First, I admit I don't remember seeing the first Roots. I may have when I was young but I don't remember it and I've never read the book so I came into the story with no presuppositions. Even though this is a work of fiction (that Mr Haley apparently plagiarized) it is a work of fiction based in historical fact. Like many incredible works of literature or film the thread of the story may be fiction but it's set in a very real period in history.
All that to say, I'm astonished by some of the reviews on this board. It seems some want a polished up version of history, a Gone With the Wind version that is still ugly if you look close enough at the nuances of the story. The truth is, humans were stolen from their homes and the only world they had ever known or seen and then their traffickers sold them like they were livestock or furniture or maybe even less. They had no rights and every single thing - especially their dignity - was stripped from them. They were dropped into a world they didn't understand or recognize, without even the fortune of common language. This isn't some made up perspective to suit the politics of Black Lives Matter or anything else, it is fact.
If a movie were set in the early 1940's in Germany and the story was about a Jewish family who were actually treated decently by their "Christian" jailers while they were living in a concentration camp, that showed some good sides to the camp as well, everyone would RIGHTFULLY be appalled. But here? No, it seems some want to polish up this ugly stain of American history and call it decoration rather than what it was - horrific.
Okay, so now that I got that off my chest... I found myself crying through many parts of this miniseries and gripped by the injustices at every step. I wanted some happy endings too but only because I was drawn in and rooting for the main characters, but I also realize that happy endings rarely happened during this era for Africans and African Americans and as they rarely had control over their own lives they must have had to deal with the emptiness of unfinished stories, unanswered questions, the sickness of not knowing what happened to their loved ones when they were stolen or violated or sold off. As the viewer I felt that pain and I empathized with the main characters. The apathy and sometimes hatred coming from the slave owners and traders and the way one sin would lead to another and to another so even those with some sense of decency were quick to treat black people as less than and not equal to as soon as they felt threatened or to feel better about their standing in society. This Roots was more The Kitchen House than Gone with the Wind, as viewers we benefit from that fact.
The production and settings were gorgeous and the actors were as well. I thought this was a beautiful telling of a most terrible time.
