Jonathan Majors Is Hot Enough to Make Me Watch ‘Lovecraft Country,’ a Show About Literal Monsters
I’ll be the first to admit I’m usually not one for movies or TV shows that heavily feature monsters. I have nothing against those kinds of stories, I’ve just never personally been a huge sci-fi girl. Like, if I’m sitting in front of my Netflix home page looking for something to watch on a random Friday night, I’m probably picking a standard drama over something with ugly beasts that will scare me senseless. But Lovecraft Country, the new HBO show based on the book of the same name, has one important factor that compelled me to keep watching: Jonathan Majors.
You might know Jonathan from his breakout role in The Last Black Man in San Francisco or his part in Netflix and Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods (he was phenomenal in both). He plays the main character in Lovecraft Country, a Korean War veteran named Atticus Freeman, opposite Jurnee Smollett as Letitia “Leti” Lewis. The show follows Atticus as he travels across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his father, who’s gone missing. Atticus and Leti encounter racial horrors and literal horrors in the form of monsters along the way. It’s executive-produced by Jordan Peele, so it has similar themes to Get Out and Us, which, yes, please.
Besides the obvious fact that Jonathan is good-looking, his character is fun to watch because he, as in Jonathan, is absolutely jacked, but his character, Atticus, is basically a huge-ass nerd. He and Leti talk about how they used to be in a science fiction club in school, and when they first embark on their road trip, he supplies all the reading materials. He quotes poetry, and he and his uncle talk about authors. And while I might not be a sucker for sci-fi, I am a sucker for a sexy geek. It is my ultimate kryptonite. And Atticus is giving me major “I read so much that I don’t have many social skills” vibes. Plus! Atticus wears glasses—like, the wire-rimmed wrap-around-the-ears kind, really fulfilling the geek stereotype in a way I personally love.
So when I see a monster on my screen and think to myself, Okay, maybe this show is not exactly for me, I just look at Jonathan’s face and my fears are assuaged. It’s the perfect combo, because every time there’s a jump scare or a creature that’s so ugly that I have to turn my face away, there’s another scene where Atticus is, like, doing a hot-person thing, and then the scenes basically cancel each other out. Jonathan himself described the show as “genre breaking,” and TBH, he’s not wrong, because not every sci-fi situation has this level of balance. It’s like this show was made specifically for me.
Could I describe for you, in detail, the plot of the three episodes I got to watch in advance? No. Could I name more than five characters? Also no. But will I keep watching this show anyway? Yes. Definitely yes.
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