Why you should watch the most racist show on TV

'Them' may destroy you...

• If you thought you could grab your remote, relax on the couch and binge-watch your way out of the past 12 months, you’re wrong. After the heart-wrenching It’s a Sin and I May Destroy You, Them is building another TV world of woe. Making it through 10 harrowing episodes is no given. But you should definitely try. Here’s why. Let’s go…

A mum, at home. Her baby, in a highchair, sitting in the kitchen, happily enjoying lunch. The sun shines crisply through the window. A soft wind blows. It’s peaceful, borderline idyllic.

They hear a woman singing outside. The mother goes to investigate. Things get weird, then creepy. The mother gets scared, retreats inside, grabs her child, locks the doors, and hides.

The woman outside is becoming increasingly deranged. She’s joined by three swaggering hillbillies. Windows get smashed. A door is forced open. A home invasion ensues.

What follows is the most harrowing piece of television I think I’ve ever seen.

When you get to this scene in Them, Amazon Prime Video’s unnerving 10-part series about racism, you’ll probably watch it through your fingers, or with the fast-forward button in your hand. It’s vicious, visceral, sickening. It’s incredibly difficult to watch.

That sequence happens in episode six, but it was sign-posted at the start of episode one. It seemed bad then. But when it hits, it’s so, so much worse than you ever thought it possibly could be.

Until that moment, Them had already been a uncomfortable watch. In every scene, every conversation, every moment and every small side glance, series creator Little Marvin dials up racial tension to near unbearable levels.

If you’ve been waiting for the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale to land, Them has helped to pass the time with another dose of misery. What Handmaid’s does for sexism, Them does for racism, and it does it so very well.

Set in the 1950s, the show follows the Emorys as they migrate from North Carolina to an all-white neighbourhood in Compton. From day one, they’re terrorised by their sinister neighbours: they urinate on their laundry, burn racist slogans into their lawn, and hang golliwogs in nooses from their deck.

To make matters worse, something is lurking in the Emorys’ basement - an otherworldly parallel that mimicks the real-life horrors they face outside their front door.

By rights, Them should feel like a documentary about the past. The segregation, the stares, the racial stereotypes and profiling, the visible hatred for anyone with a different skin colour, even the front page newspaper headlines featuring the n-word, should feel like it’s taken from another time, a bygone era. Like Nazis, it’s a whisper from the past that’s gone but not forgotten.

But what makes Them so horrifically compelling is that it’s not. The 10-part show may be set in the 1950s, but it’s also very much about right now. No one’s forgotten about last year’s potent Black Lives Matter protests. The officer who set the BLM movement in motion by killing George Floyd has just been found guilty. Daily headlines show racial hatred is as alive and well as ever.

Just look at this headline from yesterday, which announces anti-Asian hate crime is up 169 per cent just this year. Ugh.

That means Them is about the past, but it’s also about right now. It may not scream it with huge neon lettering, but the implication is clear. What’s happened before could happen again. That makes this compulsory viewing - but consider yourself warned, because Them may destroy you.

Everything else you need to worry about this weekend…

• Elisabeth Moss is back to torture you for another season of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is screening on Neon now. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but let’s face it, Moss is one of the best actors alive. You have to watch it for her alone.

• Playstation 5 gets its first big release of the year with Returnal, an addictive horror that crash lands you on an alien planet and lets you loose with an array of weaponry. It’s like Ratchet & Clank for adults - but be warned: there are no difficulty levels to choose from. It’s permanently set on hard mode.

• The Mitchells vs The Machines is a new animated comedy from the whole family that comes from the creators of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It has great reviews and looks super fun! It should be on Netflix from tonight…

• You can finally watch Made For Love from Saturday on Neon, a high-tech comedy featuring the incredible Cristin Milioti, as well as Ray Romano, who spends the whole series cuddling a sex doll. Trust me, it’s good!

• The Mosquito Coast is Apple’s latest attempt to turn its streaming service fortunes around, but this one looks good. You can’t go wrong with Justin Theroux, and one critic had this to say: “It feels like fans of the work of Vince Gilligan, and Ozark will take to this the most.” Sold!

• Don’t forget about Rose Matefeo’s excellent Starstruck, which is all up on TVNZ OnDemand, and Perlina Lau’s and Roseanne Liang’s incredible Creamerie. If you haven’t seen these comedies created by Kiwis, remedy this immediately!

• Finally, if you’re looking for some sweet tunes to soundtrack your weekend, Dinosaur Jr’s Sweep It Into Space has been hogging my headphones lately. Their laid-back grungy charm remains alive and kicking.

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