Did you catch the series premiere of “Lovecraft Country” on HBO on Sunday? If not, get thee to HBO as quickly as possible to watch writer/producer Misha Green’s adaptation of Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel, which positions Lovecraftian monsters alongside (or as?) the horrors of 1950s racism in America. The series is produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams, and the pilot, directed by Yann Demange, follows Atticus (Jonathan Majors), along with his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), and his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett), on a quest to find his father in a town called Ardham in New England, where writer H.P. Lovecraft composed his cosmic horror fiction. Although Lovecraft himself was known to be racist, the book and series use his signature brand of horror, which dives into the existential and unknown, to grapple with the deeply rooted existential threat of racism in America.
If you just can’t wait for next week’s episode, and especially its two stunning leads, Majors and Smollett, don’t worry, there’s more to tide you over. You may want to check out Misha Green’s 2016 series “Underground,” in which Smollett stars as the enslaved Rosalee, who escapes north with a group known as the Macon 7, including Noah (Aldis Hodge). Seasons 1 and 2 of “Underground,” which aired on WGN, are available on Hulu.
Smollett, who has been acting since childhood, has a tremendously long resume, but if you happened to miss her stealing “Birds of Prey” right out from under Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn as Black Canary, that film is newly available on HBO Max, and you do not want to miss it. Cathy Yan’s delightfully demented and colorfully brutal movie is fast, funny, feminist and feels like an actual comic book.
Majors, a graduate of Yale School of Drama, has had a meteoric rise in the past few years. He had a memorable role in the period drug drama “White Boy Rick” in 2018, opposite Matthew McConaughey, also directed by Demange (available on Starz), and costarred in Spike Lee’s Vietnam movie “Da 5 Bloods,” which dropped on Netflix in June. But Majors wowed in last year’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” for which he scored an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting actor. That film is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video and is well worth a watch.