Lovecraft Country

[peter]

This looks interesting.

Set in 1950's Jim Crow America, it tells the story of the treck across the country of a thirty something coloured guy and includes (as the name might give the clue to) fantasy elements of a horror based nature.

How much of the actual story is 'Cthulu' based stuff, I'll never know, not having read any Lovecraft. It might be that the only reference is in the title, or it could run deeper into the actual story elements itself (ie with actual Lovecraft monsters being utilised as opposed to ones simply created for this show). Part of the fun of this series for me, I think, will be the sorting of this out, and who knows, it might be the nudge I need to at last get me to fill this gap in my reading catalogue, long overdue and requiring to be attended to.

Anyway, just thought I'd give a pointer towards it. Should be appearing on Amazon in the next month or so.

[Cheval]

I found it on HBO MAX.

[peter]

Was it out to view Cheval, or just being advertised as soon to be coming?

[peter]

Update; it's appeared on Sky Atlantic in the UK. I'll give it a watch later and report back.

[wayfriend]

I watched the first ep. I found it to be pretty entertaining, if it's okay to say that something that so pointedly portrays racism can be entertaining. Defintely going to go round 2.

[peter]

With you on that Wayfriend. It's a tricky balancing act but I think HBO (or rather the writers and producers) pulled it off very well; it certainly pulled no punches in its portrayal of the terrible circumstances that coloured people endured during this period.

But moving on to the other aspects, I found the first episode a little slow to get going but when it finally did it moved at pace and drew you in pretty rapidly. In a funny way it reminded me of the recent Watchmen series in terms of its 'feel', and this was reinforced by some similarities between the two (a big old mansion, generational discords etc) that in no way detracted from the enjoyment to be had.

The first episode was not so full-on in terms of its cultural referencing, but by the time you get into the second episode they are coming thick and fast. I've not read any Lovecraft so I can't really talk about how much the content of this is drawn from his writings, but reference is made to another author of the time, William Hope Hodgeson, whose House on the Boarderland story makes a significant entrance here - and in addition I thought I caught a Crowley reference that the YouTube explainer vid I watched seemed to miss.

But all in all it made a good fist of presenting an old horror classic in a reworked setting and giving it sufficient depth to draw you in and keep you coming back for more. I'm most definitely in.