Welcome to Thunderdome

About 30 minutes in, I paused, turned to my kid, and said, "If this hadn't started.with that crazy SciFi fever dream, this is about the point I'd turn it off."

This show is BIG TIME "white people are racist and black people are super smart and creative and america sucks."

Which is sort of a good jab on Lovecraft , since he was a pretty shitty racist.

Anyway, by the end of the episode, it finally gets properly Lovecrafty. So we'll be sticking around for ep 2.

As an aside, this has the same "white people suck" tone as did that Watchman series. White supremacists galore.

I’ve tried to like this but I don’t think it’s good. It’s all over the goddamn place. Every episode looks like they used a different special effect creator and the flow of stories is erratic.

Z and I are still putting ourselves through it for some reason but are starting to fall behind which is a bad sign.

The following aren't spoilers, just the general tone of the show, episode by episode.





Ep1:
- Cool sci fi fever dream.
- White people suck.
- White people suck hard, and black people are all cultured and intelligent.
- White people will make monkey noises at black people.
- Holy shit, white people are evil.
- Oh fuck, fucking monsters.
- Maybe these white people are ok?

Ep2:
- Nope, these white people suck, just in a different way.
- WHite people suck and are evil
- Black people will outsmart them though.
- Holy shit, magic.

Ep3:
- Yay, black folk getting ahead
- Nope, white people won't let them because they're evil.
- Damn, these white people are fucked up.
- Can't trust cops either
- Holy fuck, ghosts.
- Ha ha dead white people.

Ep4:
- Most black people are self-educated in astronomy and history.
- Hey Goonies except we're black.
- Bad puzzle logic, and the kid and I couldn't understand at least half the dialogue in the episode.
- Holy fuck restored zombie of non-binary sex

Sigh.

We're already hate-watching at this point, waiting for anything Lovecraft.

This was on my watchlist. Thanks for saving me time.

It's one thing to promote racial healing, it's quite another to say, "Hey, these people are your enemy."

Ep5:
- They actually went with, "White people give things to each other."

Ep6: Korean War Flashback Episode!

- men suck
- All U.S. military people are racist, cold blooded murderers, or rapists... or some combination of the three. Every single one.

GORDON wrote: Ep6: Korean War Flashback Episode!

- men suck
- All U.S. military people are racist, cold blooded murderers, or rapists... or some combination of the three. Every single one.

This is the one that broke me a few weeks ago and we haven't watched anymore.

Troy wrote:

GORDON wrote: Ep6: Korean War Flashback Episode!

- men suck
- All U.S. military people are racist, cold blooded murderers, or rapists... or some combination of the three. Every single one.

This is the one that broke me a few weeks ago and we haven't watched anymore.

My kid saw a credit at the end, "Produced by JJ Abrams." He said, "I just lost a little respect for JJ Abrams."

Ep7 - Shit actually, finally gets kind of weird.

- The tragedy of denied potential
- "I want to kill white people."

GORDON wrote: "I want to kill white people."

Get in line, buddy.

Ep8

- Almost no racism
- Except for asshole racist magic cops

Ep 9 ~

- What's weird is that I've taken American history classes since high school, and even a couple in college, and I was usually paying attention. And I'd never heard of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, until last year when HBO made it the focus of that Watchman TV series. And now here it is again, in this show on HBO. HBO is really hammering home that white people are pure evil in these shows.
- But time travel, also.
- And they finally give the cruel homosexual father some context.

I believe the next episode is the last of the season, and probably the last I'll watch.

GORDON wrote: Ep 9 ~

- What's weird is that I've taken American history classes since high school, and even a couple in college, and I was usually paying attention. And I'd never heard of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, until last year when HBO made it the focus of that Watchman TV series. And now here it is again, in this show on HBO.

Sounds like trying to right a wrong in your (and most Americans’) education.

There's something to be said about our history education not covering some things that we are ashamed of. I too googled that massacre to see if it was real. Growing up, I did learn about lynching and black people being treated poorly/unfairly. It's quite another to see a graphic representation of it. Just watched The United State of Jones within the last couple of days. Holy shit was the south just pure evil. . . But seriously. There's a huge difference between being taught "White people would kill black people and it was horrible" and getting to know and like a person (through a movie) and then seeing them brutally beaten and hung because of the color of his skin. FAR greater impact. I don't think it's a bad idea to drive this point home through movies. How many Nazi/Holocaust films have there been? Do you think the Germans are over there saying "Oh great. Another 'Germans are evil' message that is just so outdated".

It's one thing to try and initiate racial healing through making you feel empathy for a victim.

I think it's quite another to try and pick a fight, and tell people who their enemy is.

Last episode of Season 1 ~

- They snuck a final "fuck you white people" in near the end. My kid was like, "Ugh, they almost got to the end without being racist again."

Ok, I've criticized enough. Overlooking the fact that this wasn't made for white people, it was *ok.* Don't go in looking for Lovecraft's cosmic horrors, the supernatural is just what loosely binds this story together. Magic is real, whitey has a monopoly on it, and if run-of-the-mill racism wasn't good enough for whitey, sometimes they use magic to keep POC down, too.

I will forgive the fact that all the main characters of color all seemed to be a genius in a different way.... a genius astronomer, mathematician, historian... all without the benefit of an education free of racial bias. Ok, sure, whatever.

What I DO appreciate is that this story takes place in the north, often overlooked when people are mocking other regions of the country more generally known for their racism.

My favorite character is Hippolyta. At first she was a generic side character, wife and mother, unimportant to the plot. Through her own ability she pulled herself out of that fate, and I liked her self-actualized power, at the end. She decided to stop allowing herself to be the victim.

All in all.... I was fortunate enough to not grow up in a racist environment. I was taught, at home and at school, that it was wrong to judge someone by the color of their skin, and to not generalize based on race. This is internalized, I absolutely believe racism is wrong, bad, and evil.

But that also applies to charactering white people based on the color of their skin, as well. Racism is bad, wrong, and evil. Every single white person on this show was portrayed as absolutely, irredeemably evil. They made sympathetic characters of color, and made absolutely sure the audience knows that white people are the enemy. Reverse the races, and this show would be slammed harder than Cuties.

GORDON wrote: often overlooked when people are mocking other regions of the country more generally known for their racism.

People should visit Boston. Holy fuck, racism. Maybe that's just south Boston, I dunno.