Roots: Night 2

June 1, 2016 1:42 PM - Season 1, Episode 2

Part 2. In 1775, Kunta is working on the Waller farm when he meets English Redcoats encouraging slaves to run away and join the English army.

Joshua Alston for The A.V. Club:

"It’s to the credit of History Channel’s reimagining of Alex Haley’s Roots that the most pointed criticism that can be made of it stems from general reboot fatigue. And that fatigue is justified. Must everything old be new again? Especially in the case of Roots, which in its original 1977 miniseries form shattered television viewership records, dominated the Emmys, and illuminated the nation about the history and generational toll of the transatlantic slave trade. If ever there was a case for leaving well enough alone, Roots should be it. But History’s new vision of Roots justifies its existence almost immediately, reinforcing its worthiness through amazing performances and a tweaked narrative that puts more focus on the interior lives of the slaves."

Watch the episodes online:
Episode 1
Episode 2

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (4 comments total)

I am really liking the use of music in this version of the show. Questlove of The Roots is the music executive producer. He wrote "Binta's Theme" which is the melody from Kunta Kinte's mother Binta which carries down the generations.
posted by larrybob at 4:37 PM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I really liked the first episode, especially the first act, but the second episode was utterly fantastic, and could be among the best two hours of television I've seen this year. Mario Van Peebles really knocked the directing out of the park, and the individual performances (Kizzy!) were absolutely outstanding.
posted by General Malaise at 10:16 AM on June 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I just finished the fourth ep (and there's no link for that), and I have to agree that while all of the episodes were moving, the second was amazing. The first episode was an immense production, but I found it so harrowing (as one should), whereas the second pulled me so into the story that every time it went to commercial, I was shocked to recall where I was. These were the most compelling hours of this TV season.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 8:39 PM on June 2, 2016

Continues to be heartrending. I don't know if it's historically accurate, but I appreciate the effort put in to showing the myriad ways in which the enslaved were overtly and subtly resistant to the slavers.

I also appreciate the point made to show the gradations of social status among the white people themselves. Specifically how the Irish overseers were fanatic about reinforcing the idea that they were "better" than Black people--clearly making the point as much for themselves as for anyone else. There's so much bullshit spread about "Irish slaves", that I think it's important to acknowledge that yes, while the Irish did get shit on they were not as bad off as the enslaved Black people and in that position they were invested in keeping it that way.
posted by Anonymous at 4:53 PM on July 3, 2016