I once took part in a dramatic reading that involved Cthulhu as an alien trying to obtain an Earth visa (boy how I wish that comedy had been greenlit). Despite this, and the fact that I enjoy reading multiple literary genres, I am not well-versed in the world of H.P. Lovecraft. I do love a good thought-provoking scare, but lately, I’ve been more into the comedy-horror “spoopy” genre of storytelling. Heck, as I type this I'm listening to “Spooky Scary Skeletons”.
But happily, that hasn’t meant that I have escaped the lure and lore of the new runaway hit Lovecraft Country (2020) on HBO. In fact, I’ve been tuning in every Sunday on the edge of my seat. As Amanda Seales said on Instagram, “This show ruins my life and gives me life every single week.”
One of the most fascinating facets of this dark fantasy horror (and, trust me, there are several) is how unpredictable it is. As both a writer and a TV junkie, that delights me in a medium that is often known for tried-and-true formulas.
Before we dive in, this review will contain SPOILERS. No, seriously — it’s going to beg chock-full of them, up to and including the finale. So if you haven’t seen the show, I suggest you click away and get to watching. The series also contains some content that may be upsetting and is not for the faint of heart, so forewarned is forearmed. Finally, if you’re all caught up on Lovecraft but aren’t too familiar with what the Unicorn Scale is all about, you can read up on the metric here, or check out the Media Entry here.
Lovecraft Country, based on the 2016 novel by Matt Ruff, centers on Atticus Turner (Jonathan Majors), a black veteran of the Korean War and avid science fiction fan, and his family as they navigate 1950s Jim Crow Chicagoland. The Turners get involved with a dark but fantastical universe inhabited by Lovecraftian creatures and characters.
What I Liked:
There are really two bi characters at play throughout the season — Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee Kershaw), a mysterious white heiress with supernatural powers, and Ruby Baptiste (Wunmi Mosaku), a black singer and saleswoman. With Ruby specifically, there is so much to explore.
Ruby is one of the more complex characters in a cast of characters who are already quite three-dimensional. As a black woman, we see Ruby experience colorism and erasure as she moves through the world. Often underestimated, the story explores her rage but also shows her vulnerability in ways far more nuanced than we typically see. This range of emotion paints a picture of a confident woman underpinned with insecurities, desires, and motives that meld into the morally gray. Ruby steps into her power as a queer black woman when the white man she couples with, William (Jordan Patrick Smith), turns out to be Christina incognito and she continues the affair with her. A complicated yet deeply sympathetic character, Ruby’s arc and growth turn out to be one of the most fascinating aspects of a show that is already neck-deep in examining complicated issues of racist history.
What I Didn't Like:
While accurate to the era, I found it impossible to like Christina, given her overt racism and the bigoted ways in which she uses her status as a well-to-do white woman over the far more charming black characters.
My larger critique, however, is that Lovecraft skates awfully close to the #KillYourGays territory with seeming to kill Ruby off-screen for the season’s climax. I would have liked to have seen Ruby explore her queerness with a loving partner who doesn’t toss her aside. It’s a microcosm of racist, abusive behavior, and it’s emotionally painful to watch all this build-up get underwhelmingly resolved.
It was also irksome that the show also has plenty of time to throw around the word “faggot” when talking about Montrose (Michael K. Williams), but no time in ten hours to use the terms “bi” or “queer”? Come on.
The Rating:
I absolutely loved Ruby and found her to be one of the most interesting characters in the entire ensemble — the kind of character television desperately needs more of. But to have this type of violent denouement for such a groundbreaking character results in such a sour endgame that I hope it doesn’t set a terrifying precedent.
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