Prime Video may have a new hit series on its hands.
Them: The Scare is a newly debuted eight-episode series that just dropped all at once on Amazon’s streamer, offering a sort-of continuation of its 2021 series that was subtitled Them: The Covenant — only, this time around, the story has shifted from focusing on a black family that moves into a white neighborhood in the 1950s to an LAPD detective taking on a murder case with a supernatural tinge in 1991.
Moreover, Them: The Scare (from creator Little Marvin) is only technically a Season 2 of the story. It’s actually an anthology, meaning that while lead actress Deborah Ayorinde is back, the new episodes have almost nothing in common with the first go-round.
As Prime Video explains it, the story in Them: The Scare focuses on LAPD Homicide Detective Dawn Reeve, who’s assigned to investigate the case of a murdered foster mother. It’s a case so gruesome that even hardened detectives have been left shaken. With a killer on the loose, the city is teetering on the edge of chaos — but while Detective Reeve is determined to find the murderer, something “ominous and malevolent” grips her family.
I like that the entire season is available to binge right now, compared to having to wait several more weeks for each of the half-hour or so episodes to drop one by one. But what’s especially interesting is how the new season of the show arrived with basically perfect scores on Rotten Tomatoes as soon as it hit Prime Video. Granted, there haven’t have been very many reviews from critics yet (the 100% Tomatometer score, for example, is based on five reviews at this point), but it’s still interesting that the reaction from every one of them so far has been positive.
Especially considering that the reaction to Season 1 was pretty abysmal (it’s got a 58% critics score, and a 67% audience score). Following the new season’s debut on Thursday, meanwhile, dozens of viewer ratings have already rolled in and contributed to the show’s 97% audience score.
It will definitely be interesting to keep an eye on this one to see whether it grows over time. Currently, Them: The Scare is #2 on Prime Video, ahead of Roadhouse and behind only Fallout — not bad for a debut, not bad at all.
