Fear Is not Always External

Review of Them: The Scare, 2024 (Second Anthology Installment) 

Hi readers. This is my first review of a television series. I was prompted to write this blog about this Amazon series because of some conversations that I overheard while working at a coffee shop about the movie and how it resonated with the group of individuals who were discussing this thought-provoking series. To sum it up in a nutshell, the conversation they were having about the series is that it was not dark or scary enough and that they did not get the fear components of the show as well.  

Maybe it is because I saw the film through the lens of my work as a therapist and as my identity as a Black man that I identified with so many aspects of this series. However, I also saw a common underlying theme in the movie that can be personified with any culture: generational trauma.  I recognize that a part of the burden of living in the present at times is carrying the cycle of generational trauma that has come before you. Trauma can certainly exist in a cycle, until it is properly explored and picked apart so that we as human beings don’t have to live a life disconnected from various parts of our self that we seek to hide. To that end, there is fear in living a life where trauma never gets resolved, and I appreciate that love and compassion were also highlighted in this series as a weapon to combat trauma. Nevertheless, all too often in our society the love and compassion that is utilized to shield us trauma is also often snuffed out quickly by all the isms of the world that cause us pain, bias, shame, and guilt.  

Regarding the series not having enough fear-based elements in this work, I don’t see that as well. Living a life daily where one is questioning their identity, looking over their shoulder, and seemingly looking for connections in the darkest corners of their lives for some sense of meaning and purpose is a fear that all of us at times may have faced.  I recognize this fear, and I understand that the inner chaos of one’s mind can be a heavy burden to bear when there is no peace within as well as in our communities or environment as well.  

In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, and poet:  

“All our ancestors and all future generations are present in us all the time. Happiness is not an individual matter. As long as the ancestors in us are still suffering we can't be happy, and we will transmit their suffering to our children and their children.”― Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Walk 

I hope that that happiness can be found for all of us and the cycle of suffering ends. Thanks for reading. Tell me your thoughts about Them: The Scare, 2024