Them: TV Show (2021): Reclamation of Black History Done Right.

This review of Amazon original Them: season 1 contains no spoilers.

It was last year when Lovecraft Country came firing all guns to reclaim the history and the rich literature of black diaspora from the otherwise all whitewashed screens, it set the bar very high to reach. Them is a very sincere effort to keep that legacy going and if it succeeds on that is a different question and these should not be compared. 

Them follows a black family along their first ten days of moving into a new suburban area after their lives were turned upside down by a horrific event in countryside. Little did they expect that the America’s institutional corruption was so deep-rooted that delusional racist won’t let them live on their own hard-earned property. The show tells a tale heard many times but with sensitivity and clever placements of its African-American characters in this black horror. It tells a tale of a family’s grief, displacement and pure evil, unreasonable hatred from American institutions.

Packing powerful performances from all the cast and especially from Emory family, delivering the pain, humiliation and then the power and desire to resist the suppressor when the situation demands. Checco Varese provides some of the finest cinematography this year on television with a sincere understanding of aesthetics – like the contrast of dirty and clean palette of countryside and American suburbs respectively and later cleverly turning into an irony by the capable directors to show that no matter how well we try to hide and clean the outlook of America, the sickness is still there. The core philosophy and academia of the show is very on point and it did its research poignantly, the town which was featured in one standalone episode is named Eidolon (a specter or phantom or an idealized version) which reveals layers of delusion in community that the Emory family is dealing with. Whenever it tries for a horror trope reversal in getting its point across the table and using the setup and payoffs in dramatic irony it shines – like when Betty Wendell (Alison pill), a white hate monger is given a backstory we as an audience are directed to feel that her deep-rooted racism comes from her own trauma of exploitation and incestuous undertones but after she is kidnapped and executed by her own confidante, the show wakes us up by showing how your personal evils have nothing of an excuse to become an unreasonable racist towards innocent people.

Them starts off as a psychological horror and fictional retelling of urban planning in 20^th century America before snowballing in a complete genre thriller/horror. It is absolutely not without its flaws like many times the show drags through the episodes unnecessarily adding subplots which are never to be seen, resolved or even matter in the big picture. It tries to say so much that often the show lost track of its own stories, much more concentration was needed. The reliance on jump scares is very strong overusing them many times and the same goes with the great but albeit directing music which already tells the audience what to feel about in coming scene. Them is a show with mammoth potential and most of which it makes work of but you can’t help but feel that it could’ve been much more. Starts so strong that couldn't keep up with itself.

Well, with rumors that Amazon is planning to develop it as an anthology series it’s still exciting to see more from the powerful voices behind this team. You can binge the whole season 1 of Them on Amazon Prime now:

You can connect with me on socials too:

Instagram  |  Letterboxd  |  LinkedIn  |  Twitter