Lovecraft Country serves up another dish of oh-my-god-what-the-fuck as biblical imagery, science, and magic collide in this haunted house episode, “Whitey’s On The Moon.” Once again, Misha Green’s pen pushes a horrifying narrative mixed with macabre gore, insightful exploration of Black American life in the mid-20th-century, melding the popular voices that spoke truth to power with the images that defined the era. Daniel Sackheim’s direction helps strengthen the show’s roots of Americana and traditional fantasy-adventure elements. We’re moving on up to a family drama with a lot of dark secrets.
“Now we’re up in the big leagues, getting our turn at bat,” booms the classic theme song of The Jeffersons as Leti (Jurnee Smollett) and George (Courtney Vance) twirl about their new deluxe rooms. The mansion in the middle of nowhere seemingly provides what the heart desires most, by daylight. For George, stacks of books; for Leti, a bespoke wardrobe. But as George and Louise discovered back in 1975, just because they arrived in a better neighborhood, doesn’t mean they’ve escaped their problems. Costume designer Dayna Pink highlights the parallels between these families’ situations by dressing Smollett in a pink dress with a matching jacket, similar to the one actress Isabel Sanford, who played Louise, wore when she first arrived at the East Side apartment. But, Atticus (Jonathan Majors) isn’t distracted by the piece of pie offered to him. He remembers the vampiric beasts out there, and his father’s still mysteriously off in Boston.
By night, we learn, the mansion offers only horrors. The locked room transports Atticus back to the war. Gunshots ring out and Ji-ah (Jamie Chung), the woman he spoke to on the phone in “Sundown,” attacks him with a knife. She gives him the business, slicing into his shoulder, forcing Atticus to fight back, reducing him to the brute strength that comes with the survival of the fittest. Leti, on the other hand, lives out a romance with Atticus (at last, a love story with the insanely hot leads.) Omg, Leti spills her heart out about her abandonment issues with her mother, and “Atticus” promises complete devotion on the spot.
But haunted houses will not let them know peace. The images of Adam’s snake penis should have been the first clue that these were more than just illusions. In H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, even when a demon unleashed their cruelty on the world, there was always a human holding the reins. And what’s dinner without a show? In making the lodge members privy to what’s happening in the house’s rooms, the Braithwaites make a sex worker out of Leti, a spectacle out of Atticus, and an emotional sadist’s dream out of George. “They want to terrorize us. Make us scared,” George instills in his younger traveling companions. “But Letitia Fucking Lewis doesn’t get scared, does she?”
The mansion, home to the Braithwhites, stands proudly in an open field that is surrounded by woods. The builders situated the brick building so that it would be secluded enough that no one would stumble upon it, yet not guarded like a fortress. No high gate to keeps local youths from snooping around. The behemoth looks more like a university than a home, with its glass domes and Renaissance paintings of white angels descending from the heavens decorating the halls. In other words, this place holds secrets that the owners aren’t concerned about getting out. The law cannot touch them. Perhaps they are the law.
Titus Braithwhite built this ancestral home. His name, of course, evokes images of the Roman Emperor Titus of Utica, most famous for leading the charge against the first Jewish rebellion. The close-up on the portrait of Titus B. features the same square head as the Roman emperor, and a large white ring that screams cult founder gives Atticus the heebie-jeebies.
Like the emperor, Titus’ loyal subjects dictated his legacy. Titus Braithwhite made his fortune in “shipping,” which Leti quickly declares as code for slavery. William (Jordan Patrick Smith) continues that loyalty by explaining how kind Titus was to the people who worked for him. Later, it’s revealed that kindness was a polite way of saying rape. Given that every burned building reference in the show so far links back to the revolt of slaves and subsequent cover-up of that damage, it’s clear that this is not a welcome place for Black Americans. A fire in the house killed almost everyone inside in the 19th century. Now, a gathering of lodge members heads to the mansion. Leti and George can’t remember their daring escape the night before. Ah! It’s Get Out all over again. Run.
Luckily the trio abides by the Black horror movie survival guide’s number one rule: stick together. With that in mind, they agree to check out the town to see if anyone knows more about Atticus’ father. John Fogerty’s “Bad Moon Rising” plays in the background; rumor has it Fogerty wrote the song about an impending apocalypse. Everything looks ancient in town, with wooden one-story shacks with doors that hang slightly off their hinges. Leti, George, and Atticus look like they stepped out of a time machine in their ’50s garb. The townsfolk wear the same attire one might expect to find in a 15th-century French fairytale. I exaggerate, but you get the point. As they weave through the village, none of the townspeople seem particularly concerned about the three new Black people walking through their yards. Leti and George become lost in thought over whether or not Atticus has shell shock. But then they all hear the whistle Atticus described to them earlier.
Atticus races off to find the source of the whistle. What he stumbles upon is a tall tower made of stone, filled with pig heads, and guarded by a tiny bigot name Dell (The Deuce’s Jamie Neumann). George points out a stone foundation means a dungeon-like basement. This leads Atticus to conclude that his father is trapped down there. Remember, Atticus’ father came to this land seeking his son’s birthright. It’s at this point in the early evening, in the middle of the woods, that George recalls Atticus’ mother saying her ancestor, an enslaved woman named Hannah, escaped while pregnant—and during a fire. It’s not just Dell who owns a magical vampire-stopping whistle. Christina Braithwaite (Abbey Lee) has one, too. Now we have a conspiracy.
George discovers a book of laws for the Order Of The Ancient Dawn just as Atticus meets Samuel Braithwhite (Tony Goldwyn)—son of Titus, father of Christina—in some kind of science dungeon. There’s a lot happening: First, Samuel’s getting a piece of his liver snipped without any anesthetic, in what feels like an attempt to prove his masculinity. For Samuel, the word of God intermingles with the test tubes and journals—he quizzes Atticus and Christina on Genesis 2:19. Both a painting that hangs in the lab and a bible verse, Genesis 2:19 depicts the ordering of the beasts by God’s first creation, Adam. By doing so, “Adam is sharing in creation,” Samuel states. “Assigning each creature its final form and its station in its hierarchy in nature.” Sam envisions himself as Adam: The next best thing to God, and the person to bring order to man.
As dinner begins, Titus offers the members of his order a piece of his liver. The show leans into the idea of Black Americans being picky about where they eat, and from whom they accept food. Leti wasn’t afraid to ask for salt at breakfast, knowing it would be necessary to make the meal edible. Atticus stops George from even sniffing the liver the same way a parent would stop a child from eating at a dirty friend’s house. Segregated in their seating chart, George rises to circle the seated attendees to give them a history lesson on Prince Hall. By the end of the speech, George places himself at the head of the table, having proven himself not just educated, but prepared for the order’s schemes. Tic is a son of sons; as such, he orders all of the members other than Samuel out of the room. I held my breath: Tic shot and killed a sheriff, and now ordered a room full of wealthy white men around. As the show’s already displayed, white people kill Black people for far less serious actions.
Though Tic locates his father, Montrose (Michael Kenneth Williams), their reunion isn’t a happy one. Montrose claims he wrote the letter under duress. George’s pain for his brother is evident in crestfallen face and slumped shoulders. He later remembers watching the Negro League players roll into town with his brother. They’d draw colorful signs and cheer for their favorite players. This sign of devotion angered their father, who beat Montrose terribly. Montrose shut his heart away as an act of self-defense. There’s a finite amount of abuse the soul can endure. Many modes of self-defense present in healthy ways, but the destructive ones are easier to come by. Hiding away in a bottle, staying angry at the world—this is how Montrose has survived in a country that hates him, with a father who beat him and a brother who couldn’t stand up for him. This mental state is the safest he’s ever felt. His life is a haunted mansion, where all the rooms beget resentment and physical pain. He can only produce the same feelings for his son, and Tic may not even be his.
In the final scene of splendid horror, Lovecraft Country careens back into allegory as Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey’s On The Moon” plays over a scene of mystic horror. The song articulates the distance Black Americans feel they must travel to reach equity with their white neighbors. Atticus agrees to try to open the door to the Garden Of Eden in exchange for saving George and Leti’s lives. Surrounded by the wealthy elite, too high up the food chain to associate with Klan, George’s body is ripped asunder by an electrical current. George is dealing with some form of PTSD, he’s trying to make amends with a father who is completely lost to the world, and his only real companions are his books. Yet he must pay with his body a toll for Samuel to enter the garden where Samuel might live forever. No one even thinks to explain the possible damage that could befall Atticus. He’s valuable, but not expendable, as Samuel explained in an earlier scene.
As the door opens, it’s a pregnant Hannah that Atticus sees, not a white Adam. The spell backfires turning Samuel into stone, and once again bringing the house down onto its foundation. Hannah’s ghost escapes, guiding Atticus’ way out of the house. In her hands, she clutches a book that I can only assume is the Book Of Life, which seems like perfect timing after the heart-wrenching loss of Uncle George. Hopefully, this isn’t goodbye, because Vance is slaying this role. I need more.
Stray observations
- William, the guy who swears he isn’t the butler, and shows up everywhere unannounced, has to be a hologram. How can he be that quick and quiet? Something don’t seem right about him.
- Perhaps engineering cows to give birth to demon vampire dogs is part of Samuel’s plan to bringing order to the world? Christina certainly thinks they’re cute.
- A cult has never been so easily killed. Everything happened so fast. I wonder if Atticus isn’t still caught in some kind of dream simulation.
- Wait…is Uncle George Tic’s father?!
196 Comments
Good lord, that was fast, Joelle.I thought it was really excellent, over all, but I question the use of the Marilyn Manson song. Didn’t seem appropriate to the time (not that everything has to be sourced from the, I’m guessing, 50s, and not that has been) and the tone. Plus, on a personal note, I hear that song I just go to John Wick.I knew that Michael K. Williams was in this, but not who he played, so that was a happy appearance.
Whitey On The MoonThe song articulates the distance Black Americans feel they must travel to reach equity with their white neighborsScott-Heron wrote this during a time when going to the moon was, (at least for me as a kid in Texas and living so close to Houston) that the sheer adventure of it all seemed within arm’s reach. But at the same time there were protests, editorials in papers (no internet remember) about the staggering cost of the entire mission much to the detriment of much needed social programs. I had the hardest time coming to terms with that. To me it was worth every penny, such a staggering feat of science, engineering and imagination that putting a price to it seemed illogical almost un-American.But it did eventually hit. The case that so much was needed here on Earth, that poverty was so widespread and government resources being so depleted exacerbating a neglect that when this song/poem hit around Apollo 13 (one of NASA’s finest moments aside) it hit with a thunderclap and it stuck. Apollo 18 being the casualty. So to me the song was always about the abject poverty, the privation in housing and disgusting conditions many African American families found themselves, while staggering amount of resources were prioritized in the name of NASA military spending. I remember every moon landing, where I was, in high school a fellow classmate was Pete Conrad’s son. But one held onto the idea of science, exploration and adventure……..but then the overwhelming awareness of “at what price?”
But some members of the family are entranced by the idea of exploring space. They are hardly rich but not miserable. It is a complicated story…
I wasn’t as wild about this episode compared to the premiere. The climax makes a confusing muddle out of what in the book was a fairly straightforward event.The cast is really bringing it in the acting department, though, and there are a lot of individual scenes that work really well.
Wondering what the hell is going on is an integral part of the oeuvre.
Being mysterious and being muddled are different things.
It’s the difference between cool-looking nonsense like Legion and a surrealist masterpiece like Twin Peaks or The Leftovers. Guess we’ll have to see which is which.
Personally I’d take the former over either of the latter two, but different strokes and all that!
Neither of the latter two are exactly my favorite shows, for the record. I just think they’re examples of surrealism executed in a meaningful way.
Legion wasn’t nonsense until the last season, pretty sure they needed 4 seasons to tell the story and got cut short. I can see a pretty obvious throughline for seasons 1 and 2 that totally falls off for season 3, it just feels like they had to throw something together to end it but that something wasn’t what they were actually building up in the first 2 seasons.
Hawley always planned for three seasons. It’s just that the emptiness was there from the start–dazzling visuals in search of a compelling story/characters.
Nope, Legion was cancelled he didn’t end it like Terry Matalas planned for 4 seasons of 12 Monkeys. If he’d planned 3 seasons there would have been no reason to cancel it. Anyhow, you can tell there’s a major tone shift, plot lines are dropped and the last couple episodes are pretty obviously rushed.
“dazzling visuals in search of a compelling story/characters.”That is a matter of opinion, I thought the characters and story were very compelling.Edit: I take that back, he at least says he always planned for 3 seasons. Disappointing if he’s not lying about it, season 3 takes a dive in quality and the ending is stupid.
Wasn’t really a dive in quality. Hard to wrap up a story when there’s nothing there to begin with. With Twin Peaks, even if I don’t understand everything, I know that David Lynch does. Everything has a purpose, even if I’m not privy to it. Legion just threw everything at the wall (Bolero dance number to cover up the fact that this is a typical superhero story with different aesthetics? Why not?), and not much stuck or lingers in the mind.
I think you’re remembering Twin Peaks with some misplaced nostalga. More than half of season 2 is simply unwatchable. Seriously, I tried to rewatch the whole series and movie before season 3 came out and more than half of the episodes of season 2 are stupidly horrible. Lynch had a big plan to make James screwing the cougar lady important? Because it seemed like stupid soap opera shit to me. You can’t tell me the middle dozen episodes of that season are amazing TV that are all necessary for Lynch’s big story because they’re not, they’re Mark Frost’s soap opera additions for the network that was scared of a nonstandard show.
There was a story in Legion to begin with, if you couldn’t figure out what was going on I’m not going to type multiple paragraphs explaining it to you. I’d advise you to watch it over again.
Nah, S2 of Twin Peaks is dreadful in the middle. The Return more than makes up for that thankfully.I don’t need to watch it again. It was horribly executed with paper-thin character characterization.
The Return is good but I mean if you’re gonna compare Legion and Twin Peaks you can’t hold up Twin Peaks like it’s some kind of gold standard when at least a third of the episodes of the original run were pure drek. I’ll put 12 Monkeys up as a gold standard; hardly any off episodes and a plot that worked through all 4 seasons and made sense at the end.
See and I thought it was pretty much the opposite of that. Different strokes for different folks and all!
I really enjoyed 12 Monkeys as well. Quality sci-fi. Too bad the AVC dropped coverage of it.
We’re clearly not going to agree regarding Legion, which is fine.We do agree about S2 of Peaks though. I think it’s a far from perfect show, but at its best in Seasons 1 and 3, it did things with the medium that no other show did. So I’d still consider it one of the high points of the medium.
Twin Peaks always married surrealist horror with knowingly poor soap opera on purpose. It was when Lynch was gone for most of season 2 that the marriage fell apart. Yes, it’s almost excruciating to watch from the wrap up of the murder mystery until the two last episodes of the season – which are arguably some of the best.But then again you still have cross-dressing Mulder which is just a treat.
I want to say this to people about a lot of stories.
Could not agree more. This was not well crafted mystery. It was muddled, incoherent, vaguely illuminati secret society nonsense.
This episode presented A LOT to digest. I realized I missed a lot of things while reading Joelle’s recap. Need to watch it again. Thankfully HBO will rerun it 50 times before they broadcast episode 3 next week.
Thankfully, the streaming service has it available for you to watch whenever.
I very much agree with you, I can handle things being confusing and whatnot but this was just too much in one episode. Felt like it could have been a two-parter
I felt like this could easily have been four or five episodes. We sort of whizz by everything, which each major plot point given about one line of dialogue and a significant glance. Dreadful.
Yeah I wasn’t fond of that at all myself, I think I’ll stick with it a bit and see if it gets better because I do truly like the acting at least from the leads.
This episode had the feeling of a season finale, rather than episode 2 of 8 in a season!
I really didn’t like the choice of making Tic basically a bystander in his own story and having George be given all his revelations and best scenes. The way the ritual resolved is especially bad.
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It really did jump from one thing to the next. The jump from the dinner to them busting into the silo to rescue Montrose gave me whiplash.
I was going to post the same thing. They need to manage transitions better. Leti showing up just in the nick of time to dispatch racist dog owner was a bit of a stretch as well. I’ve noticed a few times in both episodes where this happens. They could throttle back on the pacing a bit.
It reminded me of Wild Wild West, and any number of the other big, empty, special-effects heavy action movies from the late 90s/early 00s. Lots of cool set pieces, but I don’t care about this story because I know next to nothing about who these characters are. We have approximately two lines of backstory for each one–and that’s it.
this episode was pretty terrible I thought, but great acting and costumes. Nothing felt very cohesive.
Rare is the show that has Nina Simone and Marilyn Manson on the soundtrack.
What the hell just happened. I was not expecting things to move this fast. That felt like ten episodes in one. I’m exhausted.
This episode was a hard sell for me compared to the first which was great with the story structure. I knew this was going to get weird and I am cool with that, but I was hoping for something a little more gradual in pace like the first episode. Its not that I was/am confused about the story, it just felt all over the place in its tone and had jarring shifts that made me feel like someone rushed this episode into a mess. The way the story was presented this episode makes me wish they increased the screen time to get settled. This was a solid 6/10 episode for me.
That being said the acting is great and I love the cast of characters so far, so I am going to keep watching it.
I don’t know about this episode. The acting was still incredible, as was the writing, and the “Whitey’s on the Moon” sequence was stunning, but the music and the editing felt really strange to me, and it kind of took me out of it. Maybe I’m just dumb, but the edits (along with some odd music choices) made me struggle to understand exactly what was happening from scene-to-scene, and I was more confused than afraid. And when something was finally explained, the reveal always felt simplistic, like there was no reason to hide it from the audience except to build tension (and it didn’t even feel tense). Like, showing us Atticus allowing himself to be prepared for the ritual even though Samuel “killed” Leti and George made me confused because I didn’t understand why Tic would go through with it if George and Tic were already dead. When they reveal that in the timeskip Samuel explained that he could heal their wounds if Tic agreed to the ritual, I was like, why would you hide that from us? So many scenes went like that, and it felt really awkward to me. I still like the show, and I’m excited for what’s to come, but this episode felt like a lot of moving piecees that didn’t really fit together
Sorry, I meant George and Letitia were already dead, not George and Tic.Apparently the book goes at this pace too, so that might be why, but it felt like this episode was trying to get through too much exposition while also being purposefully mysterious and confusing, leading to it instead feeling extremely muddled, at least to me.
They weren’t already dead. They were dying. And he healed Leti to prove he can and said he’d heal George after.
Okay, as I’ve said multiple times in this thread, I know. I know they weren’t already dead. I watched the same show that you did and I understand what happened because they explained it in the show. I was using that scene as an example of why I personally thought that the way they shot this episode made it feel muddled and awkward rather than tension-filled and dreamlike like in episode 1.
But you know they weren’t dead, though, right?
Leti was definitely dead. You don’t go limp and totally still with your eyes open and staring if you’re alive. That’s why she was so freaked out in the bathroom, too. She was dead and she knew it.
As I said to someone else in the comments, the pacing reminded me of all of those empty action blockbusters from the late 90s/early 00s where it’s just setpiece after setpiece but it doesn’t feel like a story because you don’t know anything about the characters as people. We haven’t gotten more than two lines of dialogue’s worth of backstory for any of them, yet.
Christina mentioned to Tic something about a bargain that Tic made (offscreen) that Samuel would heal/resurrect both George and Letitia if he went through with it.
As I explained, I know that a bargain was made, I understand what happened in that scene, I was just using it as an example for what I consider to be strange, awkward choices made to build tension, when in reality they just make everything seemed muddled. The show did that little timeskip in order to make us momentarily think Leti and George had both died, but the whole time I was just confused as to why Tic would still go through with the ceremony if they were already dead, rather than horrified about Leti and George getting “murdered”. They explained very clearly a few moments later that Samuel could heal them (as he healed Letitia’s gunshot wound) and would heal George once Atticus completed the ceremony, I understand all that. I’m saying that the timeskip and the withholding of the info that Samuel could heal them was meant to build tension about Leti and George’s fate for that one scene where they prepped Tic for the ceremony, but instead it just made me confused during it.
But they weren’t dead when Tic agreed to it. Samuel healed Letitia – Tic sees her revive
through one of those peeping windows while they prepare him for the
ceremony – and George has gunshot wound to the gut but he doesn’t die until they move him to the car. They reveal all this and that Samuel would get George healed as the reason why Tic agrees to “willingly” participate in the ceremony during the preparation to the ceremony.
I understand what happened, I was arguing that the framing of the scene was awkward.
How was it awkward? It was pretty straightforward.
Did you read the book? Because, yeah, I knew what was going on, but I read the book. I also felt like if I hadn’t read the book, it would have been a little confusing.
There’s always stuff from a book that you can’t put into a show or movie because it doesn’t really translate. This show, though, feels like they think a lot of totally translatable things couldn’t translate, so they just changed it or made it into a minor mystery like what you pointed out. For not good reason. Just have him bring Leti back, then say, “I can do the same for George if you cooperate.” How freaking hard is that? It’s a lot less confusing for people who haven’t read the book if you do that, too.
This is a well made show but the pacing seems off. It’s burning through story so quickly! These two episodes could have been an entire season. In fact, them finding Montrose and George dying felt like what should happen in a season finale. Instead, they have the characters figuring out the entire story in like 5 minutes (the fact that Atticus is the descendant of Braithwhite should be a huge deal, not just a detail they toss off and quickly move on from). I seriously have no idea where it’s going next because they already wrapped up the plot.
My thoughts exactly.
The show’s following the book pretty closely, this was just Chapter 2. It makes sense in the big picture.
This is the weakness of once-a-week episodes vs Netflix allowing us to binge a story. The flow makes a lot more sense as a book which you can read in one or two sittings or as a Netflix series where you’re already moving on to the next chapter. Waiting a week in between episodes gives each chapter a little more gravity than it needs and then it gets confusing when they move on so fast. The pacing works in the book but when you’re waiting seven days between viewings it feels rushed to see all that mystery resolved in an hour. It does make sense in the big picture, but for someone without the insight from reading the book and knowing what’s to come, it might feel like they rushed an entire season of adventuring into two episodes. Most people won’t be expecting the interwoven stories of the book and might think the entire plot was about this one trip. I think the show should have started each episode with “Chapter One” and “Chapter Two” to let the audience know these are somewhat contained stories.
Yeah, the book has really eccentric storytelling. It’s more a series of related short stories rather than a single story novel.
I kinda gathered that from the trailer though. All of the clips that they play after the episode are so disconnected that you get the sense that this story is going to be sprawling, so while this story wrapped up quicker than anticipated, I wasn’t expecting it to drag on either (and I’m glad it didnt)
Yes, there is a lot more story to tell, focusing on other family members and using other genres than Lovecraftian horror.
I feel like that’s an artifact of the book it’s based on. The book felt like a collection of short stories about this group of characters.
Exactly. But that’s hard for a viewer to pick up on without that insight. That’s nobody’s fault, except that I think it demonstrates a weakness of weekly episodic premiers. It works for long, drawn-out shows, but for something with this story’s fast pacing, Netflix binge watching is actually a better pace. It helps the viewer understand that these are just chapters and short stories. When you wait a week between episodes, it feels a lot more jolting to see an entire story wrapped up in an hour. When you’re reading a book or binging a show on Netflix, the pacing makes sense because you see how quick each story actually is.
I’m actually really appreciating it. I will be surprised if no best actor awards are given to the main characters, they are really doing exquisite work in the time frame they’re given. Plus it feels like a lovecraft short story. The best ones aren’t more than thirty pages long.
Yep. I was trying to think of a way to say it and you nailed it. I loved the book but it did totally feel like a short story collection.
I think that’s what works so well about it–the book’s episodic structure lends itself to this adaptation.
I’m actually enjoying the pace of the show, because it’s unexpected. The way you describe is how one would assume it was going to go down. I’m glad we don’t have a couple hours of filler with the characters stuck in the house and talking in circles about the predicament they’re in.
I’m finding the episodic, almost “monster of the week” format coming from an HBO series quite refreshing! As someone else mentioned, it does feel like a collection of short stories so I’m curious to see what this leads to.
Agreed! Speaking for myself it’s a refreshing change from the current “let’s take one episode of plot and stretch it out across one season” philosophy that seems to dominate right now (Picard comes to mind, for example).
Yeah, that’s how I feel too. At first I was like “uhhhh . . . why isn’t this the whole season?” But clearly they have other places they need to go and I think the fact that I now have zero idea what’s going to happen adds to the horror element. Just like the characters, I now have no idea where the danger looms.
Exactly this. Too many shows pad their seasons with filler and critics etc.. call it a “slow burn.” I prefer this pace.
For some people, not knowing where a story will go next is a good thing.
I skimmed the wiki of the book it’s based off of (so I didn’t just ruin the show). It feels like this is a one-and-done series unless the author of the book comes back and puts in a second book. It’s pretty clear it’s a series of short stories that all tie into each other with the characters coming back together to address the overarching plot.
It’s pretty clear it’s a series of short stories that all tie into each other with the characters coming back together to address the overarching plot.Well, in that case, you can keep going by writing brand new stories for them.
I agree. It’s with the fantasy/horror bits that it gets so damn rushed. And the protagonists keep instantly adapting, solving puzzles, and shaking it all off in a second or two. Whenever it slows down to just conversations and character development it is top notch.
I think it’s supposed to be more like an anthology, like lots of Lovecraft’s books were
I agree the pacing was off in this episode, and it wasn’t nearly is attention maintaining as the first episode, but the book actually plows through these events pretty quickly and stretching just this portion out to a whole season would have been a SLOG!That said there were jumps in this episode that would have been entirely confusing if I hadn’t just read the book, so this episode definitely needed some changes. And while I’m being one of those annoying “in the book” people I’ll say I enjoyed them gender flipping the Christina role (in the book she’s a son named Caleb) but I am not vibing on the actress playing her at all.
I’m 100% sure that if I hadn’t read the book, I would have had no idea what was going on in this episode. It was just way too fast with hardly any explaining what was going on.
So, what was going on? Because I didn’t get it.
I have to begin by apologizing because my mind doesn’t hold details well and it’s been a while since I watched this and even longer since I read the book. So, the group is something that popped up in the past during slavery and they practice magic. The man who started the group is Atticus’ grandfather or great grandfather (details) and he got one of his slaves pregnant (I forget names, too.) She escaped when there was a fire and had his grandmother (I’m pretty sure that’s right.) Because he is descended from the man who originally started the group, he has access to the magic. The man who currently owns the house knows this and he’s kidnapped Atticus’ father to draw him there so he can use him in a spell that will give him immortality. That spell will kill Atticus, though and Christina gives him a way to keep that from happening and that way ends up killing all the men in the group and brings the entire house down. Everything else was just ways to keep them occupied until they did the ceremony. In the book, Uncle George doesn’t die. Like I said, I suck at remembering details, especially without being prompted. If you have any specific questions, they might jog my memory and I can probably answer them.In the book, there are three or four different stories that are connected, but it’s not one continuous story. They probably would have been better off telling it like that, but they chose to make it one continuous story. And I still liked it, but I think it would have made more sense to people who hadn’t read the book that way.
While I’ll agree it did seem like a season finale episode, I am so tired of ‘prestige dramas’ really milking out the story. Perry Mason’s first season really felt like what a pilot used to be, set up for what the rest of the series is going to be. As for this, I think it could’ve used maybe one more episode, but in an era of streaming glut I’ll take more compacted storytelling over narrative sprawl any day.
Completely agree. More than twice I thought “did I miss an episode?!” or “is this a very, very mini series or not?” It’s definitely positioned itself into being bad or hurried storytelling that may pay off later and appear stronger only with hindsight looking at the whole … and I’m not much of a fan of that in general.
This is where I stopped reading in the book. It takes a left turn into an entirely different story that I didn’t find nearly as interesting. I’ll stick with the show to see if it can do more with it.
There was so much more to the ceremony, too. Like, how he changed it to destroy the others. The character that is now Christina gave him actual information on what to do and say to change it, IIRC. It wasn’t happenstance. (I wasn’t sure I would like the gender swap until they did the whole, “You can’t be a part of this because you are a lowly girl” thing. It makes more sense for her to act against her father because of that.)
Honestly the pace matches a lot of Lovecraftian stories. You think you’re piecing together the deeper mystery only to learn quickly that you were only scratching the surface of it.
Episode 2: “Wh… at the Fuck Just Happened”
Beautiful review of a beautiful show! There’s very little to quibble with (although some of the racist tropes they take to task are a little on the nose, such as the Sheriff becoming the monster he always was, the truck full of rednecks, or the blonde-haired blue eyed quasi-Satanic cult); it’s incredibly well written and shot, and the cast is powerful and supremely talented. If the rest of the season is even half as riveting and worthy of your time as this episode was, it should sweep every award under the sun and join the first few seasons of Game of Thrones and Stranger Things as being among the most creative and thought-provoking television in this genre ever made.
Samuel Braithwhite (Tony Goldwyn)—son of Titus, father of Christina
I’m pretty sure Samuel wasn’t son of Titus. The whole thing with Tic ordering all those guys out was because he was the only direct, male descendant of Titus (because everyone but Hannah died in the fire). That means Samuel is like a cousin. He didn’t obey Tic because he only cared about the rules when they serve him. I supposed that’s also a metaphor for those at the top of white supremacy.
As the door opens, it’s a pregnant Hannah that Atticus sees, not a white Adam. The spell backfires turning Samuel into stone, and once again bringing the house down onto its foundation.
It’s Hannah not because the spell doesn’t work or backfires. It’s because Christina manipulated the ring Tic wore. The door was opening to the Garden but then there is another black smoke spell coming out of the ring and the vines on the door die and it connects Tic not to Titus but to his female ancestor. And just like Titus try at it destroyed the original mansion and killed everyone but Hannah the new version destroys the place and kills everyone but Tic following his great- great- great grandmother footsteps. And those who left early.It was obviously Christina’s play for power. Tic rightly deduced she was hating the fact that as a woman she was excluded from wielding any real power in the family and the Order. Not even allowed to come to dinner. Now they are all turned to dust and she has it all. Or almost all. Hannah escaped with a book and I’m pretty sure it was The Book of Names.
I wondered why George and Leti were so carefree in the opening but that was
because only Tic remembered what happened at night. The first indication of his
inheritance – the forgetting spell didn’t work on him. This was, as William
said at the end of last episode, his home. But of course, any kind of good time
came with strings attached in place like this.The rich people entertained by their desires and fears. I knew it
wasn’t real Atticus wit Leti since we knew he couldn’t get out of the room. The
others being confronted by their lost loves confirmed it. But we learnt George
had an affair with Tics mother and may be his real father. It somehow makes
letting Montrose abuse Tic even worse.And it wasn’t only Montrose who was imprisoned. It just that his looked more like a prison. The others got “kind” version as long as they didn’t cause trouble. The moment they try to escape the hostage situation becomes very clear. Either Tic agrees to be sacrificed or those he loves die. And Samuel knows it’s Leti and George that really matter.
With Samuel having both magic and monsters the only option is to hope Christina’s promise of friendship is real. But of course she also uses Tic for her own goals. She protects him from the main spell to get rid of her father and all the members of the Order who shunned her but she doesn’t seem to really care.
For a moment, I hoped that bonding about bad fathers meant something. After all Tic agreed to do it because Samuel promised to heal George like he did with Leti. I’m not sure George dying is what he would chose. But she didn’t ask and just used him as Trojan horse.
I was hoping Christina would save uncle George so Tic could learn
the truth (and also so we wouldn’t lose Courtney B Vance). After all Tic was a
good tool for a coup and he deserves it in return but I suppose she got what she
wanted so she doesn’t care anymore.
George is probably, certainly, absolutely dead, but I wouldn’t bet that this is the last time we see him.
Vance is listed as being in all eight episodes, too. Not always true, but a good bet.
I have no idea why you would think there’s any concordance between Christina and Tic. There’s absolutely nothing in that scene that would suggest Tic had any idea why Christina gave him the ring. Tic had no clue what it would do and was just a passive bystander. Maybe you’re mixing it up with the book where Tic actually knows what he’s doing and there isn’t all this extraneous and contrived shit that makes no sense?
I’m not sure why you think I think that Tic was on her plan. I said she used him as Trojan horse and that it was all her plan. He clearly didn’t understand what she meant until the ring started to release the black smoke spell. It was a game between Samuel and Christina and Tic was just a tool they used for their own means and Christina just more successful at it.
But Tic did figure out she felt resentful and she did bond with him a little about having shitty fathers. And I figured she may one day need the heir of Titus too so I did think she might save George. But she said Tic was the one who brought Leti and George there. Not her concern.
I haven’t read the book.
I have no idea why you would think there’s any concordance between Christina and Tic. There’s absolutely nothing in that scene that would suggest Tic had any idea why Christina gave him the ring. Tic had no clue what it would do and was just a passive bystander. I didn’t read it as quite that passive a situation. Christina obviously intended for Tic to disrupt the spell, but I don’t think it was just a matter of her putting a counterspell on the ring that went off automatically. What she did was to encourage or enable Tic to call on a countervailing force: the strength of his great-great-etc. grandmother.
She actually hints to him that this is what he needs to when she says, “Our destinies are not decided by our fathers”—one possible implication being that our mothers are our destiny. And I think we see Tic realize that he’s got this opposing force within him and wielding it deliberately, when he looks at the black energy swirling from the ring and then holds it out in front of him, conjuring the image of his ancestor behind the portal.
This is why I don’t really believe that George is Tic’s father. If he were, wouldn’t he have been immune to the forgetting spell as well (I think Titus’s legacy is definitely passed through Tic’s father’s side, because Montrose was there as well)? But I still want Uncle George to come back!
No, Tic is descendant of Titus Braithwhite on his mother side. They say that a few times but if it wasn’t so then Montrose would be enough for the ritual and they wouldn’t need to use him as bait to get Tic there. And Montrose came there to research the ancestry of Tic’s mother Dee.
I missed that.
Thank you for that because I don’t think the show made it clear enough. I don’t need it to be spelled out, but it all felt so rushed that I think some important beats were missed.
No problem. I was paying attention to Christina and how she changed depending whether her father was watching so what she has done became quickly obvious to me. But the review completely ignores that so I figured it wasn’t as obvious to everyone. Of course, that was certainly busy 24 hours for the heroes so it was hard to pay attention to everything.
I read the book, so I knew what was going on, but I felt sure that if I hadn’t read the book, I would have been pretty confused.
Same here. And it’s a minor thing but I find it weird that the way they changed Hippolyta from going on trips on her own to asking permission to go.
also, they turned to pillars of salt, not stone. very Sodom and Gomorrah
Feels like this episode just stopped my enthusiasm for the series cold in its tracks. A massive step down from the pilot.
I feel like thats kinda typical for really cool HBO shows. They put so much love and care into the pilot and the second episode gets a little shortchanged or just can’t hold up in comparison. I still have high expectations for this though
Yea great point. I’ve decided to keep watching and I hope it can bounce back!
So now we know why Christina had the gender change that everyone was talking about last week. That will certainly make the rest of the stories more interesting. Even Crowley had his Scarlet Women.
FYI there is an accompanying podcast for the show.
Yeah, this episode was a big step down for me. Even when I wasn’t struggling to tell what was going on because of the machine-gun exposition, the poor lighting and sound mixing filled in the gaps.The book makes it clear that the ritual fails because Atticus actively sabotages it with Caleb Christina’s help. Here, it just… doesn’t work? Pretty strongly disagree with the decision to remove the protagonist’s agency from the climax of this story arc.Next week is one of my favorite chapters, so hopefully it’s a return to form of that awesome premier last week.
Oh and also,
As dinner begins, Titus offers the members of his order a piece of his
liver. The show leans into the idea of Black Americans being picky about
where they eat, and from whom they accept food.
Not wanting to eat raw human organs is a black culture thing? Pretty sure anyone who saw where that plate came from would pass.
Yeah I don’t think human liver is very kosher..
And even if they didn’t know it was his raw liver, this whole place is creepy and scary. They just faced a highly manipulative hallucination to fuck with them. Then told to sit down and have some food from them. Yeah I’d probably pass out of caution because maybe don’t eat the evil wizard food.
Tic sabotages the ceremony with Christina’s help. It’s just through the ring she gives him in the earlier scene instead of through the text given to him to alter the spoken spell (if I’m remembering the book correctly).
In the book Tic is a more active participant though. He can read the ancient language when almost nobody else can, he’s reciting the ritual and, because we are inside his head we know what he’s feeling, and what’s happening with the ritual as it is happening. I mean, he’s still a pawn in Caleb/Christina’s plan, but he’s a more knowing one. In the book he also figures out all that stuff regarding the order that the show decides to credit to George. Also, the entire lodge collapsing the way it did was silly. Logistically there’s no way Montrose, George and Letitia ever could’ve gotten out of there.
Sometimes it is okay to just be along for the ride and see the different ways that they turned something written into something visual.
Fair enough. Agree that in the book we get a better perspective of what’s going on in his head and to what degree he’s actively taking control of the situation. I also agree that the whole house collapsing was a bit silly. The image of him simply walking out of the grand empty house (and Caleb inheriting the whole thing) has more resonance.
I think it is implied that the collapse took longer than what they showed and the three of them were out for a while before Tic got out.
I’m glad I’m not the only person who had a huge problem with the sound mixing and lighting/editing.
The dialogue seemed very muted and muddy, to the point of not being able to tell what they were saying for long stretches, while the music and SFX were practically blowing my speakers. I almost never have to keep a remote in my hand for shows, but in this episode, I did.The lighting was also pretty bad, and the quick editing in poor lighting made it super confusing and amateurish.That stuff combined with the weird tone and pacing issues make me a little wary of how the show’s going to hold up, which is a shame because the first episode was pretty much perfect.
Unfortunately, reading the book makes your opinions about this series highly subjective, beyond the normal this is just my opinion.
Samuel, I think, is not Titus’s “son,” nor his direct descendant, because it’s made clear that Atticus is Titus’s only living heir. (And otherwise he could have competed with Atticus giving orders to the dinner guests.) I imagine he’s the descendant of a brother of Titus’s, or something like that.Also, you used George’s name instead of Atticus’s a couple of ties in the review.I liked the episode, but it did seem a little rushed to me. And the level of magic they commanded did seem a little much to me – it’s amazing they’re not running the world already. (Maybe it just works in and around the house?) I was very sorry to see George go, but I do suspect that this is the last of him. I wonder if Christina and William got out.George saw a woman named “Dora” that he loved, but who is now dead. He and Montrose referred to Montrose’s lat wife (Atticus’s mom) as “Dee.” It seems clear that George had an affair with his brother’s wife, and that either one of them might be Atticus’s father. Monstrose knows all this (he said something like, “We settled this a long time ago, don’t bring it up again!”), which may be another reason he’s been living his life in a bottle.
I was shocked by the inaccuracies in this review, and completely confused by the paragraph where Joelle kept referring to George when the scenes were with Atticus.In the first scene with William where they are walking through the mansion, William says Titus is a cousin, not Samuel’s father.Also, I believe Christina set the collapse of the house in motion with something she did with the ring. As she puts it on Tic’s hand, she gives some speech about their destinies not being predetermined. I think she changed how the garden of eden spell would work and left the house, knowing it would crash on dear old dad.The pacing was definitely intense, but that left me hungry for more. Super sad about George, though.
This review felt so different than last week’s. A lot of it was just “this happened, then this happened, then this happened” without any commentary from the writer until it came to the food. It almost felt like a different person wrote this one.
Yes, Samuel is not a direct descendant of Titus, which should be obvious to the reviewer, because the Order would never have needed Atticus in the first place. The relationships of everyone involved in this episode are much more clear in the book. There was a lot thrown in this episode that wasn’t in the book, or changed from the book, which I found only unnecessarily confused what was a pretty straightforward story.
Yeah. I’m usually OK with changes from the book because a lot of times those changes either have to be made because otherwise it won’t translate properly or the creator had a good reason that either enhances the story or, as in the case of Dr. Sleep, creates a bridge between two previous works. These changes seemed random and as if they thought it would enhance the story, but it actually makes it either more confusing or weird. And not a good weird. (I feel like the village and the lady protecting the tower were better explained in the book, too.)
Samuel, I think, is not Titus’s “son,”If not for anything else, for the fact that it would mean he’s about 120 years old.
I inwardly groaned at the “who’s the father” addition. There’s enough family drama going on without throwing a love triangle into the mix.
I feel like the whole Dora and the issue of Atticus’ parentage was a lot clearer in the book. Like, when Dora showed up it was explained better who she was.
Michael K Williams was everything I hoped he would be. Knew he would be!It was strange, it was messy, it was lurid, it was confusing, but best of all, most important of all, it was a *Weird* *Tale*!I’m here for it! Maybe not as polished as the premiere, but it had such energy! This is the genre fiction I adore!Also, Caleb is Christina casting a glamor on herself. Calling it.
Well, Michael K. Williams is doing a “Michael K. Williams type”. He’s that kind of actor, the first time you see in one of his roles, you love him; the second time, you’re glad he’s got to do it again; by the tenth time, you’re like, “Eh. This shtick is getting kinda old”. Typecasting is a curse.
I enjoyed this ep; kinda makes me wish I’d read the book.
After two episodes, I can say I like the acting, visuals, and overall message; I haven’t read Matt Ruff’s novel, but from what I can tell it’s a great reinterpretation of Lovecraft’s notoriously racist, but nonetheless fascinating works, and this seems a fine adaptation thus far. However… The writing and sound editing are sub-par, to put it mildly. In just the first half hour, there’s a truly awful ‘trap’ track mixed underneath a wholly unfitting scene, and at the end credits of both episodes we get a lukewarm, ‘updated’ cover of Nina Simone’s wonderful, powerful ‘Sinnerman’. Just put on the original already – nothing can ever top it.Things get even worse in episode two, with Marilyn Manson thrown in the mix – nothing against him or his music, but it didn’t fit the atmosphere at all. Also, Gil Scott-Heron’s genius ‘Whitey on the Moon’ is used during a pivotal scene where it doesn’t make any contextual sense whatsoever, and story-wise, the episode ends with ‘Uncle’ George dying – something I saw coming from the second time he ever appeared on-screen. The rest of the characters are hardly developed in any meaningful or interesting manner, except for the usual ‘hero-damsel-conflicted villain’ clichés, so there’s really nobody to build a worthwhile connection with.
I hope this series can dig itself out of this hole of lazy writing and insipid sound editing, but I highly doubt it.
Do not expect everything to be Lovecraftian. The amazing dream that began the series featured H G Welles SF and WR Burroughs historic fantasy, as well. I read the book years ago. Other changes are on the way.
I’m glad I’m not the only person who’s disappointed whenever “Sinnerman” starts to play and it turns out to be an inferior cover.
I have become extremely attached to George for being only two episodes into a TV show. I haven’t read the book and I don’t intend to spoil the story for myself before the show’s over (although I’ll definitely look into it afterward), so I’m just hoping that there’s some magic that will bring him back.
Same. I think he kind of elevates all the proceedings, and the show is stronger with him in it
Just wanted to mention that describing the ritual sequence, you wrote “George” a couple times when I think you meant “Atticus”.That’s all I have! Fun show!
Ehhhhh, what in the hell just happened? There was so much exposition in the first five minutes we thought we missed an episode, then it went bonkers off the rails and seemed to cover an encyclopedia’s worth of backstory – and it’s only the second episode. I don’t know the actual book/story, but this seemed like it would have been the entire story if they either made it a single 2 hr movie, or maybe four episodes.
And my suspension of belief is getting trashed by the soundtrack and some cheesy CGI. It’s totally throwing me out of the era, and that is very important to this series.
And they just killed the best character IMO. Kinda bummed. We LOVED the first week.
The book is basically a short story collection with recurring characters. I was wondering how the show was going to deal with the odd structure and, as of this episode, I’m leaning towards not too well. That was just too much for one episode. Oddly, the show added a bunch of stuff that doesn’t happen in the book making the episode more overstuffed and complex than it needed to be.
That was a cluster. I feel bad for whoever had to edit that episode together. It was a thankless job.
I felt semi-exhausted at the end, like these two episodes made up an entire season’s worth of watching! So much had happened, we’d come so far and yet – this is just two episodes in; how could that be? But after reading this it makes more sense.
Not as strong an episode as the first unfortunately but the episode title (and closing soundtrack) at least gives me an excuse to throw in one of my favourite pieces of weird trivia: Gil Scott-Heron’s dad played for Celtic!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Heron
I didn’t like this episode quite as much as the previous one. The pace was a little fast; clearly, the show had some ground it wanted to cover. It was still enjoyable, just less so.
As a book reader I approve of the gender change from Samuel Braithwhite’s son Caleb to a daughter, Christine. It adds something to their dynamic that we didn’t really get in the book, which was more, “He doesn’t get along with his dad, because generational differences something something.” For example, in her scene with Tic where she talks about how she’ll never have the right to wear the ring she gives to him, you really get a sense of the disgust and disdain she feels for her father and his “colleagues.”
Also as a book reader I’m VERY surprised by some other changes…but I don’t think we readers should talk about them yet, because perhaps spoilers. For those complaining about the soundtrack, is soundtrack period authenticity really that important in a genre show? It’s not like the characters can hear the music, so why not just see it as it is, a soundtrack? (No one complains about contemporary-sounding orchestral scores, just sayin) Embrace the boldness of it, real genre should have that freedom at the very least. Tierra Whack in the first episode was perfectly chosen for the scene it was in, finding links between old and new.
Whitey on the moon in that scene is just weird. Do I love the spoken poem? Yes. Does it have any remove context to the scene? No.It’s a poem about how little Black people are moving forward while Whites are literally reaching for the stars. Atticus is supplying some random magic energy from a white ancestor. It just doesn’t really have a connection in the framework of the moment.
It’s also very distracting, because it’s spoken, and even starts as dialogue, so your brain tends to focus on it more than it would with lyrics of a song. And being disconnected from the action, it forces you to multitask in an unproductive way.
The way they used the speech by James Baldwin was powerful in the first episode, but I don’t feel it worked as well this time.
Interpreting that as remote context, I thought it worked enough.It’s like with the Jefferson’s theme they may not literally be moving upward socially, but at least they feel the sensation of a deluxe BnB in this guy’s lodge.When it comes to government funding there is this tendency to pit projects directly against one another so allowing black lives to struggle in pursuit of some white guy’s pie in the sky dream have a direct correlation. That seems analogous to directly draining Tic’s lifeforce/whatever was happening and letting innocents bleed out for the sake of the white guy’s aspirational goal, just way more literally.
The whitey’s are going to the moon (Immortality), while Tic is being electrocuted and presumably supposed to die. Basically the white masters are sacrificing a black man to achieve their goals. It did take me out of it a little bit, but I do appreciate the subtext
I think the connection is obvious. Here are these incredibly rich, out-of-touch whiteys (Whiteys in Eden) not using their incredible wealth to help black people living in the extreme circumstances of Jim Crow South but sacrificing Atticus, and his family, for some batshit crazy scheme to get back to Eden.
My only complaint about the soundtrack thus far is that Marilyn Manson is SO “dumb but acting like it’s/he’s clever” that it lessens the scene for me. I think some sort of moratorium on using any MM in tv adaptations would be useful. Smart soundtrack choices can really elevate a show, but lazy ones do the exact opposite.
I actually agree with the choice about Marilyn Manson, that particular choice didn’t work and, why are we still paying Manson after there’s pretty strong evidence now he’s one of the biggest predators and psychopaths in the industry not named Harvey Weinstein? [see: Evan Rachel Wood’s testimony to congress] (https://www.nylon.com/articles/evan-rachel-wood-full-testimony-congress-sexual-assault-survivors-bill-of-rights-act)My point is that with that song and, perhaps, the Gil Scott-Heron poem, the problem isn’t that the music is anachronistic, it’s tonal.Re: Bogira/Kumagoro – I see what you guys are saying, it was a strange choice, but it felt in line with the James Baldwin recording from Episode 1. It’s extremely bold and borderline experimental, but I love the juxtaposition between the genre story we’re seeing on screen and the fragments of real history we listen to. I actually really enjoy types of media that force my brain to multitask like that, though I agree that it can be overwhelming if it goes on too long.
It’s just a tonal issue. Had the story been about his own magic being exploited in a way that was functionally his it would make more sense. I actually don’t like the change (I read the synopsis from the wiki) and I don’t really love it being a white ancestor giving him power. It just…ugh. It is what it is. Especially after the original story being how the ‘devil took the form of a black man’ and I was going ‘Oh! It’s totally that they have magic, too!’ Just so much UGH.Side note: Reading the gender change completely changes the story from a generational change and growth as a society to one of repressed groups aligning. It’s a major tonal shift that takes the idea of growth from Lovecraft as a man of his time to only those under the thumb can undo it. Not something I fully endorse even as a 3rd wave feminist.
Without spoiling anything, context may completely change how you interpret some of those things later on, particularly the gender change (if the show mostly follows the book–which it may not? we’ll see).As for the magic though, wouldn’t making the Black characters the magical ones play into a particularly cringey fiction stereotype? Not to mention, in this universe, is magic something good that everyone should want? Considering how it always seems to lead to ruin and is the weapon of inbred secret societies, magic here seems to be associated with corruption and evil, which actually is pretty Lovecraftian.
I didn’t think I would like the Manson, but it worked for me. This show isn’t messing around
William and Christina are never around at the same time. And women, deemed responsible for the fall of man, are not allowed to participate in the order led by her father, while William can at least be in the outskirts of the room. Christina referring to William as “a boy… and a friend.” suggests he serves a specific purpose, one helpful to her. So he’s either something created by Christina, or Christina herself.
Was wondering if anyone else had this theory. I totally think they are the same person as well. Just finished episode 4. The scene when she goes into some house of hers at night and then he IMMEDIATELY comes out to violently scare off the men who’d been tailing her . . . . Plus, I now know her role has been gender swapped from the book from reading comments here, so maybe this is a play on that? Since they look so oddly alike too, as well as working for the same purposes in ways that seem more than just a REALLY dedicated assistant would do.
George’s body is ripped asunder by an electrical current. George is dealing with some form of PTSD
Excellent review overall, but you may want to fix that.I’m loving this show so much thus far. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes next week.
This show is sort of horrible. Diverging quite a bit from the book and it’s worse for it. It seems like it’s going for a True Blood kind of tone – that means it’s fun but also dumb as shit.
Well, that was disappointing after a very good first episode. This episode felt extremely rushed yet somehow padded at the same time. It was just very disjointed and didn’t flow naturally from one scene to the next. The anachronistic soundtrack choices didn’t work at all either.I don’t remember everything from the book (I honestly didn’t find it to be that great) but I don’t recall the weird “nightmare room” part with everyone watching. Not only is such a device a rather over-worn trope, but it’s not very Lovecraftian, and I can’t see what purpose that could possible serve for the Order. It was also a lot of time wasted on something that created no tension as the audience knows none of it is real. Tic also ends up being a passenger in his own story here. In the book he’s the one who figures out everything but that’s all given to George for some reason. Tic doesn’t even get to understand how he defeats the ritual. In the book he is able to read the ancient language from the book and he is reciting the ritual himself. Caleb/Christina gives him a passage of a spell to recite during the ritual that turns it on the Order. In the show, instead he gets the ring, and basically has no idea why anything is happening and neither does the audience. Also, it’s Montrose who gets shot and revived in the book. I don’t mind them changing that to Letitia but then they go and have George shot too! It was more comical than ominous. They final scene with George dying was acted beautifully but… we know he’s coming back somehow. We’ve seen him in the trailers and he’s part of every episode in the book to some degree as far as I recall.I honestly wouldn’t mind any of these changes if they seemed more purposeful and aided in making better TV but these seemed to only muddle things and reduce tension rather than sustain or increase it. I was a bit concerned from the start as to how the show would be able to translate the vignette storytelling of the book as it mainly jumps from one mostly self contained story to the next. This story might have been served by making it three episodes. Or maybe not. It probably could’ve been wrapped up satisfactorily in this episode, but not in the way they attempted to do it.
it’s not very LovecraftianThe show includes Lovecraft references, but I argue it’s not very Lovecraftian overall. Those monsters running and chasing people around aren’t really reminiscent of the behavior of Lovecraftian creatures, I think. They’re more descendants of the Alien kind of movie monster menace.Plus, to be properly Lovecraftian, the black protagonists would need to be depicted as vicious sub-humans whose ancestors mated with particularly repulsive beasts. And they would only appear once in the background, to stress their foul nature, then be gone.
Plus, to be properly Lovecraftian, the black protagonists would need to be depicted as vicious sub-humans whose ancestors mated with particularly repulsive beasts. And they would only appear once in the background, to stress their foul nature, then be gone.Damn, that was scathing! Justifiably so, A+!
The story is about 3 African American’s having to navigate and survive the very real and the extensional horrors of White America. Sounds fairly Lovecraftian to me.
I mean the whole show is an attempt to reclaim and subvert an insanely racist mythology so there’s that.
I feel like they’re going to have to keep Uncle George dead to not make that ridiculous. I don’t want them to because I love Vance and fell in love with the character early on in the first episode. I think Christina is going to come along and revive him, but, if so, they shouldn’t have killed him.
The one thing that bugs me is how George was able to find the secret library by… simply touching a book he liked on a bookshelf that was filled with books he likes. Was that intentional? Did someone know he’d find that secret library? Because if not, wow, that’s like locking James Bond in a room with keys to his handcuffs and his favorite gun. I was thinking maybe the blonde chick was helping them and knew George would find the library, or perhaps her boy(friend)/brother(?) guy. I forget their names, honestly. So much was happening.
I forget the exact specifics but in the book Tic finds the book as he’s exploring the lodge. None of the dream-sequence stuff happens and, if I remember correctly, they don’t realize they’re trapped until they tried to escape and smash into the invisible wall with their car. They seemed to have added a lot of scenes that made what was a fairly straightforward plot in the book into something needlessly convoluted on the show.
After George said he found their bylaws it cut to William, so I’m pretty sure he had something to do with it.
maybe the daughter did intentionally make that happen so she could put her plan in motion.
“He remembers the vampiric beasts”
Vampiric? Do *you* remember the beasts?
I think they were vampiric in the sense that they turned people into more of them and George evoked Dracula to theorize a weakness (though to all light instead of sunlight).
I’m kind of baffled by the A rating here. This episode is a complete mess, is it not?
I thought Watchmen was dumb and bad (yes, I’m the only one). Should I watch this? I thought watchmen was too heavy on the make-em-ups and I just didn’t find it compelling. This looks like it may be a little more reality based, which I would like. Also, I’m kind of a fraidy cat.
It’s a series about Lovecraftian magic and monsters. It’s not particularly reality based in that regard at least.
That’s fair. But watching ads/trailers, it seems to have more of a period setting, and at least a little bit of a civil rights story. Both of which I dig.
No you probably will not like this. I find it pretty similar to The Watchmen. I just can’t see how you would dislike that show and enjoy this one.
Watchmen was WAY better. This is …not good.
I’m not as high on HBO’s Watchmen as others (I still think a lot of characters were short-changed, and the villains’ plots made no sense by the finale) but I’m liking this better so far. I lot of that probably has to do with knowing Watchmen inside and out, while having next to know familiarity with Lovecraft, so I’m less critical about it. The shows are thematically similar, though, and both rely strongly on mystery box storytelling, if that’s ok. As far as the fraidy cat thing, the show is unnerving, and occasionally graphic, but not out and out horror (yet).
I say watch the premiere, at least, and get a feel for what you think so far.
I always feel like, if you have to ask, “Should I watch this” you probably shouldn’t. If you don’t know if it interests you or not, it probably doesn’t interest you.
I want to love it, but I just like it.It’s well made, the cast is talented and attractive, I loved the book it’s based on, but… it’s just okay. It’s only episode two. Lots of shows take some time to find their footing, so I’m still in, but so far it’s B- and the kick up from C+ is mostly because of how much I love Gil Scott-Heron and how pretty Jurnee Smollett is. (which is a lot and very, respectively)
Why on earth would you expect to love a show based on a book you already loved? Books are always gonna be the superior format due to the interiority they allow for, but also people also prefer what they experienced first. You also know all the basic plot points and where everything is going so how is that going to be super entertaining for you?
Just thought I’d respond to this because it’s such a weird (and unfair) complaint. I mean, is this the only book you’ve ever read that has been adapted? Lol. C’mon.
What a profoundly stupid reply.
So Dell was on The Deuce. I knew I recognized her from somewhere. I also totally did not get that Braithwaite was Tony Goldwyn.It’s nice that actors like Jamie Neumann keep getting cast in other HBO shows. It’s like HBO has its own repertory company.Sure, plenty of suspense in this episode, but nothing quite so nervous making as Dell talking about how awful the black bears are to George and pointedly leaving off the word bears. All while she has two vicious dogs at heel.
Jamie Neumann was also in Season 1 of AMC’s NOS4A2, for what it’s worth…
This series is just too batshit crazy for me!
Are they trying to put Jurnee Smollett in the sexiest possible outfits episode by episode? Because I’m not complaining. I have the most massive crush on that woman right now.Yeah, I know, there are important themes at play about history and segregation. But there’s also Jurnee Smollett in those outfits, and Lovecraft monsters!Speaking of the monsters. I admit I haven’t re-read Lovecraft in at least 20 years (and none of the Mythos continuators), but I don’t remember the monsters being a source of action scenes, like they weren’t chasing around the protagonists and being actually fought against with weapons, were they? As far as I remember, the point was mostly about the sheer dread evoked by their existence. I played my shares of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and the moment a monster would actually show up (and of course only a bad master would ever consider directly involving anything major like a Great Old One), the campaign would just end with half the characters dead and the other half screaming in a padded cell. It was about these little pathetic humans working with their little pathetic skills to uncover the reality that would ultimately doom them.
Generally, no, Lovecraftian monsters aren’t fought against by the protagonists. The characters in At the Mountains of Madness do escape a shoggoth at the end of the story but one them goes mad simply by looking back at where they came from. Usually, just a glimpse of them, or the knowledge that these things exist is enough to drive the protagonist crazy. They would never dare to directly confront them. There’s really not many traditional “action scenes” in Lovecraft’s work. None that I can think of now anyway.
Only because it blew me away:
How can he be that quick and quiet?I wish I could assume that’s a magical trait he has, but I’ve seen far, far too many movies and TV shows to jump to that conclusion.Quite simply, modern cinematography often (lazily) gives the characters and the audience very limited perception. You get a 90° field of vision instead of the usual human 120°, and no one turns their head or has peripheral vision. They don’t even detect motion at the edge of their vision. Characters can sneak up on other characters in wide-open spaces without using magical powers. It’s not just a jump scare. It’s a jump scare that doesn’t make sense.
Must strongly disagree with the letter grade. This show is BAD. Real bad. There’s some fun stuff to look at every few minutes and the acting is pretty good but otherwise it’s nonsense. So much exposition, such clunky dialogue.It doesn’t help either that so many of the themes in this show have been explored much more effectively in other very recent projects. ‘Whitey on the moon’ was even featured in that just ok neil armstrong movie last year with much more provocative results.
Is it just me or are the sound fx and dialog mixed really badly for this show? Like, I have to crank my receiver WAY up to hear what people are saying and then any action sequences are really loud. I don’t have that problem with any other HBOMax shows
Snake penis was some pretty crappy CGI. They also need to slow the pace a bit. I’m really enjoying this show, but they could use some love in the editing department.
Get used to the pace. The book is basically a short story collection with recurring characters. Hence why the Ardham story is already resolved.
I find it amusing (mainly because at first I did the same) you spelled the family name was “Braithwaite” after a certain group of protagonists in Red Dead Redemption 2.
There were so many themes about race, I don’t think I caught them all.
There might be more to Leti asking for salt at the breakfast table.
There is a saying, “below the salt” which means “common” or “lowly” so it could signify Leti was not a lower class citizen by asking for the condiment.
This episode was such a hard come down after the mighty high of that fantastic premiere. This was muddled, overstuffed and hurried.
the Braithwaites make a sex worker out of Leti, a spectacle out of Atticus, and an emotional sadist’s dream out of George.
Yea I didn’t get that from the George one
Most reviews of the show have quotes such as “Once again, Misha Green’s pen pushes a horrifying narrative mixed with macabre gore….” while never acknowledging that pretty much all we’ve seen so far, from plot to tone to nuance, comes right out of the Matt Ruff novel/stories. Let’s give credit where credit is due.
Stumbled over this: “In H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, even when a demon unleashed their cruelty on the world, there was always a human holding the reins”Not… really? In Lovecraft’s own work, humans don’t win. Like, ever. If you learned things Man Was Not Meant To Know, trafficked with Things from Beyond Our World, explored Places Of Eldritch Design? You’re dead. In some stories, there’s an illusion of control – but pretty much ALWAYS shattered in the face of the Horrid Realities From Beyond.Derleth and HPL’s contemporaries had different views – in Derleth, for example, one could fight against the Elder Gods and actually have a shot at winning. HPL, however, was pretty direct. Outside a very limited set of poems and stories that are mostly ‘Dreamworld’ stuff and not direct Cthulhu mythos, humans are crunchy snacks not worthy of consideration once the Being in question is turned loose.Even the wealthy white people. It’s pretty consistent.
Agree with everyone else: that was a very dense episode of TV. Watching on my computer, I thought I had clicked on something that binge-played the eps and we were on ep. 3 without a break or titles.
But very well done, regardless. I read the placement of “Whitey On the Moon” as savage irony, reflecting another radical, seemingly impossible experiment (this time with magic instead of science) white people do at the expense of Black people, with Tick being the cost, as people of color were back then if the government funding on the space race had been instead gone helping them and their communities. Nice.Also agree that George and Courtney B. Vance were excellent. He was the most compelling character, honestly. Shame they killed him off.As soon as George and Leti saw the outdoor lunch spread, I thought, “Lotus Eaters” from Homer, and got a kick out of being right. It’s a well worn trope.
Given that every burned building reference in the show so far links back to the revolt of slaves and subsequent cover-up of that damage, it’s clear that this is not a welcome place for Black Americans. Although, the diner from the first episode was burned to the ground by racists who were infuriated that the previous iteration of the diner had dared to serve Black folks (hence why George was checking it out for possible inclusion in his Green Book). So that reference to a burned building had more in common with the disgusting arson of the KKK than the justified revolt of slaves. Really loving this show and these recaps so far! Some of the music choices are jarring and the shifts from the source novel take some getting used to, but the acting is phenomenal and the horror is top-notch.
“Surrounded by the wealthy elite, too high up the food chain to associate
with Klan, George’s body is ripped asunder by an electrical current.
George is dealing with some form of PTSD,…”Pretty sure you mean Atticus here.“He’s valuable, but not expendable, as Samuel explained in an earlier scene.”No, Samuel said that Atticus was “useful,” and warned him not to equate useful with “indispensible.”
I’m just catching up now. My main thoughts after this episode were: damn, I need to find more stuff with Courtney B. Vance in it. He’s amazing. And then of course, what kind of bullshit was that? He was honestly the most compelling actor in the show, which is saying a LOT with this cast, and I’m super bummed. I watched two more eps after this but I’m still mad. Added to that is the fact that I’m not at all connecting with Michael K Willians as an actor.
I’ve never seen The Wire (deal with it) but he still just feels . . . too modern to me? Out of place in this period setting? He also feels too young in his speech, looks, and mannerisms for me to find him believable as Tic’s father/uncle. It’s just not working at all, imo, and it throws even more into relief the absence of Vance.
TW: Thirstiness.
I do like how every white person cast so far has been kind of fug (even the white witch has too much weird styling added to the actor to really be attractive- the unsettling contacts, teeth, hair coloring; Tony Goldwyn too being allowed to look very aged and given grody hair), while every black actor is just fuckin’ gorgeous and dressed like an impeccable 50s magazine model. Could Tic and Leti especially be played by two more attractive human beings? Do two more attractive human beings even EXIST? (Maybe tied for third with the woman playing Leti’s sister. Can that woman wear a DRESS or what. Jeezus.)