THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, by Barry Jenkins

This is being released on 14 May on Amazon Prime, and looks potentially great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pq5Usc_JDA

Potentially, yes. It looks far too clean and glowing from that clip but that doesn't surprise me. Jenkinson tries to make things look too beautiful, imo.

The sound mix is really weird in the first episode? I was willing to put the frequent skipping down to my net connection, but there's also these scenes where the background noise of cicadas totally drowns out the dialogue, and it doesn't feel like an artistic decision. Watch with subtitles.

Anyway, yeah it's gorgeous, though not to the extent of Jenkin's films, but if there's any worry that this results in the environment seeming romanticized or soft pedalling the realities of slavery you definitley don't have to worry about that: it's an hour of pretty relentless portrayals of trauma, violence and misery, with the fantasy element introduced in the last five minutes. Gotta say the ending needledrop of "B.O.B." with big block letters just saying THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD made me want to punch the air in excitement.

Really stoked to see where this goes (I haven't read the book).

First episode was outstanding television. Poetic, horrifying and dreamlike. Excellent work by the leads. Kind of afraid to watch the rest in case of
a letdown but looking forward to going with it.

Jenkinson tries to make things look too beautiful, imo.

― Cocteau Twinks (jed_), Wednesday, May 5, 2021 1:19 PM (one week ago)

I was a little disappointed by the book, but am looking forward to the series.

Finished this series last night, thought it was exceptional, the cinematography was gorgeous and at least one (typically many more) just jaw-dropping shot in every chapter.

It's been many years since I read the book, the only thing that threw me is that I don't remember quite so much focus on the Ridgeway's backstory in the book. My wife, who hadn't read the book first, thought it was odd to spend so much time on his story right in the middle of the run.

I just read the book and the third chapter out of twelve dwells on Ridgeway, his upbringing and vocation. It didn't seem particularly out of place there.

I knew there was some in the book, I just couldn't remember how much of it. It's a minor thing, I wouldn't even call it a complaint of mine, I think it fit, just two chapters out of ten seemed more than I could recall.

Doesn't really matter though, I thought the whole thing was fantastic. The cast was tremendous, especially Thuso Mdebu and Aaron Pierre.

I really wish I liked this better.

I thought it was a masterpiece!

Yeah this was perhaps the only tv series I’ve seen without a single false note

I realize I'm in the minority, and I acknowledge that the problem might be me: the space of the "limited series" format allows Jenkins to engage in some of his more Malick-y pretensions, and that just isn't my favourite cinematic mode. I will say that since posting I watched the 9th episode, which struck me as the strongest of the series thus far, by far--enough so that it might tip my overall impression of the show from mildly negative to mildly positive. I may have more to say when I finish up the whole thing today or tomorrow.