LOVECRAFT COUNTRY

Horror. In ’50s America, Korean War veteran Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors) arrives in Chicago in search of his missing estranged father, Montrose (The Wire’s Michael K Williams). After finding a letter from Montrose inviting him to the mysterious town of Ardham, Tic sets off on a road trip with his uncle George (Courtney B Vance) and childhood friend Leti (Jurnee Smollett from Birds of Prey).

This leads them to encounters with monsters, ghosts, white supremacists and an occult secret society with links to Tic’s ancestors.

This visually stunning, emotionally intense show isn’t for the faint of heart. What makes it so potent and visceral is that its full-on, extreme horror visuals are combined with the horrific racist abuse its characters suffer in their everyday lives.

Based on the novel by Matt Ruff,

Lovecraft Country cleverly, though sometimes heavy-handedly, plays with the themes and tropes of influential horror writer HP Lovecraft while challenging his racist views by centring the story on black characters who must survive discrimination as well as the supernatural terrors thrown at them.

Brimming with ideas, subplots and subtext, the show sometimes struggles to fit in each episode’s main story while also keeping the overarching plot going.

The standalone adventures, which jump between genres – from haunted house and demonic possession to Indiana Jones-style tomb raiding and reality bending sci-fi – end up being more satisfying than the main story, which after an intriguing build-up ends in a disappointingly predictable and hurried way. But this is one series where the relative let-down of the finale doesn’t tarnish all the great stuff that’s gone before.

The main characters are well-rounded, continually revealing different facets of their personalities, and are vividly brought to life by Majors, Smollet and Williams’ emotionally affecting performances. If you enjoyed gory yet sophisticated horror series Penny Dreadful, or Watchmen, which explored racism in a sci-fi setting, you should enjoy this show.

Plans for a second season were scrapped but Lovecraft Country wraps up its story so can be watched as a mini-series. 2020. 10 EPISODES. 18LVPS.