In my head, it’s amazing, and all I have to do then is communicate that to everybody. MG: Having all of the creative control takes all the pressure away from me because I know what it is. Did you feel more pressure having so much creative control? That book influences my whole thought process. MG: My favorite book of all time is Stephen King’s It. Are there any authors who had a big impact on you as a writer?

MC: There are a lot of literary influences in the show too. Or did the moment come from me listening to that Cardi B song all summer? I don't know. She says bloody shoes in this song!” It was made for this moment. It elevates some moments and, other times, adds a sense of levity, like the scene with the Cardi B song “Bodak Yellow.” It’s the part you’re going, “Is this gonna work?” Both of those used voiceovers in a way that I was like, This hasn't been done on a TV show yet! I think that was our big-I like to do a big swing with every project, audio-wise, visually, in all the different categories-audio swing. How do we take that to another level? And, at the time, I, back to back, to Beyonce’s Lemonade and I Am Not Your Negro. That it has to be exactly the music of the period or it’s bad. MG: I feel like people expect period pieces to be so sacred. MC: Tell me more about creating the soundtrack and integrating the spoken word elements. Like the idea of “sundown towns”-which I first learned about from reading this book-the monsters are the people. MG: One of the things we wanted to pull into the series was, in that first episode, you’re relieved when the actual monsters show up. MC: The scariest part of the show’s plot is the racism, not the monsters.

Why do you think that sci-fi and horror have become such popular vehicles to tell those stories? MC: Recently, especially because of Jordan Peele, a lot of horror movies have become allegories for racism and social issues. And so it was just a natural thing to take the elements from his book that were still so relevant, because history keeps repeating itself. When you’re making art, you have to be making art of the times. And I’m like, Is this really a story of white people being oppressed? Any time I’m adapting anything, it’s always the beautiful first jumping-off point that you have to take to a new place.

It’s all white people being oppressed by robots. I watch all these sci-fi movies, and they’re set in the future, and there are no people of color in. It’s the idea of reclaiming the genre for people who the genre typically hasn’t been for. MC: The book the show is based on is set in the 1950s, but it seems so relevant in 2020.

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