Do we call this a redux, reboot, redo? The new Roots miniseries that aired in four parts about two weeks ago. I’ve been getting a ton of requests, so I finally conceded. I just ask that you support, share it, like it, comment, watch an ad and/or become a Patron. Cause yes, doing the Underground reviews killed my analytics for the month with the low views, so when I go to pitch other opportunities and they point out last months numbers (it’s happened a few a times hence why it’s a point for me) I’m like ohhh yeah ’bout that, I’ll fix it. But here we are again. It’s cool, even though I’m petty patty childish in my feels cause I didn’t get the Underground giftbox. Lol.
Here’s the quick rundown of my review on the Roots.
- The actor playing Kunte Kinte, Malachi Kirby, was excellent.
- Also all the actresses including Anika Noni Rose, playing Kizzy were great.
- Part 2 had me in all my feels.
- They really drove home the point that there was no joy in the lives of slaves.
- The didn’t not skimp on the gruesomeness that was experienced from the middle passage on. And this was very necessary. To be a slave was to not own the rights to a moment of happiness.
- Every brief moment of joy was met with terror. From Kunte rowing away on the boat only to be met at the bank by slave catchers to the naming ceremony of Kizzy leading to Fiddler’s death, on to Kizzy attempting to reclaim love. Slaves don’t even own the right to exhale.
- Kizzy being sold off, that entire sequence was so well done with many layers intertwined.
- Missy’s “friendship” with Kizzy that was easily dismantled because as a slave Kizzy could never truly be respected by Missy.
- Dr. Middler blaming Kizzy for Noah’s death, part of Middler’s contrived love for his own offspring. Even as Middler’s own blood, Noah was still a slave and he could not stop the system he upheld from slaughtering his own child.
- Master Lea’s character shows the duplicity of white people who like to claim that their families were oppressed to. Ok sir, but you were still seen as a human being. No matter how much other slave masters dismissed Lea for being Irish, they still acknowledged him as having the rights and dignities that slaves were refused.
- The fight to hold on to the culture of Kunte’s homeland and how that manifested into a new culture.
- How much the human was just beaten out of the slaves over decades and generations, to where they appreciate penance or any sort of recognition, see: Chicken George.
- How hard it was to pass on any sort of familial wealth, even in knowledge/education, where Kizzy did not teach her son George to read in order to survive.
- I was waiting for T.I. to hit a rap, nothing about him read as 1865 runaway slave.
- They depicted the Massacre at Fort Pillow, where all the black soldiers were executed by Confederate forces after surrendering.
