Recently, a new limited series has surfaced on Amazon Prime. The show titled “Them” is ranked number one on Prime currently, and it very much deserves it. The show takes a horror approach to the gruesome life that a Black family in the 1950s experience when moving to an all-white neighborhood in Compton. Over the course of 10 days, we see the horrendous treatment of this Black family. 

The show is based during the time of the Great Migration of African Americans, who relocated to the Northeast, Midwest, and West of the United States. This was to escape racial discrimination taking place in the South. It dives into a realm of psychological and mental effects of discrimination, mistreatment, and torture. 

The show from the first episode had me on the edge of my seat. The suspense and chills that each episode offered me were amazing. It takes place in North Carolina where their family was living at the time. “Lucky” Emory, is home alone with her son (who is a baby) and dog at the time when an old woman approaches her house. This woman starts singing a song, which in fact was a racist one and then goes on to ask “Lucky” for her child. The woman is asked to leave. Then all of a sudden “Lucky” is in the car with her husband and two daughters on their way to their new house in California, with no baby boy. 

The neighbors all come together in an effort to try to get the Emory’s out of “their” neighborhood. They do so by all bringing their lawn chairs and sitting in front of their driveway with their radios blasting music. They also meet at each other’s houses to try to come up with a plan that they can do to get the Emory’s out. You can see that a couple of the white neighbors do not feel the same as the others. But on day six the house is covered in Black baby dolls that are being hung, jack in the boxes, and derogatory words written on their yard. Even more, hate continues over time. 

After being in the house only a couple of days someone has already broken in and killed their dog “Sergeant.” During the night Gracie wakes up when she notices her dog is not on her bead. As she goes into the hall she sees a figure sitting at the dining table holding the dog’s collar. Gracie Jean thinks that it is her mother but later comes to find that it is indeed not. She is greeted by a strange figure that is almost unexplainable. This is the start of the supernatural creatures and visions that we see throughout the series. 

When the family is woken the dog is found dead at the end of the basement stairs and “Lucky” assumes that one of her racist white neighbors killed him and runs out of the house with a gun yelling that this is her house. The cops are called and the family is tormented by the cops as well, and they insist that the killing of the dog was an accident. 

We later come to find that the baby was indeed killed by that woman. She took the baby while “Lucky” was being sexually assaulted by men that followed the old woman into their house. The show goes back in time through flashbacks of different time periods in family, the Emory’s, life. But the reason for the move was this. 

But the antagonizing does not end it just continues. It lands “Lucky” in a mental institution, that is primarily Black women, where she is supposed to be seeking treatment. There she is told after evaluation that she will be receiving a lobotomy. This method of treatment has been ruled out illegal for a while in the modern day. This treatment is where connections in the brain’s prefrontal cortex are severed. This was done to mentally ill patients a long time ago, but often turned people into walking zombies pretty much. The part of the brain that is being disrupted has many connections to the emotional are dull. But in the show “Lucky” does not want this to happen therefore she does everything in her power to escape, and she does. 

The casting of the characters was also stunning. Each person was played extremely well. While I did not like what some of the characters did, their performance was exquisite. Elizabeth who is played by Allison Pill… something about her just is psychotic. It gives the show so much more. You see so many moments where you can’t tell she is simply crazy. Gracie Emory was probably one of my favorite characters. She is so young and DELIVERED. She acted better than some of the grown adults. 

The story leaves the audience on an absolute cliffhanger. I sure do hope there is a season two to find out how this family’s story will continue.

“Them” has brought a great perspective to the feelings and mental effects that this tournament and hate had on a Black family during this time. The depth and torment of hate that these people experienced were awful. While this show is not based on a true specific story, I am sure this has happened in its own version before. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes twisted, horror, and historical type shows. This movie brings in a whole new side to the mistreatment of African Americans during this time period. It is deeply saddening and often hard to watch, but it is an extremely needed show.