7th September, 2021.
Right …
It’s getting late at night: so we can safely say that it’s no longer sunny.
It’s dark out, in point of fact.
Which I can live with, especially after a long day.
At any rate? Having done a few bits indoors, done the usual jobhunting, and done various bits for Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar?
I have to admit that I was at a loose end: and fancied watching something.
With no idea if that something was going to be a film or TV show.
Oh, I’ve access to plenty of films.
But I’d see a few, recently, and fancied a change of pace.
Given today saw the death of Michael K. Williams, and that he had a part in the series I’ve had in the collection for a while?
I felt making a start on Lovecraft Country seemed the thing.
8th September, 2021.
Episode 1 — Sundown — opens with a hallucinatory montage: of Korean War veteran, Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) fighting his way through the trenches, and facing an equally hallucinatory Princess Dejah Thoris*.
Atticus and Freeman are menaced by a bat-winged, tentacled thing* … that’s thumped by a suitably heroic baseball player‡.
The scene shifts: and shows us Atticus waking up on a segregated bus, heading home from the deeply segregated south, reading Edgar Rice Burrough’s A Princess of Mars.
He’s heading home to Chicago’s South Side: after receiving a letter from his missing father.
It seems there’s a missing family legacy in the small town of Ardham: Montrose has vanished in the process of trying to find it.
Atticus … ? Is deeply concerned.
Concerned enough to ask his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and Leti (Jurnee Smollett) along both company, and help. George writes a travel guide for African Americans, and Leti?
Leti’s along to provide emotional support: and very good driving.
Both are going to be needed.
The trio are going to be heading into Devon County … and hideous slimey, tentacles things are the least of their worries.
~≈Ü≈~
Now … have I seen a good opening episode? Strong characters? Good writing and acting?
Have I seen something that possibly teaches me a lesson?
WHY did I start watching this … ?
Let’s do all sorts of things.
I’ve had Lovecraft Country in my ‘To Be Watched,’ list for quite some time.
But watched it yesterday, partly because I had a free evening …
But also because I’d heard of the very recent death of Michael K. Williams: who I know is in the show.
I honestly can’t remember seeing him in anything.
Honestly, I couldn’t.
So starting on this series seemed an appropriate way to mark his passing.
And politely apologising to his memory for missing his work.
Virtue signalling?
I couldn’t give a damn, frankly: I want to do the right thing, rather than get a round of applause.
Which possibly brings up other things.
Let’s face it, it brings up the USA’s notoriously bad race relations.
I’m a white guy from south-east England, and grateful to have never been at the wrong end of racist behaviour.
I’m also under the impression that race relations in the UK, and the US, are … better than they were.
Whilst being very aware that any Black British people reading this could well be saying “They’re better than they were … but … … ”
I get the impression there’s lots of little things that need a lot of work.
And big things, too: just ask any footballer.
! suspect that in the States — as evidenced by the amount of black Americans shot by white police officers — there’s a bigger job that needs doing.
So, in a way … ?
Watching something that shows us the history of these things? Is helpful for those of us that need the education in it.
Although I suspect many who need that education? Won’t necessarily be watching.
They possibly should.
My point? Outside of that?
Is that, in the case of Sundown^, we’d be watching something that — like Watchmen — tells us something about how racism works, at its worst.
AND tell us a damn good story, as well.
This episode is well written, well performed, tense, dramatic, and has the best Cthulhu since the last one I saw?
Is going to keep me watching.
I’ll be watching the next episode, on Tuesday, 14th September, and publishing my written and video reviews of it on the 15th.
I’d love it if you joined me …
* She’s red: here’s the Wikipedia entry.
† The series is called Lovecraft Country. Who do you think it is … ?
‡ It’s not stated: but I’m assuming that’s supposed to be Jackie Robinson: the first black American to play for a Major League team.
^ Sundown towns were all-white American towns: that black people had to be out of by sunset. (Apparently? The town of Minden, Nevada, still sounds a siren at 6PM. The siren was started, back in the day, to tell Native Americans to get out of town by 6.30. It’s the 21st century, for gods’ sake!)
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