Washington Black

This is a fresh take on the slave trade period, with gorgeous cinematography, excellent acting and directing, and great character development. Without giving away spoilers, the storyline is focused on the fragile hopefulness of new found freedom, despite the constant threat of being re-captured. This series delivers a satisfying feels good element throughout. 10/10.

I was looking forward to this series. I didn't read the whole novel but informed myself about the plot and it seemed like great material for a series.

Watching the series just feels weird...I can't really pin it down to one thing...it feels slow, often boring, the acting feels strange and although it must have a significant budget if feels kind of cheap most of the time (if you decide to develop the plot in a slow, boring manner you could at least put more details into the atmosphere and aesthetics by showing more of the beautiful places where the series take place; a good example of this could be the new Netflix series Untamed which takes place in Yosemite national park and really integrated this into the whole vibe).

It just doesn't draw me in...maybe it's just not for me but the other negative reviews overlap in some points of criticism, so it's probably not just me.

Washington Black is visually spectacular - Barbados, Victorian London, Moroccan deserts, icy Antarctica - the show looks like a globe-trotting epic with a massive budget. But the writing doesn't rise to the same level. The tone is oddly childish for a story about slavery and identity, and the logic often stretches belief (a child from Barbados tracked across continents in the 1800s?).

Eddie Karanja is fantastic as young Wash, and McGee adds rare complexity. It's also refreshing to see free Black characters portrayed as artists and leaders, not just victims. The love story is simple but sincere. Titch feels like a caricature, and Willard has Chuck Norris plot armor.

Gorgeous to watch. Frustrating to follow.

Came for Sterling K Brown, stayed hoping the series would get better. It didn't.

I'll preface this by saying I haven't read the book, and am interested in doing so based on many reviews saying how the series deviated so far from the source material.

As a child who grew up in the south in an evangelical home, I was sheltered from stories of the realities of what slavery and the experiences of black people was and is like in North America. That said, this is the type of tedious series I would have been allowed to watch. Ultimately this series felt as if it was directed by someone hell-bent on watering down what could have been a really compelling story, like it was meant for kids. If that was intentional, well done. It was bland and inoffensive.

Aside from that, to me the series felt amateurish from the start. I have a hard time sticking with series or movies where over acting is obvious and dialog seems forced, and that was the case. I hoped it would get better by the end but it was consistently bland. Without a spoiler, I did have a moment near the end of the last episode that made me teary eyed, immediately followed by a montage at the end that made me cringe again.

This isn't just another slave series but naturally it takes place in the 1800s so there are moments where slavery comes into play. The series is about George Washington Black and his journey as a young adult learning advanced technology. He's an inspired black inventor. Lola Evan's is the co star. Her acting is excellent and she's very pretty. Sterling browns character is charismatic but he doesn't really have an accent and talks in modern day slang which can ruin the immersion.

Overall this show is kind of boring. The protagonist looks like Ed Sheeran. The plot is slow and predictable. I'd be surprised if this gets renewed for a 2nd season.