History Series / Them2021

* {{Trigger}}:

Compare ''Series/LovecraftCountry'' and Creator/JordanPeele's ''Film/GetOut'' and ''Film/{{Us}}''.

* SurpriseCreepy: The ColdOpening suddenly ends with the exposition, in red ink, that "The following takes place in 10 days." and we transition to the creepy intro.

** FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse: [[spoiler: Neither the Emorys, nor any other black people were responsible for the suffering of any of the villains, so this doesn’t come close to justifying their racism]].

* AdultFear: As the first trailer shows, starting a new life over with your family (including your two young daughters) in a seemingly idyllic town, only to discover horrifically that despite initial appearances, they ''don't'' take kindly to [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain your kind]]...
** Also your child being murdered in front of you while you are being held down and raped.

Should not be confused with the 1954 sci-fi horror movie ''Film/{{Them}}'' and the 2006 French horror film ''[[Film/{{Ils}} Them]]''.

** The whole sequence in episode one and episode three depicting [[spoiler: Lucky’s assault and Danny’s murder]] is stylistically very reminiscent of Creator/AriAster's films, being filmed on a sunny day with a sickly, sepia font, featuring disturbing close-ups of faces and [[{{Gorn}} sickening violence]].

** In the flashback at the start of the second episode, Henry throws a plate of pie that his daughter had made at the wall, snapping from the stress of racism at work. He feels guilty about it afterwards.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Most of the villains on the show are good at pretending to be polite whilst delivering stealth insults. Each of the ghosts with the exception of Black Hat Man initially pretends to be a friend to the family member they are haunting. Even Black Hat Man [[spoiler: promises to reunite Lucky and Danny in death if she surrenders to him, presumably with the intention of telling the rest of the family that he will reunite them all in death if they follow suit. Lucky is having none of it.]]

Should not be confused with ''Film/{{Them}}''.

The first season, ''Covenant'', set in the 1950s, follows the Emory family, Livia "Lucky" Emory (Creator/DeborahAyorinde) and Henry Emory (Creator/AshleyThomas), a loving African-American couple and their two daughters, Ruby Lee Emory (Creator/ShahadiWrightJoseph) and Gracie Emory (Creator/MelodyHurd) as they move from South Carolina to an all-white neighborhood in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles.

* {{Blackface}}: At the end of the first trailer and throughout the "Down the Hallway" teaser, a man in blackface with [[NightmareFace large black pupils]] appears in the dark and on the television, threateningly and tauntingly asking "Whatcha gonna do?".

* InfantImmortality: Horrifyingly averted.

* Da Tap-Dance Man and Miss Vera in particularly look like ghosts out of Insidious or The Conjuring.
* The whole sequence in episode one and episode three depicting [[spoiler: Lucky’s assault and Danny’s murder]] is stylistically very reminiscent of Creator/AriAster, being filmed on a sunny day with a sickly, sepia font, featuring disturbing close-ups of faces and [[{{Gorn}} sickening violence]].

** Freudian ExcuseIsNoExcuse: [[spoiler: Neither the Emorys, nor any other black people were responsible for the suffering of any of the villains, so this doesn’t come close to justifying their racism.

* CreepyChild: Subverted Gracie Jean talks to an "imaginary friend" named Miss Vera, a fictitious character from a book she carries about how to be a ProperLady. The entity within the house takes on the form of Miss Vera to speak to Gracie Jean and teach her a song that holds a dark significance for her mother. Gracie Jean also blacks out and starts chanting a MadnessMantra in front of the class when she sees Miss Vera outside the window. The subversion is that she's a perfectly well-adjusted young lady who is being tormented by the malevolent presence within East Compton as much as the rest of her family.

* TheEndsJustifyTheMeans: The show points out that racism is systematic, through people who aren't necessarily willing to be racist in the classic sense, but definitely willing to be racist if it benefits their careers (Helen), makes them money (the bankers), or lines their pockets (the cop.) While plenty of characters are willing to be polite and even sympathetic to the Emorys, it shows that racism comes in many forms, and that not necessarily one person or even one city hurt black citizens on the massive scale that it did.

''THEM'' is an 2021 series on Creator/AmazonPrime, created by Marvin Little and executive-produced by Creator/LenaWaithe.

** Henry himself was in WWII and is a ShellShockedWarVet as a result.

* FollowTheLeader: ''Them'' is stylistically very similar to the works of Creator/Jordan Peel, particularly Film/Get Out and Film/Us, in the sense of having black main protagonists, similar filming styles and vague phrases as titles, to the point that some initially believed that it was made by Jordan Peel himself. Like ''Get Out!'' it also deals with the issue of racism and like ''Us'', it follows an all-black family with the mother getting top billing on the poster. Heck, the titles are even written in the same font.

* CreepyChild: Gracie Jean talks to an "imaginary friend", Miss Vera, some sort of supernatural figure who is responsible for the paranormal creepy things happening to the Emorys.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: The Emorys left North Carolina to move on from a traumatic home invasion by four white people (who were also [[KarmaHoudini impossible to track down]]), who raped Lucky and killed Chester in front of her when she was home alone with him.

* EvilDetectingDog: In the first episode, the family dog Sergeant suddenly runs towards the basement door and barks at something.

* HateSink: It would be ''shorter'' to list which white people ''aren't'' outright horrible — Helen, Clarke, and Bull. And even then, complete sympathy is avoided because Helen can be interpreted as just being pragmatic and experimental in the housing market, Clarke's allyship is limited to trying to hold off his wife and neighbors and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere running off]] (along with some shady things going on in his marriage), and Bull believes it's the Emorys' fault for not playing along if anything bad happens to them.