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Old 09-07-2020, 03:11 PM
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Lovecraft Country

Crikey, this one has been causing some real debate on the Lovecraft Facebook pages. Lovecraft has been my favourite author for a while now - when I was 16 I wrote an essay on him and just went further down the rabbit hole from there.

That being said, I think it is willfully ignorant to completely out aside the fact of his awful (even for the time) racism. If he were still alive I think it would be much tougher, but as it stands, I do think for the most part you can separate him from his art. But that doesn't mean sweeping it under the rug. Something I've grown to accept more and more as I've got older is that there might just not be an answer in these situations. Sometimes you have to accept that you'll never fully be able to reconcile these things. The important thing is to keep is all in mind.

Anyway - Matt Ruff does a great job of that in his book (nearly finished it, bought it immediately after episode 1). The difficult conflict between Atticus' love of pulp stories and the uncomfortable knowledge that the people who made those stories would have wanted him nowhere near them (as in, in a character sense) is fab, not to mention the story itself DOES set him (and others) as new pulp protagonists. I love that it maintains those slightly silly elements of early 20th century sci-fi, with weirdly describe devices and slightly corny images. Letitia in particular is a wonderfully independent character.

I won't harp on too much about "who are the REAL monsters" because I think that while relevant and obviously well handled, it's already been discussed to death.

The show...is good. The first episode was great, the second one less so. The third was slightly better again. I don't know...every change from the book they've made has felt for the worse so far. Some of them make sense in terms of adaptation, some just seem odd. But I'm enjoying it and holding out hope it'll bring it back. Going to watch episode 4 tomorrow.
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Old 09-08-2020, 02:24 AM
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I like the whole idea about a hidden Lovecraftian world, but the vibe is completely off and there’s no Lovecraftian atmosphere whatsoever. I saw the first 2 episodes and decided to take a break. Maybe I’ll get back to it, maybe I won’t.
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Old 09-08-2020, 02:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Angra View Post
I like the whole idea about a hidden Lovecraftian world, but the vibe is completely off and there’s no Lovecraftian atmosphere whatsoever. I saw the first 2 episodes and decided to take a break. Maybe I’ll get back to it, maybe I won’t.
Very much feel this. I was quite excited for the concept that maybe Lovecraft had based his stories on "true" things that the show would explore, but it's definitely less eldritch and more straightforward "vampires and wizards."

This is also true of the book somewhat true of the book, though it tows the line better. Not least because it's more a collection of connected short pulp stories starting with "Lovecraft Country.". In that sense, the meaning of the book is purely in the literal geographical sense for the initial story, and the rest sort of moves past it.
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Old 09-08-2020, 11:53 PM
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I agree that the first episode was the best so far. I'm up to date on the show but I wish I watched them all together in a day or so because I think this might turn out to be one of my favorite anthology shows. And not an anthology in the usual way. But in a different setup for the main characters each episode. So far we had:

1. Travel to the cabin in the woods

2. Cultists

3. Haunted House

4. Hunt for old treasure

I did think originally that Lovecraft Country would be about the characters around the Eastern coast and things happening around there. So I was very disappointed with that second episode. But now I'm getting the feel for what this might be.

The racism of the show probably is good for the time we are in today. None of that stuff should have ever happened. The first and third episodes are probably the harsh ones so far in dealing with it.

I really like the main actress though. I would like to see her star in a horror movie eventually.

I know the series will probably end on a cliffhanger being the nature of these stories. But I'll read the book afterwards as I would be shocked if the show doesn't get a second season.

I watched these reviews and they mentioned the anthology nature when they got to watch the first 5 episodes.




Last edited by ImmortalSlasher; 09-08-2020 at 11:54 PM.
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Old 09-09-2020, 02:24 AM
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That actress is so damn hot I was almost drooling.
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Old 09-09-2020, 05:20 PM
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Yeah, the car scene at 32 seconds in the trailer.

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Old 09-16-2020, 02:12 AM
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That fifth episode twist really makes me wish I waited on the whole series to finish so I could watch a few a day. If anything the twist will make me rewatch the first five episodes again.

Now it's up to the last five episodes to see if they can keep up the quality. Because they are building up to something that might be really good.
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