What is Them about?
The first season’s 10 episodes follow a fictitious Black family, the Emorys—led by mom Livia (DeborahAyorinde), known as “Lucky,” and dad Henry (AshleyThomas)—as they relocate from North Carolina to an all-white neighborhood in L.A. in 1953; specifically, the show is set in Compton. Soon after the Emorys move in, though, they begin to feel tormented by their neighbors (especially one who lives across the street, Betty, played by former The Newsroom star AlisonPill), who all seem to want to terrorize them into leaving, as well as by supernatural forces living inside their house.
Is Them based on a true story?
The premiere episode of the first season opens with title cards that note: “Between 1916 and 1970, roughly 6 million African-Americans relocated from the rural Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest and West. Widely known as the Great Migration, many black families were drawn to California by the promise of industrial jobs and a chance to leave the Jim Crow South behind… On September 14, 1953, Henry and Livia ‘Lucky’ Emory moved their family from Chatham County, North Carolina, to Compton, California.” Because the show seemingly presents the Emorys’ storyline as fact, you may have been lured into believing that the characters are based on actual people. But there’s no proof that the Emorys or a family like them ever existed. In a recent interview with Essence, Them creator LittleMarvin (who also co-executive produced the series with TheChi creator LenaWaithe) admitted that the characters aren’t from the real world, but were instead “born of my fears, of my anxieties, of my insecurities.” He also revealed that he included details from his own experiences as an African-American into the scripts. “There is a scene where Henry goes into a bathroom and stuffs paper towels down his throat to stifle a raging scream,” Marvin noted. “Have I done that? No. Have I wanted to? Many times. So yes, there’s a little seed of anger and fear and anxiety in the show that is absolutely born of my personal experience.” However, the first part of those title-card statements is, in fact, true—although historians might note that Them is specifically set during what’s commonly referred to as the second wave. That phenomenon took place from about 1940-1970; it differed from the first wave (1916-1940) because it largely included skilled labor workers from cities, not just rural farmers, and because during the Second Great Migration, more African-Americans moved to cities along the West Coast. (Want to learn more? Thomas recently told Collider that to prepare for his role as Henry, he read the book L.A. City Limits by author JoshSides; as the book’s subtitle notes, it dives into “African-American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the present.") Another telling detail: The first season of Them is subtitled “Covenant”—a reference to the real-life restrictions that often kept African-Americans from buying property in certain residential areas, thus unofficially enforcing racial segregation. These so-called “covenants” were especially prominent in postwar America in cities like L.A. and can even still be found today. Just a few months ago, CNN reported that a recently sold home in Beverly Hills contained language in its deed that read, “Said premises shall not be rented, leased, or conveyed to, or occupied by, any person other than of the white or Caucasian race.”
Will there be a Them Season 2?
Where to watch and stream Them
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