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Home · Entertainment

The Culture List: 5 TV Series And Films We’re Streaming In August and September

Our Entertainment Director is into these new projects, starting with the eerie and very timely Lovecraft Country.
5 TV Series And Films We’re Streaming In August and September
By Cori Murray · Updated November 4, 2020

After weeks of bingeing old series as part of my viewing entertainment, I thought I’d mix in some new projects available in August and September. With these varied hoots (Lamorne Morris is very smart, funny and Black in Woke) and horrors (Lovecraft Country’s deep dive on American racism is scarier than its otherworldly monsters), I’m happily watching these TV series and movies as the summer winds down.

This article appears in the September/October 2020 issue of ESSENCE magazine, available on newsstands August 25.

01
Lovecraft Country – August 16
Black folk driving through Lovecraft Country in 1954 need these essentials: a copy of The Safe Negro Travel Guide, a spare tire and a flashlight that scares off shoggoths—massive nocturnal tentacled creatures. That’s what Atticus (Da 5 Bloods’ Jonathan Majors), Letitia (a fiercely sublime Jurnee Smollett) and George (Courtney B. Vance) discover as they search for Atticus’s father, who sent his son a mysterious letter about his whereabouts. Based on Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel, an homage to the H.P. Lovecraft fantasy horror subgenre married with the equally terrifying reality of systemic racism in Jim Crow–era America, the HBO series is eerily and necessarily right on time. (HBO)
5 TV Series And Films We’re Streaming In August and September
02
Tyler Perry’s Madea Farewell Play – August 27
As he approached turning 50, in March 2019 Tyler Perry confirmed he was retiring the big-screen matriarch he created, wrote, directed and played because he wanted “to do things differently.” But “hellur!” the mogul pulls out Madea’s housecoat one final time for this stage version starring himself (above right) and longtime players Cassi Davis, David Mann and Tamela Mann. (BET Plus)
5 TV Series And Films We’re Streaming In August and September
03
Power Book II: Ghost — December 6
Power Book II: Ghost picks up shortly after the earth-shattering events of Power as Tariq St. Patrick grapples with his father deaths and his mother, Tasha, facing murder charges. The series will return on Sunday, December 6 at 8PM ET/PT on STARZ.
5 TV Series And Films We’re Streaming In August and September
Starz
04
Woke – September 9
When a White fan of cartoonist Keef (Lamorne Morris) says he didn’t realize Keef was Black, the artist blows off the microaggression as a way of maintaining harmony. That is until his harrowing run-in with cops. The incident awakens Keef’s double consciousness as well as random animated objects—hey, it’s a comedy— that encourage him to challenge the racism he’s long ignored. (Hulu)
5 TV Series And Films We’re Streaming In August and September
05
Antebellum – September 18
In this psychological thriller, new filmmakers Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz cross horror fantasy with historical realism in their lead character, celebrated author Veronica (Janelle Monáe). An unapologetic critic of racial and gender inequalities, Veronica is sought after as a speaker, but at a conference in New Orleans she’s kidnapped after a night out with her dear friend (a hilariously plainspoken Gabourey Sidibe). In flashback sequences that toggle between Veronica’s tony life with her daughter (London Boyce) and supportive husband (Dear White People’s Marque Richardson) and her past life as a field slave on a Louisiana plantation, she’s seemingly caught between two vivid worlds (much like Dana in Octavia Butler’s Kindred). However, through these memories a bone-chilling question arises: Which of Veronica’s lives is real? (Lionsgate) Available on premium on-demand platforms on 9/18
5 TV Series And Films We’re Streaming In August and September
TOPICS:  antebellum C-list lovecraft country power book II The Culture List Tyler Perry woke
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