Well, that scene satisfied somebody’s fantasies, I’m guessing…
Uh huh. I had to switch it off after a few minutes. I really like the premise of this series, but I don’t think it’s for me.
I’ve approached this show from the premise that one of the scariest things in America for black people is white people. So I was intrigued that the evil interrogator in this recent episode was black. By changing the locale to Korea, we learn that the scariest thing for the people there are Americans - regardless of race. We also come to learn that anybody (Tic, Ji-Ah…, Ruby in the previous episode) can become monsters. The theme is becoming a little more nuanced.
A very good article, and I agree with most of it. But I do take issue with a part, and it’s related to her central point.
I’ve said before that I think that Chekhov ought to be shot with his own gun.
it’s usual to say that if you introduce a gun in the first act it ought to be used by the third, but I’ve always felt that this is too restricting. Plays and movies are artificial and stylized – even the most naturalistic ones – but we generally prefer the ones in which the thing mimics real life. And in real life there are lots of irrelevant remarks and details. If nothing else, this adds texture and adds to the verisimilitude. If someone called attention to a gun, I’d keep an eye out for it, and expect it to play a relevant role in the proceedings. If the gun was in a display on the wall of someone known to be a gun aficionado, or to establish his kind of character, I wouldn’t necessarily expect it to be used – it’s there for another reason. It’s absence would be noticeable, and unless attention was drawn to it, I wouldn’t be justified in thinking it would explicitly be involved. Yet the way people invoke Chekhov’s law, you would think that plays ought to be blank sets with only items that will be used should appear on stage, or that anything anyone mentions must be utilized. That would invalidate most of the set dressing I’ve seen through the years*
In this case, there really is a point to all the things in the background and names invoked, at least in Lovecraft Country (I haven’t seen Antebellum yet). The filmmakers are indulging in some edification for the audience. Part of the new Black Horror Film movement is a sort of bait-and-switch where they lure you in with a promise of horror in order to give you a little lesson in Black History or Consciousness Raising. So that DuBois portrait on the wall is informing you or teasing you with History you might not be aware of. You learn about pieces of the Black Experience you might not be aware of not because it advances the plot or because it fleshes out the character (although it’s possible that some of these might also do those things) but because the people making this are trying to be, like the BBC, slyly pedagogical.
So, yeah, the elements in the show do not fulfill the critic’s need for strict Cost Accounting of Items Introduced, but that’s because they’re not all there for plot reasons.
*William Archer, in his book on Play-Writing, mentions the case of a play with an almost bare set, in which one of the items on the set was a barometer. You couldn’t miss it, because it was the only thing on an otherwise bare wall. He spent the entire act wondering what the hell that barometer was doing there, what it might portend, or symbolize, but the characters made no reference to it. Finally, at the very end, one of the characters goes over to it and looks at it to see if it’s rising or falling. That was it.
if that barometer had been one of a number of marine items on that wall, it wouldn’t have distracted the audience by pretending to be of moment when it wasn’t (it was probably there because the line indicated that someone needed to find out if there would be stormy weather). Placed among coils of rope, some spars and barrels, and other such ship bric a brac, it wouldn’t have been a distraction. It – and all the other props that were not used – would have given the impression of a sailor’s shed, with items you would expect to be in it. No one drew explicit attention to the barometer by a line, but its prominence on the set did it all by itself.
Agreed. This episode was clumsy in parts, having awkward verbal expositions abut race relations back home, and of course the soft core pandering, but it moved the arc, was more than trope take of the week, and makes one wonder more about what Montrose knows that he wants to keep the power away from Tic. It certainly becomes more nuanced.
Did the communist nurse friend understood that the different being talked about was gay?
I thought the friend was talking about being gay. Ji-Ah was talking about being a literal monster. They kind of muddled that later by implying the “different” for her friend was being communist.
I agree. It was interesting expansion of the dominant group. In Korea, the Americans were the dominant power - even when those soldiers were black (who definitely straight up murdered Korean nurses on the suspicion of communist spies).
Well that was not where I saw this going … not sure what to make of it.
Boy I loved the time-space travel stuff. I think the show is becoming a sort of exploration of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, from an African American perspective, which is just a wonderful thing, with a loose storyline and connected characters.
I don’t know, this episode kind of lost me. The show started so strong for me and is not keeping my enthusiasm. I want to follow a few main characters and have a world populated with many supporting characters. Instead, we’ve got this and I’m not sure I’m still enjoying it. I hope we get back to the main storyline soon.
I love the character Hip and was looking forward to seeing her growth story. This ep certainly explored her complexity in a creative way and had her grow. And dang the production value of the Baker bits in particular were impressive. With a good character well acted beautifully produced the flaws have to be big to pull me out of the fantasy. And these ones did.
Hip is dang smart … but her having on the fly mastery of trig and such? The Doctor or even a NASA calculator she ain’t.
Hiram having built that machine? And if so why have the key to it in a puzzle box orrery with the location engraved? Huh??
A loose story is one thing. This is not just loose.
Plus even for the time period, Tic’s calling his father that word?
Maybe not most of all but significantly, they could message more effectively by not feeling they have to do it so heavy handed explicitly. Having Hip exposit upon her having to have made herself smaller takes away from the strength of having shown it.
But still credit for going in surprising directions!
Along those lines: how did Tic know to grab the key Hip had used to start the machine? How did he even see it (it’s small) and how did he know to look for it?
Again: sloppy.
Has anyone else’s remarked upon how each episode has a unique tone that pays homage to previous works? The most recent episode was evocative of the old Amazing Stories show, including the background music.
Now that was back on track again. Excellent episode and super creepy supernatural menaces for poor Dee.
Agree that that was a great ep. A bunch to unpack. Hoping all reading saw the ep … but some space in case without completely spoiler-boxing.
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That “mark of Cain”? Didn’t Tic notice one in the relative’s old picture and then look at his own? Healing powers she says? Death and resurrection. Some hints there maybe?
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We know Hip isn’t dead but when she declined to join their society in I Am it was to be back because Dee needs her. She can be put back wherever and whenever is all I’m saying. Love the actress playing Dee and her ferocity.
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We are not done with Ji-Ah’s story I don’t think. But liked how he knew what shoes left by the door meant.
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Christina is possibly the most complicated character of the show. To the degree that she is the big bad of the arc she is no cartoon cut out. Does her last scene mean that while she was honest about what she said about what she felt and did not feel about Emmett Till and his murderers she is trying to learn empathy by her own disturbed methods?
Okay, love the show but goddammit, could we please STOP IT with all the squishy skin shit? We get it already, you’ve made your point so please stop because it’s all so damned bloody I can SMELL IT for hours after I watch the show. You’d have to be rich to do this stuff because who the hell can afford to replace their entire bedroom furniture, carpets, drapes, bedding and several outfits every five minutes when the potion wears off? You’d need Breaking Bad level barrels o’peroxide to get through the week in these people’s lives. Good lord.
Them crazy girl things…what kind of demonmonster is that? They look like gollywog dolls and their movements are supercreepy. Guh. Did not like. Highly effective.
They’re pretty clearly inspired by the image of Topsy from Uncle Tom’s Cabin (you see one on the cover of the book when it falls to the ground).
Topsy is the archetype of the “picaninny caricature”, and lots of people found her disturbing, even in the book. But she became really annoying as a stock “black character”
https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/picaninny/homepage.htm
Topsy-as-demon fits in perfectly with the themes of racism and horror on this show.
Yeah, I caught the reference but I’m kinda wondering what kind of creature they might be–are they figments of Dee’s imagination or some sort of demon with objective existence that take shape from their victim’s thoughts and fears or what? They’re creepy AF, whatever they are.
The episode was named “Jigabobo” which seems to be a version of the pejorative Jigaboo. Although Wikipedia says that term comes from a Bantu word meaning “meek or servile individual”, so at some level the word could be applied to the scary girl-creatures or to Rose when she avoids attending the funeral and chooses to be white for a while instead.
I think it is a Nightmare on Elm Street trope take.
Do they return to the theme of claiming that which is used to oppress you as yours? Does Dee, with Hip’s help maybe, not only fight them off but get them to do THEIR bidding?