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For as long as I can remember, I\u2019ve been drawn to television. I become enamored with stories that let you disappear into other worlds, and make the impossible feel close enough to touch. But in no period of my life was more consumed with screen time than the early months of the pandemic. Like millions of others, I found comfort in binge-watching: old favorites, hidden gems, and new shows. Personally, there was one series that towered above the rest during that time\u2014it was HBO Max\u2019s breakout hit, Lovecraft Country<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Premiering on August 16, 2020, and concluding its run exactly five years ago on October 18, Misha Green\u2019s brainchild was unlike anything I had seen before. Adapted from Matt Ruff\u2019s novel and executive-produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams, it centered on Atticus \u201cTic\u201d Freeman\u2014masterfully portrayed by Jonathan Majors\u2014a young Black war veteran who travels through 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his then-missing father (Michael K. Williams). Accompanied by his childhood friend Leti (or Letitia F****n Lewis\u2014if you know, you know) and his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance<\/a>) and Aunt Hippolyta (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor<\/a>),\u00a0 Tic\u2019s journey unearths monsters both human and supernatural, ruthless sheriffs, ancient cults, and the lingering ghosts of this country\u2019s checkered past.<\/p>\n What was special about the series was that it used horror as metaphor. It flipped H.P. Lovecraft\u2019s imagination inside out, reclaiming the genre for a contemporary audience. Each episode merged Black history and speculative fiction\u2014from the Tulsa Race Massacre, sundown towns, and ancestral magic\u2014into a riveting adventure that just you couldn\u2019t take your eyes off of. Lovecraft Country<\/em> proved that a Black story doesn\u2019t have to exist within narrow boundaries. It showed that when told with truth and imagination, our experiences can resonate universally, transcending race, nationality, and genre alike.<\/p>\n Despite critical acclaim, a devoted audience, and countless award nominations (including 6 Primetime Emmy nods) HBO ended Lovecraft Country<\/em> after just one season. Plans for a second installment were already in motion, but before any of it could materialize, the network pulled the plug. Sadly, this show\u2019s fate wasn\u2019t unique; it was part of a long lineage of Black shows cut off before they could reach their full potential. In the mid-\u201990s, Nickelodeon\u2019s My Brother and Me<\/em> burst onto the scene with laughter and many memorable moments (Dee Dee\u2019s \u201cHit Me!\u201d chant still resonates with millennials to this day), but thirteen episodes later, it was gone. In the years that followed, promising titles like City of Angels<\/em>, 61st Street<\/em>, and Kindred<\/em> met similar ends\u2014some victims of low promotion, others of corporate restructuring or \u201ccreative differences.\u201d<\/p>\n