Prime Video’s #1 Thriller Is Shocking Audiences: “So disturbing and addicting”
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Prime Video’s horror anthology series is back and already scaring viewers only 24 hours after it hit the platform. Them is back for a second season titled Them: The Scare. This time, we’re transported to Los Angeles in the early 90s where a cop is trying to solve a gnarly murder. But will it fix the issues seen in the first season regarding racial violence?
Read the full synopsis below:
The new story centers on LAPD Homicide Detective Dawn Reeve who is assigned to a new case: the gruesome murder of a foster home mother that has left even the most hardened detectives shaken. Navigating a tumultuous time in Los Angeles, a city on the razor’s edge of chaos, Dawn is determined to stop the killer. But as she draws closer to the truth, something ominous and malevolent grips her and her family…
Dread Central’s Chad Collins revisited the series’ first season, stating,
“On a pure, primal level, Them is terrifying. It’s more visceral, more physical, more dig-deep-into-the-marrow distressing than any contemporary horror show. It’s also, to put it kindly, trauma porn, a show so imbued with racial tragedy and violence, it risks genuinely harming and re-traumatizing Black audiences.”
While white audiences are shocked by what they see on screen, Black audiences have a wholly different perspective about having their trauma put on display for mindless consumption. While it’s refreshing to have Black experiences centered in a horror series, capitalizing on race-based suffering is questionable at best.
Early reactions from viewers on Twitter who were able to rip through the new season are singing its praises for how terrifying it is, as well as praising Luke James‘ performance. James, primarily known as a singer-songwriter, stars in Them: The Scare as Edmund Gaines, an aspiring actor who begins to lose his grip on reality. He stars alongside Deborah Ayorinde, who plays Dawn Reeve, and the legendary Pam Grier, who plays Reeve’s mother. Ayorinde also starred in the previous season as Livia Emory.
See what people are saying about the divisive new season below:
Are you going to watch the latest season of Them on Prime? Have you already binged all eight episodes? Let us know on Twitter and Instagram.
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