Lovecraft Country S1 Impressions

Based on Matt Ruff’s novel of the same name, Lovecraft Country follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he meets up with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) and his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father (Michael Kenneth Williams). This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.

If you’re wondering whether or not to give Lovecraft Country a shot, then read on. I won’t really talk about what happens in the show, really just give my impressions of the season, and some general thoughts on it.
Read below and then decide for yourself if you’re interested in the show.

[The Slightest of Spoilers (not much to worry about TBH)]

Trailer Impressions

Really excited for this one… It looks like it takes place in 1950’s Chicago with the action moving to ‘Lovecraft country’. I’m assuming that’s where are the weirdness happens. The trailer shows off some monsters and… demons(?), so I’m not sure where they’re gonna go with all this. Also, I got kind of an American Horror Story vibe from a section of this trailer. IDK.
Overall, it looks really compelling. — And I can’t wait to actually watch.

-These are just my impressions and thoughts on the show… Enjoy!

Episodes 1–5 Impressions

With some people are saying that LC is an anthology, I can see why they’d get that impression before finishing the season. In reality, there are only a couple of episodes that veer away from the main storyline, but those episodes do later feed into the main plot.
Judging the trailer, I got the impression that ‘Lovecraft country’ was an established thing in this world. A known area where weird things happened — A ‘no go zone’ or something like that. This is not the case.
The show (Initially) follows a bunch of nerds group of people that just happen to be big sci-fi readers, so they’re familiar with Lovecraft and the area his stories took place in. Episode one does follow this line, but from episode 3 and beyond, it diverges greatly. I felt let down that the show really has nothing to do with Lovecraft or his stories… a huge bait-n-switch.
Having said that — the show (overall) could probably be categorized as ‘Lovecraft adjacent’.
These episodes were pretty good (some very good), it’s probably down to the tonal shifts from episode to episode, and the diversion from all the Lovecraftiness that we were promised, that made the first half of the season seem not as great as it could have been. Maybe if the trailer/title were more honest about the contents of the show this wouldn’t have been an issue for so many viewers.

First half score: 7/10

Episodes 6–10 Impressions

Off The Fucking Rails. (pretty much). Geez, I really don’t know what to say here. There was a lot of good in the second half, but holy shit was there bad.
The two best episodes of the season are in this second half and, unfortunately, the rest is basically a pair of stanky old shoes. I really have to call the second half of Lovecraft Country a mess…
I mean, I think it’s worth finishing the show… but I’m not 100% on that. Everything sci-fi and the kitchen sink, and that’s not a good thing. Ung. IDK, man…
What a letdown.

Second half score: 5/10

Final Thoughts:

Lovecraft Country, at times, isn’t as serious as I thought it would be, some straight up goofy moments… which I can appreciate. At one point, though, I felt it was Young Adult levels of plot writing. Not too bad though… Did D-n-D write the second half? There was a lot of “kinda forgot about that” in the second half.
It’s mostly good stuff but, not as good as I was hoping for. -And at times, bad. At one point I was thinking that it probably came down to the fact that the subject matter and tone aren’t what I was expecting, and the huge tonal shifts within episodes and from one episode to the next. Now, I’m thinking that’s just part of it, there was so much bad in this season, that I can’t get over it. Once I finished the season, I felt like the show lost its way, and the makers had given up on making an actual good show.
It’s a weird show… hard to get a solid grip on. And (very Important!), Lovecraft Country has a lot going on beyond the sci-fi/horror… this show will be many things to many people. — LC will speak to some people more loudly (?) than it will to others. Buckle up.

Originally published at http://terabullone.wordpress.com on November 5, 2020.