Hakkesshu posted:

They are definitely not shy about calling out Lovecraft himself - the first time they mention him by name they bring up his, er, poem, "On the Creation of N-Word," which is by far the worst thing he ever put to paper. It's hard to get a sense for where the season is going, not being familiar with the source material, but so far it seems to largely be a period piece with a helping of cosmic horror in the margins. Either way, I feel confident recommending it based on the first episode.

hamsystem posted:

That first episode was real loving good and extremely my poo poo. I can't wait for the rest of the season now. Probably one of my favorite first episodes of anything I've watched in the last few years.

Hakkesshu posted:

They are definitely not shy about calling out Lovecraft himself

Xealot posted:

First episode was great. I'm already very into this show.

The intro dream sequence in particular is so awesome at introducing a lot of core concepts for the story: Atticus is a veteran who views himself as a genre fiction hero; he aspires to be a John Carter type who fights aliens and gets with a Space Princess in the end; but the Hero's Journey expectations he has of a prevailing hero become meaningless when they slam against HP Lovecraft. Not even Jackie Robinson can overcome an immortal Elder God, conflating cosmic horror with white supremacy and systemic racism in the first 2 minutes. It's so goddamn solid.

Xealot posted:

Not to mention other fun details, like at the end of the episode where the racist cops are attacked and become infected with shoggoth monster contagion, and one of them is visibly morphing into a grotesque monster, and the other cop is still aiming his gun at some scared unarmed black people. In case True Detective was too subtle about how the white patriarchal power structure in America is essentially just a predatory cult of Cthulhu worshippers.

Pedro De Heredia posted:

hp lovecraft sir your canceled

Beef Hardcheese posted:

ketchup vs catsup posted:

I read the book this summer when I heard this TV adaptation was coming out. The book is a set of short stories bound together by common characters, and I can see how its structure would lend itself to a TV version.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it

radlum posted:

Loved the first episode; both the intro and the final scenes were amazing. However, did I miss something with that phone call that Atticus made? I didn't get what he was doing

Starks posted:

I think he’s a Korean War vet and he was calling his ex or something

a kitten posted:

I think it's outright stated that he's a Korean War vet and it seems likely that she would be someone he has (or had) a relationship with

a kitten posted:

I think it's outright stated that he's a Korean War vet and it seems likely that she would be someone he has (or had) a relationship with, but the scene has some extra flavors added since he a) called Korea, but didn't actually talk to her, and b) she seemed extra concerned that he had gone home. Both of those things could have perfectly mundane explanations, but the second part makes me wonder if the two of them had a pretty good idea he was heading into some weird poo poo if he did make that trip.

davidspackage posted:

Really liked it. Making a Lovecraft mythos show but having it star black heroes is a great way of dealing with the stain of Lovecraft's racism, I had never actually heard of that poem he wrote. Wow.

The one thing I disliked was how clearly those CG monsters were shown, as they looked kind of boring. Would've perhaps been better to obscure them more, show little shadowed glimpses.

Xealot posted:

This was my assumption, as well. The Princess of Mars figure in his dream was Jamie Chung, a reasonably famous actress, so I’m guessing she’s who that was.

Which says some weird poo poo about whatever that relationship was, that he literally associates this Korean woman with an exotic space princess from a pulp sci-fi adventure novel.

bloom posted:

The cgi monsters in the woods looked awful but otherwise I liked the first episode. It was more action-oriented than I expected from a Lovecraftian story but then I didn't even know this was based on a book by another author so maybe that's how it is.

Curious to see where this goes.

Preem Palver posted:

I'm digging it. Some minor changes from the book but so far it's all stuff that serves to make it work better for a visual format.

Do have a small quibble with the OP though- they went to Massachusetts, not the Deep South. While things were generally worse in the South, it's not as if sundown towns, segregation, and lynching stopped at the mason-dixon line. It wasn't as prevalent in major Northern cities, but suburbs, small towns, and rural areas across the US were all pretty terrible for minorities. I'm not in any way defending the South, but it usually takes the lions share of the blame despite the rest of the US only being slightly less likely to murder, sterilize, or deny basic rights, liberties, and services to black people.

Oasx posted:

First episode was good, I would have preferred a bit more Lovecraft and monsters, but perhaps that will come in later episodes.

One thing that confused me When they are being chased by the truck, that white woman parks her car in front of it in order to stop it chasing them. But the truck starts flipping over several meters before hitting her car. I can't tell if they messed up the effects for that, or if it really just flipped over for some mystical reason

Escobarbarian posted:

Them super Aryan characters do appear to have some abilities

davidspackage posted:

Really liked it. Making a Lovecraft mythos show but having it star black heroes is a great way of dealing with the stain of Lovecraft's racism, I had never actually heard of that poem he wrote. Wow.

The one thing I disliked was how clearly those CG monsters were shown, as they looked kind of boring. Would've perhaps been better to obscure them more, show little shadowed glimpses.

bloom posted:

The cgi monsters in the woods looked awful but otherwise I liked the first episode. It was more action-oriented than I expected from a Lovecraftian story but then I didn't even know this was based on a book by another author so maybe that's how it is.

Curious to see where this goes.

That Italian Guy posted:

Yeah, I think the disconnect is to look at this like something Lovecraft would wrote, instead of something someone who likes Lovecraft, but also pulp in general would wrote. The dream intro sequence and the initial dialogue all reference John Carter of Mars. I always thought that if a modern author had written The Shadow over Innsmouth, its inhabitants would look and behave a lot like the classic human villains from Stephen King's best novels, and I think this is going to be more of a mashup of Green book+IT+Evil Dead than Green Book+Lovecraft.

Jerusalem posted:

Loved the first episode, I never knew about Sundown Towns and goddamn what a horrific and monstrous concept that this was just an accepted thing in the not-too distant past.

Also I loving adore Uncle George, please don't hurt him!