Well, we have a rather interesting situation going on over at Amazon Prime Video right now. A new show has arrived and with it, a 100% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and 97% score from audiences so far. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. We’re talking about Amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0CW6B1T9D/ref=atv_hm_hom_c_n1FabB_brws_17_2?jic=8%7CEgRzdm9k”>Them – The Scare.
So, this is more unusual than a new or returning show arriving. Them – The Covenant was originally a 2021 series on Amazon Prime Video, set in 1953 about a black family moving into a white neighborhood, covering racism mixed with supernatural hauntings and threats.
It was not terribly well-received. It had a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 67% audience score. It came and went without much fuss, but it was still renewed for a second season. But not a true second season, it’s an anthology. So now that Them – The Scare is here, the show is now set in 1993 and deals with an LAPD detective who takes on a murder that has something supernatural reach into her family itself. It shares a lead actress with season 1, Deborah Ayorinde, but essentially everything else is different.
So, for whatever reason, this show has gotten much, much better in its second season, it seems. Sky-high reviews compared to the first, and it’s currently the #2 show or movie on Amazon Prime Video, behind only the service’s high profile Fallout video game adaptation that’s also receiving rave reviews. It’s head of two popular Prime movies, Road House and Ricky Stanicky.
It’s pretty impressive for a show that was not received all that well to return after three years and create a much better second season, but anthologies have the ability to reset like that, so it’s clear that some time away did the series good. I know Amazon must be excited about this, as if they can keep it going, they could find themselves with their own American Horror Story type anthology that can continue on indefinitely. In this case the “Ryan Murphy” of it all would be Little Marvin, the creator of the series. Though it has a vast writing and directing team. Ti West, of Pearl, X and MaXXXine fame, even directed two episodes of season 1.
The entire season was dropped as a binge release, so you can watch all eight episodes right now, which range in length from 30 to 45 minutes, a pretty breezy watch. I’m going to give it a shot myself as I am very curious to see if it lives up to these reviews.
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