Roots

Such a delight! Both my young daughters we're able to follow and stay interested; now they both have lots of questions about American history... Very nicely re-made. Hopefully now they will be interested in watching the original (although not in HD), or they will ask to actually read the book.

Oldest daughter is currently in APUSH and concerned about the lack of quality information regarding this period of time. My youngest tends to be in denial about this era, as she can't quite understand cruelty amongst people, in general. This was a great way to introduce her to this country's past (and maybe explain how it relates to the present).

Based on Alex Haley's 'Roots', this chronicles Alex's heritage from the Mandinka warrior Kunta Kinte who was born in 1750 Juffure, west Africa. The Mandinka kept slaves but the English brought gold and guns. Greed and revenge sends Kunta on a slave ship to America. Despite a slave revolt on the ship, he is sold in 1767 Annapolis. He and his descendants struggle under slavery all the way to Chicken George. George is the son of Tom Lea who raped his mother. He trained chicken to fight for his gambling master Tom. The mini-series ends with George who fights in the Civil War and his family being freed after the war.

The acting is tremendous. The production is terrific considering it's a TV show. There are plenty of big names and familiar faces. The new faces don't seem out of place. Malachi Kirby and Regé-Jean Page play the young leads in their respective time periods. They really shine. There is no weak acting from the main actors. The story does feel compressed from time to time as it skips through various time periods. It's an ambitious undertaking and it mostly pulls it off.

Both my husband and I have watched the 1st 3 installments to this miniseries. We both had seen the 1977 version, and although some changes have been made...the story still haunts us. I have always felt a deep emotion to any stories of slavery and till this day I still cannot understand why the color of our skin can cause such emotion in people.My heart has been heavy these past few days as the hardships this family endured is beyond bravery, beyond restraint, beyond compassion.... It is a reminder of not only what happened in North America, but what happens all over the world ....people thinking they own another human being...

I will never ever forget this miniseries, it stayed with me from 1977 and this version will stay with me till I die....Perhaps I will be still around to see equality, passion and love for all human beings, no matter the color of their skin.

The acting of the whole new cast is beyond words....so believable.

xx

Back in 1977 alex haley and the cast changed the face of television and the world by introducing the miniseries roots featuring great acting and great storytelling, now it's been rebooted and it's great once again, it's a story about slavery and true honesty, Laurence fishbourne, forest whitaker and the rest of them including newcomer Malachi Kirby are all standouts in this one, brilliant characterization, brilliant teleplay and everything else was magnificent, you know television these days have become terrible that we need a reboot of a classic and this is a classic right, this reboot of roots is definitely the years best TV and perhaps the year's most controversial and I Give it my highest rating A+

This show is absolutely brilliant. It really shows America's sad and dark history with slavery. The beginning sort of reminded me of the Amistad movie starring Djimon Hounsou and Anthony Hopkins, the gore violence and details really showed how people back then lived like mere products simply because of their skin color. I especially liked how it shows the lives of these slaves back in their homeland from where they were kidnapped from; the lives they once had but were ripped apart from at no warning. It's a part in history no one likes remembering, a part in history we'd all rather forget than remember. Movies and shows like these are very violent and filled with so much gore details, but it is a remembrance of the hard reality people once faced, lived, and died in.