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That future is now.
It isntjustgrating in its empty platitudes and kiddie-pool-deep proclamations.
From the jump, it is apparent how tricky it will be to ingratiate themselves to their Compton neighbors.
Racism is portrayed in a number of ways throughout the series.
Golliwogs hanging from nooses along the Emorys porch.
Realty and banking scams.
But the Emorys dont only have to contend with their viciously racist neighbors.
(The reasoning behind this only starts to make sense in the last two episodes.
Ultimately, the shows genre-driven storytelling results in, at best, a few fleetingly creepy moments.
Nothing sticks, nothing scares, and nothing unnerves.
Little Marvins thin cinematic resume becomes evident in the shows inability to make the most of its horror inspirations.
The aesthetic failures ofThemcant be untangled from its political ones.
White characters glaring at the Emory family is one of the shows central visual tropes.
Yes, sometimes racists are venomous, other times theyre passive.
Ruby is obsessed with whiteness in a way that only becomes clear later on.
Themprimarily feels empty during the first half of its run.
Later, the woman brings two white men to the Emory home.
Lucky hides the baby.
What happens next, like everything in the back half of the show, is grueling to watch.
Lucky is brutally raped while Chester is put in a sack and tossed back and forth until hes dead.
The direction of this sequence is unflinching.
Watching one of the white men heave on top of Lucky and hearing her desperate cries feels unending.
Throughout the series, its Lucky who proves to be the most crucial lens for this show.
She is tortured both within the domestic sphere and outside of it.
Nowhere is safe for her.
It only knows how to wring terror fromthe pain we experience.
Episode nine is the one that nearly broke me.
That isnot exactly a show you want to take your cues from.)
For theLos AngelesTimes, Little Marvin addressed the shows particularly violent scenes, including Lucys rape.
Ive seen it before.
But this is so abominable it defies you to see it that way.
But what viewer is Little Marvin trying to grab?
What Black viewer would ever feel a sense of distance from the visual representation of police brutality or slavery?
The use of the phrase Black bodies is galling here.
It doesnt induce empathy or the desire for abolition in white folks.
It doesnt force others to consider the anti-Blackness they perpetuate.
In doing so, they are cravenly using Black pain to line their pockets.
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