also hoping it doesn't lead to clones or similar.
Did wonder if this was going to get a 2nd season, same with Watchmen which i also finished yesterday. Thought I wasn't going to like that then did.
Funny that they both featured Greenwood heavily , was it a coincidence?

anyway want to see more of this cast so hope they are going to go onto good new stuff.well the black cast anyway.

Oh yeah did like Hypolyta coming in to save her daughter with the blue hair of the spacegirl showing.

& wonder where the story would go with Dee. Did something happen off screen that we should know about there , but spoiler.

I read the book a few years ago so I'm a little rusty on the differences, especially with the show so fresh in mind, but it does generally cover the same ground. The book is structured as a series of short stories that link these characters together, so it's a little less linear in the overarching narrative, though it still picks up on pretty much everything. Iirc, the most significant difference being that Tic's back story in Korea is only hinted at but never fully delved into.

Most of the other changes were much for the better. Specifically the episode about the spell cast on D is actually told from the perspective of a cousin, Horace, that isn't included in the TV series, and his spell is to be chased by all sorts of inanimate objects. I thought the way the show handled this with D was much more well done and more terrifying. Hippolyta's trip to the telescope is quite different in the book as well, more explicitly trying it to the racist history of the Braithwhite family, but I also liked how they dealt with it in the show better.

I also loved the emotional arc of all the characters. If there’s one thing I wish had happened, it’s that Sammy had also been accepted by the family. It’s certainly a thread a second season could pick up, but I also am not sure what story a second season would tell; they resolved the central conflict and effectively destroyed Lovecraft Country. They can all make themselves impervious to harm. It might be fun to see where these characters go when unencumbered by the fear of oppression as well as exploring what limits there are to the magic they have reclaimed but how do you do that in a way that keeps them heroic and doesn’t invite lazy comparisons to Randian philosophy? I’m willing to give a subsequent season the benefit of the doubt but story wise, this was satisfying for me.

― shout-out to his family (DJP), Tuesday, October 20, 2020 9:34 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is similar to my thoughts. All the characters were so well done, so balanced, in that while Atticus was the focus, so many other characters received substantial, important screen time, so you really got to connect with them all. I would go so far to say it was one of my favorite seasons of any show, ever, certainly of anything sci-fi/fantasy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=859S8CMUsFA
NOt sure how long this si going to work, it's liove now .
Talk with the producers of the show

I will say between this and Watchmen, the way that prestige TV storytellers are leaning on "powerful Black man sacrifices himself to save others and passes his power on to the Black woman he loves" as a plot resolution device at the moment is a bit much

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2020 season is nominated in the 2020 ILX TV poll:

ILX's Best Television of 2020 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 29, 2021

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

Season two not happening. Total bullshit.

RIP Michael K Williams - lots of stuff being shared about how deep he went for the role of Ambrose

good interview w Williams & Majors touches on a lot of the emotional work they did

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/lovecraft-country-jonathan-majors-michael-k-williams-1235000962

*montrose, not ambrose sry

there was a zoom interview w the cast where william broke down talking about playing montrose - it’s v moving, you can tell the cast are very close

i can only find a clip, will try to find whole thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIL7irq3ZmA

just finished this season, thought it was great.

Episode 7: I am. was some of the best TV I've seen in ages.