THEM
Hate Outta Compton
“…and they lived happily ever after. HA! Just kidding.”
★★★★☆
UK/US Prime Video, streaming now
Creator Little Marvin
Cast Deborah Ayorinde, Ashley Thomas, Alison Pill, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Melody Hurd, Ryan Kwanten
EPISODES 1.01-1.10 If you’re planning on bingeing Them, consider having something reassuring to hand for afterwards, like an Ivor The Engine DVD. This first run of an American Horror Story-style anthology may be the most viscerally upsetting fantasy series we’ve ever seen.
The trailer prompted online bile, with people latching onto the title, the presence of Us’s Shahadi Wright Joseph and credits for white directors to pre-judge it as a Jordan Peele rip-off. Ill-informed on two counts: firstly, the show is overseen by two black producers. Secondly, it has more in common with Watchmen and Lovecraft Country. Just as those series educated viewers about the Tulsa race massacre and Jim Crow America, Them spins drama from the Great Migration, which saw African-Americans departing the rural South for pastures new.