[One of the best
parts of my 2018 so far has been discovering SundanceTV’s Hap & Leonard. Based on the
series of novels
by Joe Lansdale, and starring James Purefoy and Michael K.
Williams, the series has completed two wonderful 6-episode seasons and as I
write this is in the midst of Season 3. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a
handful of Hap & Leonard
contexts, leading to a special weekend post on the unique career to date of
Michael K. Williams!]
On two important
historical themes in the show’s amazing second season.
To this viewer
at least, Hap & Leonard’s Season 2 (based on Lansdale’s
second H&L novel, Mucho
Mojo [1994]) was vastly superior to the (already quite good) Season 1. There
were various reasons why, including both lead actors settling even more fully
into their wonderful characters (and some inspired guest casting, including the
always great Brian Dennehy), but by far the most important factor was the
season’s central plot, which focused on both historical and contemporary (as of
the late 1980s, although they all felt strikingly relevant to 2018 as well)
issues facing African Americans in its East Texas setting. In the season’s opening
scene Hap and Leonard find the decaying corpse of a young boy in the crawl
space of Leonard’s deceased Uncle Chester’s house, and this mysterious and
disturbing discovery leads them to a community of African American women and
families that have lost their sons. As ever, this plot connects to Hap and
Leonard’s present and past lives and identities in various complex and
compelling ways, but I would argue that the season nonetheless remains consistently
focused on the African American boys, mothers, families, and histories in overarching
and vital ways.
In so doing, the
season impressively and importantly broadens our understanding of the horrific,
still far too
under-remembered histories of lynching
in America. The season’s flashbacks do include a harrowing sequence in
which the Ku Klux Klan arrive at an African American church, hang its pastor,
and burn it to the ground, killing the pastor’s wife and a large number of
children (both theirs and others’, I believe) in the process. But throughout
the season that more overt version of a white supremacist-led lynching (of both
an individual African American man and an entire community) is directly
paralleled to the stories of the missing African American boys, making a clear
case that the violence, neglect, official indifference, and other factors that
contribute to such histories represent just as destructive a presence within the
African American community as the Klan and its domestic terrorism. While many
commentators (including this AmericanStudier) have referred to the constant
police shootings of African Americans as a modern-day
lynching epidemic, Hap & Leonard
reminds us that much violence takes place in quieter and more subtle, but no
less destructive, ways.
And then there’s
Leonard. Thanks to his association with his Uncle Chester, but also undoubtedly
to the color of his skin, Leonard becomes a prime suspect in the kidnapping and
murder of the boy found under Chester’s house, and spends a good bit of Season
2 in or around prison and the justice system. While there he’s consistently
mistreated and abused, not only physically (although a racist cop does beat him
brutally while he’s in custody) but in various other legal and illegal ways as
well. These racist mistreatments are generally accepted (even by Leonard) as par
for the course, although both Hap and Leonard’s lawyer Florida Grange (the wonderful Tiffany Mack)
fight hard and well to challenge that narrative. Without ever quite saying as
much, the show thoughtfully weaves this racism in the justice system into the
context of the historical and contemporary lynchings and violence, reminding us
that older black men can disappear nearly as easily as young black boys. If it
seems hard to believe that a crime show can present such multi-layered
historical and cultural themes within a six-episode season, well, that’s the
magic of Hap & Leonard!
Next context
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Thoughts on H&L, or other
shows you’d highlight?
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