The Underground Railroad

This movie, based on a Pulitzer-winning fantasy fiction novel, is heavy with emotion, violence, and even hope. Those who are looking for fast-paced action or historical accuracy may not enjoy it, but those who appreciate strong characters and a rich story will find it rewarding.

While it throws out some realism to make way for historical metaphors, it stays fiercely loyal to the themes of this dark time in our nation's history. The viewer's emotions are taken on a rough ride with complex characters (especially Homer) and continually changing circumstances.

I'll watch this series many times, and now cannot wait to read the book.

The wife and I are 5 episodes in and so far its excellent, but there's a few things you should know before jumping in, spoiler free.

Number one is this show is not historically accurate in anyway and that's okay, but you should know that. The only true thing about this show is that slavery existed and there was an "underground railroad", but that is not accurately represented.

The Underground Railroad in this show is a literal railroad and in the historical sense it was not, but rather used as a way to secretly communicate the movement of runaway slaves to the north. There are also several other historical inaccuracies, but again that's okay as long as you look at the show as a complete work of fiction that has SOME historical context.

That being said, the show is excellent when you omit historical accuracy. Its a great work of fiction with good acting, cinematography, directing and writing. Very enjoyable and look forward to seeing the end of the story.

The enormously well-received series starts strong with an incredibly powerful pilot episode, and a very interesting second one. But that's where the charm ends, and the show becomes obsessed with incredibly boring white characters. I dragged it out till episode 8 so far, and will definitely finish the show - but I think it should just have ended at Episode 2.

Arnold Ridgeway - the most pathetically boring character invented in 2021.

This review is only on the pilot (For now). It's a very good surprise frankly, it's very good and realistic at times when we could look away. The story is set up easily and makes you want to see the rest. I must also note that the costumes, sets and more generally the plans are magnificent. Go see this pilot to give you an opinion you will not regret!

First of all, I was a bit shocked to see this rated PG. It should have been at the very least a 12. The first episode, especially, is very gritty with some disturbing scenes. Perhaps not at graphic as some shows today, but still not for children, IMHO.

Secondly, after the gripping first 2 episodes, this becomes very, very slow, with scenes stretched out for far, too long.

I didn't mind the flashbacks, but it would have been so much better if the pace had been faster, rather than showing everything in excruciating detail.

Thirdly, I know it wasn't supposed to be historically accurate, but having actual trains running underground with no-one up above ever hearing or finding them was too far-fetched, never mind how long it would have taken to dig the tunnels and steal a train to run down there!

Also, not all whites were abusers, even in the deep South. Many hated slavery and helped a lot of slaves to escape to the North, but in this portrayal almost all whites are bad and use the 'N' word far, too often.

The program did, however, show how slaves were treated as less than nothing. Property to be used and disposed of on a whim. Sometimes it's easy to forget just how bad it was.

All-in-all it was watchable, but slow-paced, far-fetched and graphic in parts.