If you’ve seen the trailers, then you know THEM: The Scare will surely be unlike anything else on television.
The black horror anthology returns for a second season on Prime Video, with a new story and landscape at the forefront but the same scares the first season evoked.
TV Fanatic was lucky enough to participate in the THEM: The Scare press day, where we chatted with series creator Little Marvin and Deborah Ayorinde, who returns to the series in a new role.
While the first season, THEM: Covenant, was set in 1953 and followed a black family moving from North Carolina to an all-white neighborhood in Los Angeles, this season takes place in 1991.
The story stays in Los Angeles but changes the timeframe, introducing a new set of circumstances for the new cast of characters.
Little Marvin, the mastermind behind the innovative series, was inspired by many things when creating this universe.
It’s not just any time during 1991 but in the days following the Rodney King tape when the city was in a significantly heightened state. And Ayorinde’s character, Dawn Reeve, one of the only black women in the homicide division of the LAPD, is tasked with an unsettling case.
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Pretty quickly, Dawn finds herself engrossed in a complex case and dealing with an increasing threat to her family.
Outside of just tapping into those particularly high-charged days in Los Angeles, Little Marvin feels connected to that period.
As he explained, “I love the ’90s with my entire heart. I am nostalgic for it. I love the music. I love the movies.
“When it dawned on me that some of my favorite movies of all time came out in that time period, literally, Misery, Cape Fear, Silence of the Lambs, Boyz n the Hood, Menace II Society, all of those movies came out in that year to a year and a half period that our show takes place.
“And that was mind-blowing for me. So, just artistically and creatively, I knew the sandbox of that was going to be it from the minute.”
And the series does an excellent job of settling into that period, from the aesthetics to the musical choices. The 90s are in full effect.
While they get the tone of the time correct, the series is about so many fascinating things, including family, which is as essential to the story as the mystery.
As for what Little Marvin hopes the audience takes away from the show?
“I think at the end of the day, THEM always has a family at the heart of the show. There was one in the first season, there’s one in this season.
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“And I’m endlessly fascinated by those dynamics and by the ways in which our history plays a part in those dynamics, whether we are aware of the history or not.”
Little Marvin had much more to say about this and the series in our chat, which you can check out below.
While there is no crossover from season one to here, one actress does return, lead Deborah Ayorinde.
Ayorinde portrayed Livia “Lucky” Emory in THEM: Covenant, and here she steps into the role of LAPD Detective Dawn Reeve.
The two roles are very different, and various factors endeared Ayorinde to the character.
After screening the first five episodes made available to critics, the one word that came to mind for Dawn was strong-willed.
She’s working on this incredibly frightening and disturbing case, but she’s never one to back down from a challenge.
Ayorinde told us, “Dawn is a detective with the LAPD. She is the only Black female detective with the LAPD at this time. And there’s this case, this mystery that’s going on in town, and none of the other detectives want to take it on.
“But she, being the badass that she is, feels very drawn to this and really fights to take this on. And as she unfolds this mystery, she unfolds the biggest mystery of all, which is herself.
“So you see her just going through that journey, and you see this strong, just strong-willed, beautiful Black woman that I needed to see. I needed to see more roles like this.
“And just even playing next to Pam Grier, who’s played beautiful, strong Black women so often, it just felt right.”
Dawn’s strength and general badassery drew Ayorinde in, as Dawn finds herself truly in unchartered territory as the season goes along and the case takes on a life of its own.
And being strong doesn’t have to be at odds with being feminine, as Ayorinde eloquently told us during our chat.
“…because I don’t see femininity and strength as separate,” she said. “A lot of people really have ingrained in their mind that it’s separate, and you can see it in a lot of the roles that are in different projects.
“It’s like if a woman is, quote-unquote, ‘feminine,’ traditionally feminine, then she’s not as, quote-unquote, ‘strong.’ But if she is portrayed as strong, then she has to lean more masculine.
“And that’s just not the truth. They’re not separate. Just as masculinity and strength are not synonymous. And so, for me, I just love the fact that LM just continues to write these female roles that are strong.”
Ayorinde had lovely things to say about the series and was nothing short of lovely during our chat, which you can see below, and you can watch THEM: The Scare today on Prime Video.
Whitney Evans is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lover of all things TV. Follow her on X.