& the book was published by a “white press,” guess that means they wrote it lol

On September 16, 2016, it was announced that Barry Jenkins was set to adapt Colson Whitehead's novel The Underground Railroad into a limited series. Jenkins was expected to produce the series alongside Adele Romanski. Production companies involved with the series were set to include Plan B Entertainment.5 On March 27, 2017, it was reported that Amazon Video had given the production a script-to-series commitment.6 On June 5, 2018, it was announced that Amazon given the production a formal greenlight and that Jenkins would direct all eleven episodes of the series.2 In June 2019, Nicholas Britell announced he would serve as composer on the series.7

This was Barry's series. Plan B (Brad Pitt's company) picked it up later on

They had to approve what he wanted to do so it’s still white producers giving him the green light

They could’ve picked a number of black filmmakers who want to tell a story. It’s not surprising why they picked Barry who is adored by white liberals

Mangrove is a deeply layered and pretty accurate historical film. Like you can automatically tell the difference in dramatization between a Mangrove and a Trial of the Chicago 7 (i enjoyed both btw).

It's not only grounded in a huge but overlooked moment that forced London police to finally acknowledge their racial roots, but it stretches back to the 1800's in putting respect on the Haitian Revolutions impact on British West Indies people and the work of CLR James (a VERY VERY important black scholar who also was depicted in the film as a visitor to the shop). His book The Black Jacobins (which Darcus was reading during the film) is crucial and added to why Darcus was how he was during that trial. That was a part of the soul also that you said wasn't present

I understand that some audiences these days are tired of so called "black trauma" but if you're pushing it to the side for the trauma it showed you're also sometimes inadvertently pushing aside the real life pain that happened to those 9 individuals and their families, A 2 hour film that mighta caused you to get a lil angry in no way compares to the burden of the actual 1970 incident and the multiple trials for this. And Mangrove is something thats important to know about which many did not. McQueen was never here for your popcorn entertainment. There hasn't been much difference between recent stuff and his first film Hunger which was "white trauma" (?)

My issue with this is if I want to know about the real history of an event, it would be much better to watch a documentary than to watch a 2 hour drama that will never be able to fully capture the nuances and details of that event

Movies aren’t for the facts. It’s to tell a story and to appeal to emotion. My issue with that is when it’s blended to get people on someone’s side in a historical event, then it’s just propaganda

I agree its much better to actually look at the history itself. But here's the thing:

-Books and documents on Mangrove exist
-Documentary on Mangrove exists

And yet Steve McQueen is the only reason you and I know about the situation like we do today

Yeah we can always say we'd prefer a doc but were we actually gonna watch that doc? Was it gonna slide through the cracks? There's countless stories like this without much attention. What could help also is to watch Mangrove and then watch those docs and do the reading so you reaaaallly know. Thats how it should always work with biographical entertainment if you really interested. Like should we fault McQueen for actually looking this s*** up, engaging with it and then depicting it?

Wait a minute... aint that you in setti's server? lmfao or maybe y'all just dropped it at the same time and have the same exact opinion

You sure? cause I remember this being Barry's choice and Amazon just picked it up

lmao yeah i am in settis server

it is true McQueen the only reason I know about it just like how the Tulsa massacre wasn't really talked about until its depiction in Watchmen. But I don't see a whole lot of value to something if the only thing you can get out of a 2 hour movie is awareness of that event.

Atleast with the Tulsa massacre scene, it was brief but effective.

Enjoyed the 2nd episode but the way it transitioned from the atmosphere of the first episode made me feel like I had accidentally skipped something- assuming the dichotomy was deliberate, but they could’ve maybe done just a little more to help resituate the viewer

I'm sick of twitter there is something wrong with everything. If it's not trauma p*** then it's colorist, if it's not that then it's not black enough or performative.

the irony of the song in episode 9

while i don’t co-sign everything twitter says, i do agree with the immense content dedicated to slavery in black media, we can land it as trauma p***. why do you say it isn’t?

That sort of label should depend on the way content is depicted, not just based on the content itself. Imo the various “etc-porn” labels imply a cheapness to the material, and a dependance on entertainment/emotional points being scored (or shock value) based on the way the material is depicted.

Personally, there was one moment in the first episode that potentially dipped into this territory, but otherwise I don’t see any of the above relating to this show (or the book), but I’m also only 5 episodes in. The main woman’s relationship to her mother and the questions provoked about freedom and family/kinship are too poetically realized for me to believe that the media is being ‘carried’ by its context alone

(an aside- are people going to start calling Morrison’s Beloved and other neo-slave fiction trauma p*** too, or is this something that literature skirts- maybe lines are more delicate with visual/auditory media)

To call all slavery-related media trauma p*** would be like saying that anything contextualized by lower-class living is poverty p***/‘slumming’ (I suppose some would actually argue this)

I wonder how viewers are responding to Homer, the boy with Ridgeway? His youth (& freedom- but maybe that doesn’t actually mean much here) makes it difficult to apply a Samuel L in Django comparison, but he’s a frustrating character nonetheless. I’ve always been intrigued by Colson Whitehead’s decision to place a little black boy in the narrative like that

I hear you man and I see your point about how the content's depiction should be judged, not the content itself.

I dont know if you're black or not but regardless, do you not feel a certain way on the recent BLAST in slave-related media in Black film and TV? it seems like whenever Black people want to make something noteworthy enough for the white establishment to notice, it's gotta be about slavery. 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture and since then we haven't gone a year without a slave movie or show. When people complain about these movies, we aren't saying the show isn't good, we are just tired of seeing the same old concepts over and over again.

Side note, think about the impact of these movies on our culture. No matter how much we advance in our communities, we must be reminded EVERY YEAR that we were SLAVES and we Gotta see our ancestors get BEAT TF UP.

After they made Schindler's List there weren't many other holocaust films. the made an amazing movie and moved on from the subject, respectfully. Why can't Black people have that same amount of grace to our ancestry?

Black people deserve fresh ideas that UPHOLD and PROMOTE positive images like entrepreneurship, family, love, and more.

we dont need any more slave movies green lighted by White studios

you hit the nail right on the head

he could create the greatest slavery movie of all time and he'd still be doing us a disservice by continuing to uphold these "white liberal studio" condoned slave movies. make an original story with black people not getting their asses beat. I f***ed with Barry for a minute cuz moonlight and Beale street were amazing (yes they featured traumatic events as well but the whole setting and concept wasn't built around the violence) but it sucks to see him go down the path many of our filmmakers go downwind make a piece of art about the struggles of our ancestors

I be seeing the liberals applaud him for speaking truth and bringing "awareness" to our ancestors. question: who the F*** hasn't seen 12 years a slave, Django, antebellum, etc.? we have had ENOUGH of these movies to create our own Slave Cinematic Universe. White liberals are the most dangerous threat to Black advancement cuz they brainwash us into believing these disrespectful pieces of media are "helping" us when in reality they're just further enforcing the idea that we are still slaves to them

Exactly, I just find it so strange that we basically are just meshing Peele horror concepts into slavery stories now and white liberals are clapping at very real and horrid realities being blended into some goosebumps/twilight zone episodic thrills

It’s like atleast when Django did its slavery genre blend, it did it with a love for the blaxploitation genre and never once framed a single black character in the film as someone defined by his/her trauma. The scene of Jamie poppin slave owners skulls to some Tupac is something you never gonna find in all these other black trauma films which just define its characters by their struggles and expects you to feel sympathy for them strictly by baiting you with their suffering and to feel sorry for them.

Personally, and I am Black, just not very enticed but the ‘crowding out’ nature of these discussions, which tend to denigrate creatives for not doing something that another could pursue. Tho, while I acknowledge that there could be an issue with getting these other ideas/projects financed/circulated, that’s not the fault of Black creatives drawn to slave narratives, and especially not Jenkins’ problem (as you note, he’s done different stuff in the past and will probably continue to do so).

on a related note, I don’t think it’s true that people/the media have ‘moved past’ the Holocaust and it’s related context (nor should they lol). That Jojo Rabbit movie a year or two back was pretty popular/awarded and made by a Jew. And The Pianist was pretty big too. I’m not a Holocaust media expert but ik it’s a subject people continuously learn and produce material about.

I think it’s actually really common for different ethnicities to continuously produce media about the “struggles of their ancestors” to note part of your second comment. And it’s my understanding that more of these types of films (slavery related and otherwise) as well as more contemporary stories are being put out w Black talent at the lead- it would be great for more black studios to be financing these projects, but I’m not gonna demand that creatives don’t take what money gets offered to pursue the vision. Basically, I’ve never felt forced to consume slave-related media (think antebellum is the only thing I can recall from the past year or two, never saw Harriet (reasonable figure to get a biopic imo, but it’s my understanding the film just wasn’t v good)), there’s lots of stuff out there

had to pause episode 2

Had to take a break cus of vacation and s*** but ep 8 might be the first time I’ve seen Maroon Communities depicted in a show or movie. Was just learning how deep those black communities of free people went it’s very fascinating stuff

There’s so many levels to these times that never get explored past just slavery and oppression. Respect to the author and Barry for showing so much more even in such a fictional story.

Show constantly puts resistance and community at the forefront which is something you don’t see too often in these types of projects. I don’t think people understand at all how unexplored slavery times are despite there being many projects that take place during. There’s SOOO MUCH out there but folks think they don’t need more cus they’ve seen a few films and took an American History course

just started this last night gonna save any thoughts till the end

barry is one of the best dudes around tho so i've got high hopes for this