Amazon's "Them" came following a trend of black themed horror that started with "Get Out" and continued with "Us", the more recent "Antebellum" and the TV series "Lovecraft Country". There is naturally a level of uncomfortableness associated with seeing aspects of the black American experience replayed on screen, necessary uncomfortableness though, for people to learn from that history. That said, the shows prevailing nastiness would make it tough for me to say that I enjoyed it.
Following an unspeakable tragedy, an African American family relocate to Compton, becoming the only black household on the all-white neighbourhood. Faced with open, naked, racist hostility from the outset, the family face a further onslaught from an otherworldly power - one set on taking their sanity, before ending their lives.
The performances in the show are generally really good. The parents of the family, Henry and Lucky are played by British pairing Ashley Thomas and Deborah Ayorinde - they are both excellent. Across the series we see their rationality shattered and rebuilt as both they, and us as the audience struggle to determine if what they can see is truly real. Their daughters, played by Shahadi Wright Joseph and Melody Hurd are both excellent too, particularly Joseph - who plays the teenager daughter, attending high school where she is the only black student. She was also in "Us".
I'm not sure why, looking back on the show at its conclusion, we spend quite so much time with Alison Pill's Betty - the neighbour who is most aggrieved by the Emory's arrival and who does the most to fire up the community. We get a couple of plot detours for her, both of which are unrelated to the main story in any way.
On a couple of occasions, the show is really hard to watch. The violence can be both sustained and graphic and that was more prevalent than some of the other horror tropes that you see elements off. I do also think that this series didn't move as fast as I wanted it too, hitting the same points too frequently and suffers by revealing too much in the last couple of episodes, rather than across it's runtime.
There is technical quality in display both in front of and behind the camera, but it's in service of a story that, for me, had some issues. Hopefully the anthologising aspect, will make the second season more of a complete triumph.
Following an unspeakable tragedy, an African American family relocate to Compton, becoming the only black household on the all-white neighbourhood. Faced with open, naked, racist hostility from the outset, the family face a further onslaught from an otherworldly power - one set on taking their sanity, before ending their lives.
The performances in the show are generally really good. The parents of the family, Henry and Lucky are played by British pairing Ashley Thomas and Deborah Ayorinde - they are both excellent. Across the series we see their rationality shattered and rebuilt as both they, and us as the audience struggle to determine if what they can see is truly real. Their daughters, played by Shahadi Wright Joseph and Melody Hurd are both excellent too, particularly Joseph - who plays the teenager daughter, attending high school where she is the only black student. She was also in "Us".
I'm not sure why, looking back on the show at its conclusion, we spend quite so much time with Alison Pill's Betty - the neighbour who is most aggrieved by the Emory's arrival and who does the most to fire up the community. We get a couple of plot detours for her, both of which are unrelated to the main story in any way.
On a couple of occasions, the show is really hard to watch. The violence can be both sustained and graphic and that was more prevalent than some of the other horror tropes that you see elements off. I do also think that this series didn't move as fast as I wanted it too, hitting the same points too frequently and suffers by revealing too much in the last couple of episodes, rather than across it's runtime.
There is technical quality in display both in front of and behind the camera, but it's in service of a story that, for me, had some issues. Hopefully the anthologising aspect, will make the second season more of a complete triumph.
