Lovecraft Country | |
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Genre | |
Based on | Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff |
Developed by | Misha Green |
Starring | |
Music by | Laura Karpman and Raphael Saadiq |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 1 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Cinematography | Tat Radcliffe |
Editor(s) |
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Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 53–68 minutes |
Production company(s) | |
Release | |
Original network | HBO |
Original release | August 16, 2020 present | –
External links | |
Website |
Lovecraft Country is an American horror drama television series developed by Misha Green based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Matt Ruff. It premiered on August 16, 2020, on HBO.[2] The series is produced by Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, and Warner Bros. Television with executive producers including Jordan Peele, Green, J. J. Abrams, and Ben Stephenson. The story is about a young black man who travels across the segregated 1950s United States in search of his missing father, learning of dark secrets plaguing a town on which famous horror writer H. P. Lovecraft supposedly based the location of many of his fictional tales.
Lovecraft Country follows "Atticus Freeman as he joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback".[3]
No. | Title | Directed by | Teleplay by [5] | Original air date [6] | U.S. viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Sundown" | Yann Demange | Misha Green | August 16, 2020 | 0.760[7] |
2 | "Whitey's on the Moon"[8] | Daniel Sackheim | Misha Green | August 23, 2020 | TBD |
3 | "Holy Ghost"[9] | Daniel Sackheim | Misha Green | August 30, 2020 | TBD |
4 | "A History of Violence"[10] | Victoria Mahoney | Misha Green Story by : Wes Taylor | September 6, 2020 | TBD |
5 | "Strange Case"[11] | Cheryl Dunye | Misha Green and Jonathan Kidd & Sonya Winton | September 13, 2020 | TBD |
6 | "Meet Me in Daegu"[12] | TBA | Misha Green and Kevin Lau | September 20, 2020 | TBD |
7 | "I Am."[13] | TBA | Misha Green and Shannon Houston | September 27, 2020 | TBD |
8 | "Jig-A-Bobo"[14] | TBA | Misha Green and Belinda Ihuoma Ofordire | October 4, 2020 | TBD |
9 | "Rewind 1921"[15] | TBA | Misha Green & Jonathan Kidd & Sonya Winton | October 11, 2020 | TBD |
10 | "Full Circle"[16] | TBA | Misha Green Story by : Belinda Ihuoma Ofordire | October 18, 2020 | TBD |
On May 16, 2017, it was announced that HBO had given a series order to Lovecraft Country. Executive producers include Misha Green, Jordan Peele, J. J. Abrams, and Ben Stephenson. Additionally, Green serves as the series' showrunner and wrote the pilot episode. Production companies involved in the series include Monkeypaw Productions, Bad Robot Productions, and Warner Bros. Television. It was reported that Peele originally brought the project to Bad Robot Productions and enlisted Green to develop the show.[17][18][19][20]
On March 5, 2018, it was announced that Yann Demange would direct and executive produce the pilot episode.[21][22][23]
On April 26, 2018, it was announced that Jurnee Smollett had been cast as the series' female lead.[24] On May 2, 2018, it was reported that Jonathan Majors had joined the main cast as the series' male lead.[25] A day later, it was reported that Wunmi Mosaku had also been cast as a series regular.[26] On June 19, 2018, it was announced that Aunjanue Ellis and Elizabeth Debicki had been cast as series regulars and that Courtney B. Vance had joined the series in a recurring capacity.[27] On October 10, 2018, it was reported that Michael Kenneth Williams had been cast in a leading role.[28] On June 14, 2019, it was reported that Abbey Lee had replaced Elizabeth Debicki in the role of Christina Braithwaite, whilst Jamie Chung and Jordan Patrick Smith had been cast in recurring roles.[29] On June 20, 2019, it was announced that Jamie Neumann, Erica Tazel, and Mac Brandt had been cast in recurring capacities.[30] In July 2019, Tony Goldwyn joined the cast.[31]
Principal photography for the series began on July 16, 2018 in Chicago, Illinois.[32] Filming also reportedly took place at the Chicago Cinespace Film Studios[33] in Elburn, Illinois[34] and White Pines State Park in Mount Morris, Illinois,[35] at Blackhall Studios in Atlanta, Georgia and Macon, Georgia.[36]
Lovecraft Country premiered on August 16, 2020, on HBO, and consists of ten episodes.[37][38][2]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Lovecraft Country holds an approval rating of 97% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 8.86/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Anchored by Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Jonathan Majors' heroic performances, Misha Green's Lovecraft Country is a thrilling take on Lovecraftian lore that proves the Elder Gods aren't the only thing that goes bump in the cosmos."[39] On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".[40]
Writing for The A.V. Club, Shannon Miller lauded the show's ability to balance Lovecraft's more problematic political views with "an appreciation for [his] unparalleled vision".[41] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com pointed to the show's use of genre storytelling "to peel back layers of American history to reveal the systemic problems underneath it", while also describing it as "marvelously entertaining".[42] Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips, in reference to earlier, less successful attempts at adaptation of Lovecraft's works, said the show "succeeds where others have not" and commended the show on its themes, despite calling the five episodes available for early review "uneven".[43] In a more critical review, Daniel D'Addario of Variety wrote that "the violence of Lovecraftian horror is so extreme [...] that even the most evil impulses of humanity seem an inadequate counterweight".[44]
No. | Title | Air date | Rating (18–49) |
Viewers (millions) |
DVR (18–49) |
DVR viewers (millions) |
Total (18–49) |
Total viewers (millions) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Sundown" | August 16, 2020 | 0.2 | 0.760[7] | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
Presented content of the Wikipedia article was extracted in 2020-08-23 based on https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=56763306