Black Earth Rising

I really enjoyed the show but had to laugh at the doctor's line in the first episode about white people finding it hard to tell African's faces apart. I laughed because Micheala Coel, whilst a great actress, has a face that is just so obviously from West African heritage and not Tutsi. Having lived and worked with Rwandans of many backgrounds over the years and knowing that people were killed in the genocide just because of how they looked it is hard to put this on one side.

I've never seen so many people vomit. Everybody vomits at one point or another in this show, for different reasons, constantly. Seriously, like, maybe 5 or 6 times. So, beware if you have hemetophobia.

A bit violent and slow, as only british shows can be, but interesting and intriguing. The main character does get on one's nerves, but the acting is good. And certain scenes (mostly the non-dialogue ones) drag on for far too long.

This series, frankly, left me changed in ways I don't fully understand yet - changed, I think, about human condition. John Goodman was as solid as John Goodman can get, but it is Michaela Coel's (Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson's) performance that is riveting! You are never shown the scenes of the genocide directly. They are creatively gentled in animation that tells the story without showing the story, and in aftermaths that drive home reality without a bloody middle. I was grateful for that. I love a good mystery and this has many!... And, I appreciate a deeper understanding of a history that seemed incomprehensible and far away at the time. Finally, I appreciated the complex view into the way in which White, Third World nations continue to profit from the mess we had a hand in both creating and in trying to repair. If you have a stomach for hope and despair, it doesn't get better than this.

I have been writing reviews for this site for 17 years. Mostly films but also TV. Some great films, some very bad ones. Even the best ones had flaws - the acting was great but the direction was so-so etc. etc. But in Black Earth Rising, I think that I may at last have seen perfection - and I don't say that lightly. Where to start? I'll try to break it down then summarise.

Extrordinary complex but wonderfully constructed and written script. Acting to die for - from everyone. Certainly the best directed piece of film or TV I think I have ever seen. Blick's sense of timing is immaculate and his eye for detail stunning. Stunning visuals - the photography by Hubert Taczanowski is an example of perfection - the lighting, the perfect camera movement - just turn off the sound and watch each camera movement and each shot's lighting and composition. A masterclass - watch on a plasma or OLED not an LCD though. Perfect sound - every word, even every rustle of the actors clothes perfectly recorded with absolute clarity. The animated sections were a stroke of genius and so sensitively made. The music always a perfect choice - Lou Reed's Vanising Act especially.

There might be better made TV drama, but I have yet to see it.

I have come away from episode 5 absolutely mesmerized. Compelling, beautiful, powerful - stunning in every way.

An intelligent script digs below the superficial understanding that some of us (including me) have of the dreadful events in Rwanda, while creating strong characters to drive forward a human story. The actors are more than up to the task of making this balance work. I am gripped and eagerly await episode 3.