Lovecraft Country is an American horror drama television series created by Misha Green based on the 2016 novel Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff. It stars Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett, Aunjanue Ellis, Wunmi Mosaku, Abbey Lee, Jada Harris, and Michael Kenneth Williams in the main roles. The series was premiered on August 16, 2020, on HBO and is now available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar.
Set in the 1950s in the United States, Korean War veteran Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) has returned to his home after getting a heartbreaking letter from his father Montrose Freeman (Michael Kenneth Williams) and he's missing. Atticus, his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), and his childhood friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) hit the road in search of Montrose. There they are chased by white men but thanks to a mysterious lady who blows their car and at the night, the three are hunted by bloodthirsty monsters. In the morning, they found a mansion, and there they are welcomed by William (Jordan Patrick Smith), who then explains to Atticus that the mansion, Ardham Lodge, was designed by Titus Braithwhite, the founder of wizard group called Son of Adam, and Atticus is a descendant of Titus. So what's going to happen next after this shocking revelation? Will Atticus get to find his father?
Shannon Houston, Kevin Lau, Wes Taylor, Ihuoma Ofordire, Jonathan I. Kid, and Sonya Winton have written the script. The story and teleplay are "a frequently hit and occasionally miss" type. The pilot episode "Sundown" is the most intriguing and captivating, in the beginning, it opens with a war scene, with Atticus hiding and watching all the monsters, ghouls and UFOs, yes! all at the same place, surely an eye-catcher scene, and you get to know Atticus is a war veteran, who has encounter something unnatural in Korea, and his father is missing. Then another lively and firm woman, Letitia is introduced along with her singer sister Ruby Baptiste. And the mystery behind the disappearance of Atticus' father is very arresting, and you'll be hooked to it, and the Lovecraftian beasts at the end of the first episode are just surprisingly superb.
From the second episode, the teleplay, many times tries hard to engage you with its drama, and it has many amazing scenes in between those boring moments, like when Atticus, Letitia, and Montrose goes to the museum, to find the vault to find the pages, and there one out of many corpses comes back to life, and another is the track of Ruby when she wakes up as a white woman is one of the best scenes from the series. Whereas in episode 6, the story of Ji-Ah is not at all engaging. The good thing is that the series again picks up and that too quite amazingly at the last two episodes. The characters here are in solid form, and every one of them is well fleshed out. A lot is going on and there's so much to process and remember what happened with that characters in the past and the strong racial discrimination the back people go through, apart from what's in front of your eyes. The dense storyline and the incredible character development is a win-win here, but as told it's the uneven teleplay that is sometimes a miss.
Jonathan Majors as Atticus Freeman is terrific in his role, giving his character more depth and making it more realistic, he's in great form and has done a great job. Jurnee Smollett is a scene-stealer here as Letitia/Leti Lewis, she has looked very beautiful and aced her role with her confidence and is continuously outstanding in every scene. I'm looking ahead to see her performance to get at least nominated at Emmy Awards. Wunmi Mosaku as Ruby Baptiste is very effective, from pitch-perfect as playing a singer to one of the most complex ones, she's brilliant. Abbey Lee as Christina Braithwhite, looks ravishing, is good but not extraordinary. Michael Kenneth Williams as Montrose Freeman and Aunjanue Ellis as Hippolyta Freeman have done a fantastic job, very complicated characters, and Jada Harris as Diana Freeman stole the show especially in episode 8.
The cinematography by Tat Radcliffe, Robert McLachlan, and Michael Watson is impressive and looks like a big-budget adventure horror movie, and music plays an important role here, and the visual effects, for monsters, ghouls, and ghosts, are excellent.
Lovecraft Country has everything and is a gift for horror genre fans. It has a cult group, monsters, beasts, ghosts, and at its core, it's about finding yourself and your contribution to saving your closed ones. Each character gets ample time or you can episode to gets established, ultimately it's a well-written show, and surely has its share of highs and lows. Casting black actors and showing their unimaginable struggle with racism, is very hard-hitting and shattering, and the story is so deep and so much to take, you might find it inconvenient to complete it in one go. It's a very unique show and another superhit big-budget series by HBO, just go for it.
Rating:- 3.5/5
Now streaming on HBO and Disney+ Hotstar.
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