Is Them woke?
Them (2021)
TV Show
Released: January 1, 2021
Wokeness Score
9/10
Activist / Didactic
The story exists mainly to deliver a woke ideological lecture. Themes are heavy-handed, preachy, and feel forced or unnatural. Entertainment value is secondary, and viewers frequently feel lectured or alienated.
Key Summary Points
- Centers plot on Black family's encounter with 1950s racism and restrictive covenants as main horror source.
- Blends supernatural terror with explicit depictions of racial violence and systemic prejudice for messaging.
- Created with progressive intent to highlight Black trauma and American racial history as didactic commentary.
Wokeness Analysis
Them (2021) is an anthology horror series whose first season, Covenant, centers on a Black family relocating to an all-white 1950s Los Angeles neighborhood during the Great Migration. The narrative explicitly frames everyday racism, restrictive covenants, and neighborly hostility as the primary sources of terror, blending them with supernatural elements. Created by Little Marvin and executive produced by Lena Waithe, the show prioritizes graphic depictions of racial violence, trauma, and systemic prejudice as core horror drivers. Reviews and descriptions highlight its intent to explore 'terror in America' through the lens of anti-Black racism, with many critics noting its heavy-handed approach, lack of nuance, and exploitation of historical trauma for shock value. This overt focus on progressive messaging about racism, marginalization, and historical injustice overshadows entertainment, turning the series into a vehicle for social commentary that feels preachy and agenda-driven rather than organic storytelling. Viewer backlash often cites it as trauma porn that lectures on racial issues at the expense of horror coherence, aligning with patterns of media pushing ideological narratives on race relations.
Plot
Them is a horror anthology series created by Little Marvin. Season 1, Covenant, released in 2021, follows the Emory family, a Black family who move from North Carolina to an all-white neighborhood in East Compton, Los Angeles, in 1953 during the Great Migration. Their new home becomes the site of escalating harassment from racist neighbors alongside supernatural malevolent forces that torment the family over ten days. The series mixes historical social horrors of racism with psychological and otherworldly terror. Season 2 shifts to 1991 with a different story involving an LAPD detective. The show stars Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas in the lead roles for the first season.