The Thing(s) About Them

Supporting Black art and stories, but at what expense?

These opinions are my own and do not reflect the thoughts of all Black people any and everywhere. To be very clear, I did not enjoy the show. Let’s make this like a sandwich. We’ll start with the good, talk about everything that’s wrong, and then put a slice on top so all the meantime-in-between-time I speak on doesn’t seem like the show was a total disaster. #CorporateAmericaBae

#1. After reading “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson, I was so excited when I started the first episode of “Th*m” and learned that the show would be set during The Great Migration era — focusing on the hardships Black individuals and families endured during that time to escape the Jim Crow south. I read no reviews or articles prior to the show. I had only heard a new show called “Them” was being premiered on Amazon Prime...with that information, I already developed feelings about its name and theme being that Jordan Peele released “Us” a few years prior...was this a bite? TBD. So anyway, I’m obsessed with the book and was excited about this project. But boy, oh, boy…it be ya own people.

#2. The challenges came when I realized this was a show being executively produced by Lena Waithe. Now, for a period of time, I was rocking with Lena because I loved her cameos in “Master of None” and even got into “The Chi” for the first few seasons. As I’m watching “Th*m,” though, I realize that almost everything we get from Lena is extremely sad and distraught. There is no manner to pacify the fact that we are products of our environment. Many of us choose to reflect our experiences/environments in our art but geez. How you born in 1984 and manage to turn this 1953 piece era into one of your own twisted, sick mind projects? This sentiment includes Little Marvin, too. There is one scene in particular that just went extremely too far…for me. And I’ll spoil it for you because no one should go in blindly to this show. I don’t know what the official title of the episode was, all I know is “Cat in a Bag.” It was sick. I had to cover the screen, then cover my eyes, then cut it off. I’m no fool. I know far worse happened to Black people, but again, this show was developed for entertainment purposes? With this type of content? Black people can only be entertained or entertaining when it’s traumatizing? That was the message I got from this show. We view Black trauma all day, everyday. Why didn’t these creators, producers, and writers read the room? But the blame is not totally on Lena and Little Marvin. It’s on the companies who continue to buy into and are enamored with only telling Black stories of oppression, despair, and hopelessness. I texted a couple of friends after watching “Th*m” and made it plain as I could…we don’t too often see stories about the Holocaust being produced and sold/marketed for global entertainment. If we do, it usually serves an educational purpose that doesn’t mock the experience of its victims and their families. However, every time we turn around, Black horror, Black hardship, Black pain, Black strife, and Black trauma are exposed for free or profitable purposes. Shame on the Black “creative” who disguises their own agenda as preserving our stories and history but forsake us in the process. 

#3. Moving right along. On the subject of forsaken and disguise…this show irked my nerves because I am SO SICK OF SEEING BLACK PEOPLE PORTRAYED AS CRAZY, POSSESSED, DEMENTED, ETC. Omg. The whole Emory family had issues. Every Black character in the show was “crazy” or “mentally unstable.” To be fair, any individual would be under immense distress if they were involved in those community circumstances. But, my issue stems from the fact that society has already developed these ideas about our character and our mode of operation. Why then would it be necessary to try to perpetuate this on a big screen? This show, in my opinion, gave other groups of people another green light to believe that Black people have no threshold for pain — physically, mentally, or emotionally. Essentially, other groups will watch this show and the many shows portraying our trauma, they will see our stories on the news, they will see us coming to work everyday, but not exhibiting and showing the signs of exhuaust and discomfort. They will continue to dump the world’s issues onto us while asking us to help them understand our plight when we aren’t even the culprits of the design. Ugh. Another thing: The Emory’s were living in a home that had a dead baby’s corpse. As a Black person (first) and a writer (second), you know good and very well Black people don’t play about the dead. That should have been something that was omitted from the script. I understand the show is fake and its a psychological thriller twisted drama forever and ever amen, but some stuff just ain’t gon fly with Black people and that’s one of them. We don’t do that *Whitney voice* And amongst these things, there was no resolve or victory for the Emory’s (and other Black characters) except that they had to kill everybody including some of their own family? Spare me, please. 

#4. The music schema was sloppy. 

#5. The scenes were too dark (figuratively, yes, but I mean literally too dark to see lol). I need filmmakers to understand that just because you film an episode or movie (ahem Malcom & Marie) in B & W, that does not make the message more profound. Now, it’s just hot garbage with no hue.

#6. Writers too busy tryna add in so many elements and plots to the overall story, small details were forgotten. Just sloppy. Not to mention the religious innuendos that just…were bad. So, so bad.

#7. I’m upset that film teams continually try (and succeed) to get off harrowing Black stories because it’ll sell. Try something that doesn’t pain us or paint us as distorted creatures of a subjective imagination. This story could have unfolded so many different ways. Why take a critical part of our journey that includes generations we are seeing the fruit of, and turn it into a grotesque, sloppy ten series child’s play and call it art + our story? I know the show isn’t reality, but many elements of it are real. The group think, self-hate, imposter syndrome, racism, gaslighting, abuse, etc. I feel for my family members and family friends who lived through this period and when they turn on the TV, the story being told about their attempt at a better life is tainted by a hard-to-watch display of racism and survival and battling external and interal forces — that urged its characters to put themselves and their families at stake. This is not who we are. This story is not for us. And I know some readers may think I’m being dramatic and that’s fine. You may not be Black, you may have liked the show, you may be a racist, or you may not care. What I do know is that art is a projection of what we believe in our minds and subconscious about reality. Art imitates life. This show says a lot about what people are thinking or not thinking about us.

#8. I lied in the intro. Ain’t no booty piece to this sandwich. I’m done. “Them” ain’t me.