Episode 4 of Lovecraft Country is titled A History of Violence, which reminded me of one of Cronenberg's most accessible films of the same name, starring the ever wonderful Viggo Mortenson aka Aragon.
It deals with violence and the use of violence and how violence shatters relations and leaves a mark that is not always positive.
It's a cool movie to watch, so this episode alludes to all this whilst enjoying having black people at the centre of an action adventure series.
Let's dig in...
The History of Violence seems to allude to two things in the episode: one is the relationship that Atticus has with his father Montrose aka Omar Little (for all you The Wire fans, if you haven't seen ,please do).
The other is violence in the US and how it has defined pioneering and relations to indigenous and black people.
From Episode 1, Atticus and Montrose have shown that violence has marred their father-son relationship. The damaged walls in their homes have led to damaged people.
So Atticus and Montrose have been impacted negatively by the violence that's has been done to them and the violence they have enacted.
This has resulted in both Montrose and Atticus being loners who repress many of their emotions that come out negatively.
Episode 4 makes this even more complicated, hinting that Montrose is even repressing his sexuality and Atticus still shows he has repressed anger from the violence from the war and towards his father.
It's still bubbling under and it's only time until it comes.
As far as the history of violence in America goes, Titus Braithwhite becomes the embodiment of the collective violence of pioneering.
How it has stripped indigenous people of their land, culture, cultural artefacts and finally their lives. His little treasure trove and museum room is testament to that.
The museum still celebrates the use of violence of colonisers and slavers to this day and shows how violence is sometimes sanitised.
These were cool ideas that the show explored but the other ideas within the episode were a hit and miss.
I loved Ruby's subplot with her and the store leading to the hot sex on the stairs with William in a Cronenberg-inspired scene (more reason to watch it).
This is a great set up for next week's episode which looks amazing and seems to involve body swamping... I'm excited for that.
Ruby's subplot seemed to confirm a fan theory that has been running wild on the interwebs that William and Christina are one person.
That quick turn in the middle of the night kinda confirmed it for us who are bit slow and it appears the next episode they will go more in-depth into body swamping.
The whole Indiana Jones / Raiders of the Lost Ark-journey to the centre of the earth main plot in the episode was a hit and miss for me.
I get that the show, like the book it's adapted from, wants to put black folks as central characters in stories that are historically either minimized or completely ignored.
If you think of it aside from Jumanji with Kevin Hart, black folks are not central characters in the Goonies, Indiana jones, National Treasure and all these in the action adventure period genre. As if black people don't love action adventure.
But the tropes of "Hey, if you come at a certain time, light will conveniently hit at the right spot to show you and only you a secret chamber," is a bit meh for me.
.
So is being able to conveniently find the right passage and how convenient and easy things are.
It's generic and yes, it's part of the tropes but it detracts for me. Doctor Who, although a sci-fi, shows how action adventure can be done smartly whereby it's not too on-the-nose.
The other issue I had is how some elements in the story are contrived.
Hippolyta somehow gets out of the house with the Orrery. The thing is gigantic and heavy and yet no one's seen anything and no one knows anything.
I liked that they at least gave us more crumbs around the Orrery - that it's a time machine, which harks back to the first episode with the Roman fighter in Atticus's dream sequence. I'm excited about that.
The show does this thing where it does not explain certain things that need explaining i.e. how did Hippolyta know that the guys are back at home?
How did Leti know that the dead guys look like her neighbour because she had not interacted with any of the three dead white guys and the show still did not explain how the bodies ended up in the passageway to begin with.
I understand some of the things may be explained later, for example the Captain is now revealed as a member of the ancient Dawn, which was not revealed previously.
The other issue I have with the show is how the relationship between Atticus and Leti is developing. It's not clear if they're friends with benefits, if there is something genuine and when they kiss at the end it just falls flat because the series has seriously under serviced whatever is happening between them.
So yeah, I enjoyed some elements of the episode and some elements were just too convenient for me and the concept of consequences for actions is becoming meaningless, bordering deus ex machina but I'm excited for next episode based on the promo and to see what happens with Montrose. Hopefully Hippolyta's drive to Ardham is not going to be rushed.
I hope the show elevates the game once more because this episode was not their best work for me. Too many convenient decisions that just show the writers' hand instead of it being organic from the story and characters.
It seems the show is in a rush for something and I'm wondering if these guys are going to make more than 1 season.
What did it feel like: Jumanji meets Indiana Jones with a dash of melodrama and history lessons.
Verdict: **1/2
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Index
*junk **ja nee ***it tries ****almost perfect *****Instant Classic