So after whipping the rug, carpet and several floorboards out from under me with last episode, "Lovecraft Country", I thought, might be settling into a different pattern, of two episodes per substory, if you like - but even that proved not to be the case. However, this was a good episode, so maybe I'll just stop worrying and go with it.
A few weeks after returning to Chicago, Leti (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) buys a rundown house in a white neighbourhood and with the help of her sister, Ruby (Wunmi Mosaku), opens a boarding house for African Americans. Tension is immediately high, with the local residents beginning a campaign of intimidation against them. But within the house, mysterious forces start to awaken and a story about the scientist who previously owned it, and several disappearances leads Leti to the basement.
It was, as I said, a good episode. If Jurnee Smollett-Bell had been a bit of a passenger in the first two episodes, this one is hers, and she delivers. Half of it is a pretty straight ghost story, with some creepy moments involving bed sheets and mirrors - Half is rallying against the racists outside her house and when Leti goes outside with a baseball bat, it's easy to understand and feel her rage and the helplessness that immediately comes after it. We do get a tie in at the end though, with what might be a wider story, that suggests that the Braithwhite family are not as done in this as they might have looked.
It's hard not to feel like it's going too fast still though. Like they're burning through seasons of story in episodes. And occasionally that leads to moments of confusion, such as the fact that Aunt Hippolyta becomes transfixed by a model of the universe, only for that scene to end and for her, and it, to never appear again. The visual effects are good though, and again the music choices excellent.
My early thoughts that we might be matching "Watchmen" in terms of quality are, at the moment, looking a little ambitious but what we're getting is still good and intriguing stuff.
A few weeks after returning to Chicago, Leti (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) buys a rundown house in a white neighbourhood and with the help of her sister, Ruby (Wunmi Mosaku), opens a boarding house for African Americans. Tension is immediately high, with the local residents beginning a campaign of intimidation against them. But within the house, mysterious forces start to awaken and a story about the scientist who previously owned it, and several disappearances leads Leti to the basement.
It was, as I said, a good episode. If Jurnee Smollett-Bell had been a bit of a passenger in the first two episodes, this one is hers, and she delivers. Half of it is a pretty straight ghost story, with some creepy moments involving bed sheets and mirrors - Half is rallying against the racists outside her house and when Leti goes outside with a baseball bat, it's easy to understand and feel her rage and the helplessness that immediately comes after it. We do get a tie in at the end though, with what might be a wider story, that suggests that the Braithwhite family are not as done in this as they might have looked.
It's hard not to feel like it's going too fast still though. Like they're burning through seasons of story in episodes. And occasionally that leads to moments of confusion, such as the fact that Aunt Hippolyta becomes transfixed by a model of the universe, only for that scene to end and for her, and it, to never appear again. The visual effects are good though, and again the music choices excellent.
My early thoughts that we might be matching "Watchmen" in terms of quality are, at the moment, looking a little ambitious but what we're getting is still good and intriguing stuff.