HBO's Lovecraft Country

[ctg]

Spoiler

A definite Indiana Jones vibe to this one: Light beams reflecting to the secret door trigger, a rope into a mysterious underground chamber

You know, it really bothered me how easily and how conveniently they found the switch. Indian Jones would have had to do something, while the Moon just happened to be in the right spot for them to notice. Also, why is it that no security guard had not spotted it before? Are they on the cult payroll?

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

It did. They got back in the house, not in Boston. The dead bodies were the missing neighbours.

I missed that. I'll have to take another look.

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

Yup! Freight elevator, non-stop, Boston to Chicago, straight up.
Does that mean they can take the elevator back down to Boston and explore the tunnels not followed?
They would have a few obstacles to overcome, including a chasm without a plank bridge and rising water, assuming everything didn't reset after they escaped. I don't know if the water was a tidal thing, although all the cobwebs they encountered going in would indicate high water was not a regular phenomenon.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler

Does that mean they can take the elevator back down to Boston and explore the tunnels not followed?

Most likely, but is it crucial for the plot?

I don't know if the water was a tidal thing, although all the cobwebs they encountered going in would indicate high water was not a regular phenomenon.

The whole tidal wave thing with the groundwater explanation was laughable. I mean, why it wouldn't go out from that door they opened? Tidal waves do happen in the groundwater aquifers, but they are more likely get filled with rainwater filtering through the soil. And even if it would be part of the elaborate trap, the builders would have to make sure that there are times when it's all dry and there's water, when it's needed (around hundred and fifty years after it was built)?*

I'm not sure where that museum is in Boston, so I cannot speculate if the shipwreck is plausible. If it's near the coastal banks then all of it can make more sense, but then the great chasm isn't plausible.

I also don't get why the pendulum didn't cut the plank in pieces?

Did you notice where the rope went?

* If you study the great pyramid, you find out that there was a water feature at very bottom, and now it's completely dry. But, there is high likely that they used sand traps instead, as there are still false doors and cavities that haven't been explored. Sand would make much more sense, and in Boston's case, mud. It could make impossible for anyone to access the treasure.

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler: 1.05 Strange Case

Strange, indeed. More like grotesque in the extreme.
I understand that the series is basically a horrific exploration of American racism. This episode was visually disturbing.
Perhaps graphic violence what it needs to be effective. The amplification of Ruby’s rage and frustration by spending time in a white woman’s body is just difficult to watch.
On the positive side, it was good to see Ambrose finally accept and embrace his gayness. I hope that puts him on a path to sanity.
What did he do with Yahima’s body? Did she de-animate and turn into dust?

 

[ctg]

Spoiler

More like grotesque in the extreme.

I think many Preacher episodes were more grotesque and far more violent than what they've achieved in this series so far. I noticed that a number of reviewers had gone to a point that there was more gore than horror, and some even claimed that, "It was the most horrific thing they've ever seen."

Man, sometimes I believe these people have not explored the horror or gore or that matter opened a Fangoria to see what's inside. Today, you can try to choose where to see your violence, but you cannot escape from it. There was none in the small screen, if you count out the sodomy on the storage manager.

Bringing out a baby in this world can look as a same thing as Ruby's and William's metamorphosis. They were beautiful butterflows, both of them. What disturbed me was what or rather who was inside William's body. I never guessed it, but now it kind of makes sense as it was literally voiced out: "You can be whoever you want to be."

What I expected to come out was a Deep One. The original ones from Lovecraft's stories, mainly appearing in The Shadow over Innsmouth. They live in the sea, and they come out from the sea to mate with humans. Ultimately, they are ones that people in the secret sociaties want to be in the Cthulhu stories.

It's just Ruby and William weren't the only ones, who were hiding in some one else skin. If you take a look again at the Police Captain's office, you'll see that the captain is wearing a white skin face over a brownish head and he splashes some lotion over it, probably to maintain appearances. After all, everything in these stories are about appearances and what they hide behind.

In her shoes I'd get ef out from the town and go somewhere far enough from all of it... for as long as I can find. The problem is that the ocean is everywhere, and you cannot really escape it. The only way to get out from the Dodge is to hitchhike a lift from a flying saucer.

Easier said then done, yeah?

What did he do with Yahima’s body? Did she de-animate and turn into dust?

At the bottom of the magic elevator. Same place where the last bodies went. Same place, where she came out from, but couldn't escape because of Ambrose's madness.

I really honestly think he's trying to protect the family from the horrors he has seen and they are making him to want to live more than ever. Hence, he was willing to go back to his lover and come out from the closet. Not really publicly, because I believe gay-clubs were still banned and frowned upon like the black people.

Thing is, I think it was sort sighted to kill Yahima. They didn't really explore what she knew or what she could have exposed and there might be a time, when they wish they'd have a real warlock on their side. Not that they could do anything to the Great Old Gods, but it might have given them some hope before they end up as fish food.

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

I think many Preacher episodes were more grotesque and far more violent than what they've achieved in this series so far.

Yes, but they were darkly humorous. These are just dark.

 

[ctg]

Yes, but they were darkly humorous. These are just dark.

It can work. Lovecraft settings are dark, but they can be made dark comedy, if you like. Blame HBO for releasing this sort of program in this year. It's not right. But, in regards of dark comedy, as long as everyone dies at the end, because there's no survivors in these stories, anything could be used.

 

[paeng]

2.5 out of 4 due to problems with storytelling, e.g., too much content crammed into two episodes leading to a lack of characterization, etc., the inability to show rather than tell, non-realistic characters, etc. The first two episodes could have been expanded into one season.

 

[ctg]

Excellent episode

Spoiler: S01E06 - Meet me in Daegu

I never thought that I'd see tentacle pr0n in live TV that is not animated. It is either laughed or frowned upon to be a fan of that culture in the Western culture. We simply don't imagine sexual encounters with the tentacle monsters. Not even if you're Lovecraft.

He had other ideas, but I get why a tale of Nine Tail Fox could be interpreted as such. After all it's all about transformation and hiding under another person skin that bridges us with the last episode revelation with Rudy. Her erotic encounters portrayed more closely the traditional horror angle. Thing is, Lovecraft never claimed that Cthulhu monsters were the only ones in the whole world. So, Ji-Ah in the role of kumiko gives a nod to the oriental traditions, and at the same time it's an excellent portray of oriental horror.

This time they didn't even have to use the Korean traditions with zombie culture as the whole story was so beautifully wrapped around a short encounter in the Korean War. If it would have been shown from Tic's perspective the whole episode would have lost so much value. Instead, it's good that we know our hero and we get to see it all from a monster's point-of-view.

It intrigued me that the mother had made a deal with a devil for the soul of her daughter. I laughed at her attempts to get the monster to do her bidding, while a wiser person would have accept the resolution. As the shaman said Kumiho would have to consume more souls to fulfil her bargain as if she had some sort of quota. The mother would have known that the hope she cast in a deep, dark well wasn't ever going to come back.

Nobody comes back from the darkness and be the same again. The mother should have also acknowledged that a lot of that blood was on her hands and Ji-Ah acted as she was supposed to. In a strange way the mother is more monstrous than the fox lady. Not that the father was any better.

You could assume that Tic would have solved that problem quite differently if it had been presented to him without involving monsters in the picture. After all, he is such a golden boy. [/sarcasm]

To be honest he was showing no emotion from putting down the Korean ladies. What he was and his fellow soldiers were conduction was a war crime, and since the Nuremberg Trials were happening at the same time, I'd assumed that they would have been scared, orders or not.

Thing is, you say your voes and your promise to protect the country and its people from domestic and foreign violators. That is pretty much standard thing around the world. Therefore, if you get an illegal order, like shooting ladies for being spies you're committing a crime. You're meant to refuse to commit the act, but many chooses to do it instead of going through the pain of refusing it.

That is what Ji-Ah did. She said no to dear old mum so, so many times. Instead, just like any other possessing demon, she refused to give up the host. Not that she could even have done so after fulfilling the order. The shaman knew that the change was permanent. Only a death would release the bond and then it would be too late.

The interesting thing is that she saw the future as if it was set in stone and it's Tic's destiny to become trapped on a cross. The shaman laughed at the notion as if she knew that nothing is set in stone. The future fluctuates. It's just it's very likely that Tic would get sacrificed, just I wouldn't count on it, because he has story shield.

Why is it that Ji-Ah doesn't travel to States to save her lover?

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

Geez. A guy would leave the love of his life behind on the other side of the world just because she can loose control during a moment of passion, become a hideous creature, steal his soul, and paint the room in an explosion of his blood and guts? Go figure.
Looks like Tic's real problem is that he's a monster magnet.

 

[ctg]

Beautiful episode.

Spoiler: S01E07 - I am

If you plug the coordinates in the google maps, it'll take you here.

It is outside Kansas City. Just North-West of it. A meaningless place that the producers knew would tingle some viewers minds, because why you wouldn't find out what's really at those coordinates?

Well, a disappointment for sure, but in the series nothing like it. I really doubt that anyone could have guessed they were going to place a magical observatory on that field. Even though we should have guessed it, because Lovecraft stories are multidimensional.

In the course of Hippolyta's trek, she said that, "I was thought it was a time-machine, but it's not. It's something else. Then I realised it's one of those multi--"

Man, I gaped at that moment, because I realised she's true. Not only can it move in time and space, it can move between dimensions to parallel worlds almost instantly. It might look like a magic, but it wasn't because it was the weird alien technology.

It disturbed me seriously to see that one of the mechanoids had chosen to wear a literally gigantic afro as if the aliens think it's all about the head-devices.

I get why some people go mental, when they encounter Lovecraftian beings. Thing is, the multiverse theory has always claimed that everything changes between dimensions. The physics in the other worlds aren't ours, and that is crazy in its own rights.

It doesn't fit in our current world, where facts and the science rule most of what we are doing. But if you think about it, it kind of makes sense as our myths and some of our greatest writings depict it being real hundreds of years before the actual invention of the said theory.

You look at Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night Dream and it is kind of obvious that the fairy folk lives in another dimension, another world. In my own books, Jane tells to Henrik that she hasn't always been here, hinting the possibility of another world, before he's taken there.

So, while the magic doesn't exist in our modern, futuristic world, it might be real somewhere else and we just haven't figured out a technology to break the boundary. In the series, I believe that the machine came from another dimension. And it was a gift for Tic's ancestors before the Order of New Dawn claimed it as their own.

It might be a possibility that the cult has acquired a number of these items and they know nothing about how things work. Or then they know exactly and there's a humongous cover-up involving a lot of people in the right places.

You might pop in the kitchen and fetch a roll of tinfoil, when you watch this series next time, because its turning to a real conspiracy. How is Tic going to handle it all, when he has no clue about what is really going on, and he's always one step behind everything?

The most mysterious thing has to be the dream of him in the house, looking at the grandma holding the Book of Names. Is it really going to give him the insight or drive him further into the clutches of the Great Old Ones?

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler: I Am

Holy Time And Relative Dimension In Space!
Ruby underwent a messy magic process to temporarily gain the power of a white woman (not much of a step up in the mid-1950s); but Hippolyta gains the power to become anyone, any place, any time? Ruby had better not find out what Hippolyta has been up to.
I agree wholeheartedly that it was a beautiful episode. It was a trip with no need for mind-altering substances.

 

[ctg]

Spoiler

I agree wholeheartedly that it was a beautiful episode. It was a trip with no need for mind-altering substances.

What did you think about the giant afro? Not only the droid was humongous, but that afro was as wide as it was tall. It makes me wonder how much giggling has going when they made the scenes?

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

What did you think about the giant afro? Not only the droid was humongous, but that afro was as wide as it was tall. It makes me wonder how much giggling has going when they made the scenes?

That was a bit "over the top".

 

[ctg]

Spoiler: S01E08 - Jig-a-Bobo

I talked earlier about the cost of casting spells or doing magic in the Lovecraft world. It taxes you and sends you literally in the crazy place. We literally saw it in the pilot episodes, where Tic was completely impervious, and Uncle George and Leti were under the spell to protect their minds from the horrors.

I know I also talked about the Elder sign. The one symbol and the only protection spell in the Lovecraft universe. Everything else are illusions and stronger magics. However I think we can also assume that the other things, like exorcism have their own flairs but none of them are as powerful and dark as the Lovecraftian magic.

We know that Dee saw the monsters that the police captain cast on her, and she really though that they were real, even though the physical beings in the world couldn't notice them. The possessed people or those who suffer hauntings talk about them as the shadow in the corner of your eye. The children literary put the monsters under the bed, while Lovecraft shows them at the centre. In the spotlight.

But that is the thing in the Lovecraft world. If you are able and not everyone can see the monsters, they will drive you mental. What she didn't do was to confront them. The Horror Manual actually recommend you to fight instead of running. "Face your fears," someone brave said long time ago, and that is the only thing you can really do.

What's interesting is that the magical things work better, but physical things do damage as well. But then again, what a black girl can do, when their race in that time, in that world, is seen as waste?

It is also interesting that while the spell was happening the city was sweltering. People literally melting in their shoes. To me it felt like part of the magic.

Oh Tic. What did you do? You loved two and didn't tell either one of them about the other. Man, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes, because whatever you do it is wrong and they are going to show it. Literally. There just isn't a good way to solve the problem.

Man, I laughed out so loud when I saw Li-Ah sitting in the day room, dressed up and pretty. The setting in the kitchen as you see at above shot is even more comical, but also very typical. It is a kind of miracle that they haven't ripped each others eyes out. But man, did Atticus had some explaining to do!

I have to confess, I've been in his shoes a couple of times, before I learned my lesson. Women will make sure that you're the loser and whatever you do is always wrong. Always. So, it is better to take the punishment like a man and move on without getting WAP in the mean time.

Speaking of which, that scene with Rudy having hanky-panky... I looked away and thought not going to write about it.

I loved that both women were at tears on Tic's madness. If he couldn't have either, then why the hell he should care about living any more? Yeah, it's our feelings, the one thing that makes us humans that are at the heart of crazy.

In a way you can see it as a curse that made Star Trek's Spock to commit a suicide or Data to abandon his own body to be a human. So, if you feel like you're losing your marbles, stop and fight the demons. Don't let them take you in the dark place, where you certainly will die.

At the end maybe it was easier for Tic to choose his destiny once he'd read the book from the future and Christina confirming then to try to solve the women problem.

It amazed me that at the end Tic chose to protect himself with a Soggoth. I wonder if Tic's going to buy it an extra big spiky collar and short leash for walkies.

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

Man, I laughed out so loud when I saw Li-Ah sitting in the day room, dressed up and pretty. The setting in the kitchen as you see at above shot is even more comical, but also very typical. It is a kind of miracle that they haven't ripped each others eyes out. But man, did Atticus had some explaining to do!

Ah, yes. There is nothing a guy likes more than to come home and see his current and ex-girlfriends staring at each other across a table, especially when the ex is a 9-tailed succubus.

 

[AE35Unit]

Watched a few episodes. It was good at first. Then got a bit muddled, stopped watching.

 

[ctg]

Watched a few episodes. It was good at first. Then got a bit muddled, stopped watching.

I'd say: "Have some patience, man!" This series is very different from the normal stuff. It goes constantly towards dark and in occasions there's Preacher like carnage. Things happen in extreme way and it seems that the series is coming to an end with the future not looking so rosy for the lead star. Overall, I'd give it seven and half out of ten. Two and half points deducted because there's not enough of Lovecraftian monsters.

I also do admit that it is hard to watch with the racist angle turned up to eleven.

 

[REBerg]

Spoiler

Two and half points deducted because there's not enough of Lovecraftian monsters.

This round did not disappoint in that department.
Tic's toothy new buddy made quick work of the cops. What's Tic going to do with him now? Put him on a chain, keep him under the stairs and call him Spotty?
Looks like the spell he and Ambrose put together wasn't such a failure after all. I chuckled when Tic asked his "Dad" if he had any other secrets he hadn't revealed.