This is perhaps one of the most difficult to review seasons I've seen because of the vast quality onscreen as well as the extremely varied content. The ways in which Lovecraft Country let me down were on an episode to episode basis. In a lot of ways it reminds me of monster of the week storytelling for the first half with a more conventional three episode arc at the end. All in all, yeah that sounds a lot like The X-Files. Which, if you know me, is a pretty high complement. However, like The X-Files that range in quality has some serious shortcomings. And in Lovecraft Country, those shortcomings become somewhat baffling at times considering this is a show about recontextualizing inequality in a new, fresh lens. It's simultaneously one of its biggest selling points while also being something of a let down because although its messages on blackness and racism in America are consistently excellent, the ways in which it shares that load with other forms of diversity and discrimination are muddled, by Misha Green's own admonition.
I'll start with the good. The aesthetic and acting firmly root the show within pulp science-fiction, nearly without a hitch. We have acting that feels at time intentionally over the top with intentionally cheesy VFX to bolster a general sense that this is not meant to be rooted in reality. It allows some of the more gnarly visuals to have a lessened punch to weaker stomached viewers while also letting the themes boil more to the forefront. Jonathon Majors and Jurnee Smollett are revelations onscreen. Michael Kenneth Williams is (predictably) fantastic. And the rest of the cast fills out the show with a varying degrees of success, but Aunjanue Ellis's arc onscreen is stellar. It feels like a rare form where the cast is actually aware of the subgenre they're in. They're not bringing too much to the seriousness that it roots itself in melodrama, but they also know when the drama needs its gravitas. Majors is clearly on a meteoric rise at the moment, and I am enamored. He rocks.
The writing here becomes a bit of a mixed bag, but Lovecraft Country still delivers two of the best episodes of television that aired in 2020: Sundown and Rewind 1921. Both so excellently weave the weird pulpy-ness of the source material with the thematic weight in a way that internalizes the black experience in America reminiscent of Get Out--which makes sense considering Peele's name being associated with the show. I'm not giving him all the credit though, Misha Green nailed those two episodes. There's a handful of other extremely solid episodes, from Whitey's on the Moon to A History of Violence and a couple that feel a little unsure of how to put forth an overall narrative with Lovecraftian influence when answers in those stories are intentionally hard to pin down.
Here's where I think Lovecraft Country starts to falter the most. It's also one of the oddest things to falter on, too. When you start looking at the show as a whole, the Lovecraft of it all is actually pretty minimal. There's definitely a root of that unknown dread (particularly in the first few episodes) but whereas Lovecraft never really explored specificity (thankfully, because then those stories would be even more xenophobic), Country is keen to show and tell us all about it. And so all these plot threads that feel weird become less weird. But there's less being thrown at you as you go on that matches the heights of the initial states of confusion in the show so we're missing some pretty confounding gaps of what someone might consider necessary from a Lovecraftian narrative.
Listen. Those types of stories are notoriously difficult to adapt properly because of how American storytelling begs answers when Lovecraft basically just answered questions with sentences that borderline made no sense. So we're left with the best instances of Lovecraftian adaptations spread far and wide. I'm probably not the first to say that the best for my money is Bloodborne, a game reluctant to give any concrete answers with a progression that never shies away from being absolutely disgusting and continually throws new stuff at you at every corner. And knowledge is virtually nonexistent because Miyazaki never makes games that give concrete answers. Hell, narratively speaking characters in Bloodborne who search for answers literally go insane. So, match made in heaven.
Lovecraft Country doesn't quite do this. Answers are there because answers are key to the theming and it's key to shine a light to racism. So what we're left with is a show that feels less like Lovecraft and a bit more like Harry Potter. I genuinely don't mean that as an insult, either. I love those books. But it does feel like Lovecraft Country was looking to a second season for things to get really bonkers and pool the wool out from under us. Maybe then we could've gotten a Cthulhu onscreen...but wait, why are there tentacles on the poster?
Ultimately, the dust has settled on the series. It's been canceled despite being one of the most nominated shows of the year. It's highly acclaimed, but also nonexistent (which is kind of ironic for a Lovecraftian show). This is all likely a rabbit hole of information stemming from an initial positive reaction to the series which led Green to seek other offers from other networks which then led to her inking a deal with Apple when some of the mid-season ratings started to dip and then when the deal went through, HBO canceled Lovecraft Country as capitalism's competitive spirit strikes again. I initially watched the show week to week and was enamored. Then I had a big move across the country and fell off the wagon and when I got back on it, I watched an episode that I found so extremely difficult to stomach that I stopped watching again for a very long time. I came back though and remembered why I liked the show so much initially. Because it's a series that was genuinely unafraid to throw the baby out with the bath water. Say what you will about it on an episode to episode basis (I sure have), but this is a series that was constantly able to reinvent itself--sometimes to its detriment--to keep us on our toes. What we're left with is a season that also hedged its bets on a second season to wrap up the narrative in such a big way that the news of its cancelation isn't just disappointing, it taints the (now) series finale with a sense of "uhhh...ok?"
But you know, as I think about it that's how tons of Lovecraft's stories also end. Call it divine intervention. I'll call it Cthulhu.
p.s. I know that this is based off a book. I unfortunately haven't read it, although I'd like to.
Review by filmboicoleBlockedParent2021-07-21T15:16:43Z
This is perhaps one of the most difficult to review seasons I've seen because of the vast quality onscreen as well as the extremely varied content. The ways in which Lovecraft Country let me down were on an episode to episode basis. In a lot of ways it reminds me of monster of the week storytelling for the first half with a more conventional three episode arc at the end. All in all, yeah that sounds a lot like The X-Files. Which, if you know me, is a pretty high complement. However, like The X-Files that range in quality has some serious shortcomings. And in Lovecraft Country, those shortcomings become somewhat baffling at times considering this is a show about recontextualizing inequality in a new, fresh lens. It's simultaneously one of its biggest selling points while also being something of a let down because although its messages on blackness and racism in America are consistently excellent, the ways in which it shares that load with other forms of diversity and discrimination are muddled, by Misha Green's own admonition.
I'll start with the good. The aesthetic and acting firmly root the show within pulp science-fiction, nearly without a hitch. We have acting that feels at time intentionally over the top with intentionally cheesy VFX to bolster a general sense that this is not meant to be rooted in reality. It allows some of the more gnarly visuals to have a lessened punch to weaker stomached viewers while also letting the themes boil more to the forefront. Jonathon Majors and Jurnee Smollett are revelations onscreen. Michael Kenneth Williams is (predictably) fantastic. And the rest of the cast fills out the show with a varying degrees of success, but Aunjanue Ellis's arc onscreen is stellar. It feels like a rare form where the cast is actually aware of the subgenre they're in. They're not bringing too much to the seriousness that it roots itself in melodrama, but they also know when the drama needs its gravitas. Majors is clearly on a meteoric rise at the moment, and I am enamored. He rocks.
The writing here becomes a bit of a mixed bag, but Lovecraft Country still delivers two of the best episodes of television that aired in 2020: Sundown and Rewind 1921. Both so excellently weave the weird pulpy-ness of the source material with the thematic weight in a way that internalizes the black experience in America reminiscent of Get Out--which makes sense considering Peele's name being associated with the show. I'm not giving him all the credit though, Misha Green nailed those two episodes. There's a handful of other extremely solid episodes, from Whitey's on the Moon to A History of Violence and a couple that feel a little unsure of how to put forth an overall narrative with Lovecraftian influence when answers in those stories are intentionally hard to pin down.
Here's where I think Lovecraft Country starts to falter the most. It's also one of the oddest things to falter on, too. When you start looking at the show as a whole, the Lovecraft of it all is actually pretty minimal. There's definitely a root of that unknown dread (particularly in the first few episodes) but whereas Lovecraft never really explored specificity (thankfully, because then those stories would be even more xenophobic), Country is keen to show and tell us all about it. And so all these plot threads that feel weird become less weird. But there's less being thrown at you as you go on that matches the heights of the initial states of confusion in the show so we're missing some pretty confounding gaps of what someone might consider necessary from a Lovecraftian narrative.
Listen. Those types of stories are notoriously difficult to adapt properly because of how American storytelling begs answers when Lovecraft basically just answered questions with sentences that borderline made no sense. So we're left with the best instances of Lovecraftian adaptations spread far and wide. I'm probably not the first to say that the best for my money is Bloodborne, a game reluctant to give any concrete answers with a progression that never shies away from being absolutely disgusting and continually throws new stuff at you at every corner. And knowledge is virtually nonexistent because Miyazaki never makes games that give concrete answers. Hell, narratively speaking characters in Bloodborne who search for answers literally go insane. So, match made in heaven.
Lovecraft Country doesn't quite do this. Answers are there because answers are key to the theming and it's key to shine a light to racism. So what we're left with is a show that feels less like Lovecraft and a bit more like Harry Potter. I genuinely don't mean that as an insult, either. I love those books. But it does feel like Lovecraft Country was looking to a second season for things to get really bonkers and pool the wool out from under us. Maybe then we could've gotten a Cthulhu onscreen...but wait, why are there tentacles on the poster?
Ultimately, the dust has settled on the series. It's been canceled despite being one of the most nominated shows of the year. It's highly acclaimed, but also nonexistent (which is kind of ironic for a Lovecraftian show). This is all likely a rabbit hole of information stemming from an initial positive reaction to the series which led Green to seek other offers from other networks which then led to her inking a deal with Apple when some of the mid-season ratings started to dip and then when the deal went through, HBO canceled Lovecraft Country as capitalism's competitive spirit strikes again. I initially watched the show week to week and was enamored. Then I had a big move across the country and fell off the wagon and when I got back on it, I watched an episode that I found so extremely difficult to stomach that I stopped watching again for a very long time. I came back though and remembered why I liked the show so much initially. Because it's a series that was genuinely unafraid to throw the baby out with the bath water. Say what you will about it on an episode to episode basis (I sure have), but this is a series that was constantly able to reinvent itself--sometimes to its detriment--to keep us on our toes. What we're left with is a season that also hedged its bets on a second season to wrap up the narrative in such a big way that the news of its cancelation isn't just disappointing, it taints the (now) series finale with a sense of "uhhh...ok?"
But you know, as I think about it that's how tons of Lovecraft's stories also end. Call it divine intervention. I'll call it Cthulhu.
p.s. I know that this is based off a book. I unfortunately haven't read it, although I'd like to.