AMAZON PRIME’S HOT LINEUP
Them, Lord of the Rings, Without Remorse +
Prime’s New Releases and Coming Attractions are Red Hot!
Them:
September 14, 1953, is just another sunny California day on Palmer St. in West Compton. Betty Wendell (Alison Pill) walks out of her front door and, as per usual, waves coyly at the milkman. Then, she surveys her little Father Knows Best-fiefdom, and all is well, in order, and whites-only, of course. That is until a car with a moving trailer pulls into the driveway across the street. Clutch my pearls! Black people!
Henry and Livia “Lucky” Emory (Ashley Thomas and Deborah Ayorinde) are taking their next step toward the American Dream and moving their two daughters out of the Jim Crow South in the process.
Them rightfully takes its place, the current black renaissance in horror, with Us, Lovecraft Country, Ma, and Get Out. Like these peers, what is truly frightening is not the supernatural. Instead, it’s the hate (redlining, police harassment, aggressions micro, and all-out violent) inflicted on African Americans by White America.
Episode one is well-shot, superbly acted, and fucking scary.
More Black Excellence: The Underground Railroad
On May 14, Barry Jenkins will deliver The Underground Railroad to Amazon Prime. This new series is based on the National Book Award, Pulitzer, Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Andrew Carnegie Medal-winning novel by Colson Whitehead. There is a literal railroad on which Cora (Thuso Mbedu) travels and time travels to freedom in this world.
Even More Black Excellence: Without Remorse
Agent 1: They better hope he doesn’t survive.
Agent 2: Why’s that?
Agent 1: Because he is more dangerous and effective than any man we have in the field.
What a badass!
Michael B. Jordan stars as John Kelly and a Tom Clancy-penned special agent. Someone broke into his home and murdered his wife and unborn child. THAT someone will pay.
Drops April 30.
Unnamed Lord of the Rings Series
In 2017 Amazon paid $250 million for the rights to create a series about Middle-earth’s Second Age. It is set thousands of years before the LOTR franchise. Unfortunately, that means no Frodo, no Sam, and no Bilbo (but maybe some prequel material from The Silmarillion.)
Don’t worry. You can still get your fill of those rascally hobbits because Amazon has all of the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies. Start watching; the extended editions’ running time will stretch far past the new stuff’s TBD release date.
More Fantasy: The Wheel of Time
No release date on this either. So, get reading; Robert Jordan wrote 14 TWOT, plus a prequel and two companion books.
