Underground

Underground is a classic escape drama with an historical look at the U.S. in the pre-Civil War period. There is a wealth of interesting characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, including a pair of brothers, one of whom is a slave owner (Reed Diamond) and the other who is a new-born abolitionist (Marc Blucas). The focus of the drama is on seven slaves who escape and try to go 600 miles from Georgia to Kentucky.

The series has all sorts of twists and turns, and the action switches back and forth from the slaves on the run, to the plantation, to the abolitionists. Along the way we get a good picture of life at the time.

The music and photography are superior, and the acting is very good. It's really hard to single out any one of the many wonderful actors who contribute to the story, some of whom play minor roles (Johnny Ray Gill, Mykelti Williamson) and others who are featured throughout (Christopher Meloni, Amirah Vann).

This is an excellent mini-series and I'm looking forward to the next season.

By no means is this a bad show. Binge worthy, even. But the historical side is awful. There are surely some cliches, some eye rolling lines given, but not a single historically accurate piece of clothing or behavior. The main female lead abolitionist alters between 1890 California elite and 1930 Berlin. On the whole, it's ok

What a superb series. I have watched other movies, TV shows, and documentaries about the slave era of the US, but this one outshines the others in some critical ways. Both sides, the slaves and the slave owners, are portrayed as very flawed, often fighting among themselves for what they want. An escaping band of slaves isn't artificially shown to be "just a bunch of black folks running for freedom". No. Instead of such simplistic 1-dimensional impressions, they are shown to be sometimes desperate, sometimes loving, sometimes greedy. They are bound together by a common goal, but that doesn't necessarily mean they even like each other and that is a magnificent and realistic attribute to portray. Similarly, the slave owners and slave catchers are not just simply "bad guys". They are shown to be flawed, sometimes doubting what they are doing, often clashing with each other over how much evil they are willing to dish out just to show that they are "the boss".

The actors are all top-notch, even though, honestly, I had never heard of a single one of them before watching this series.

My only big quibble with the series is the background music. It appears like an out-of-place overly-loud bomb going off on top of all the dramatic scenes, calling way too much attention to itself instead of underscoring the action. In an instant, we are transported from the 1850s south to the sound of an angry urban ghetto. I suppose the developers of the show thought they were drawing parallels between 19th century slavery and 21st century racism, or maybe they thought they could appeal to younger viewers. But either way, the sound track just doesn't work. It's so bad we have to turn the sound down during all the loud sequences and essentially wait to "get back to the story". So instead of the dramatic action scenes being great climaxes, they end up being interruptions.

I am really sorry to see that this series wasn't picked up for a 3rd season by WGN. The producer is trying to find another sponsor. I hope they find one. This is great television that is worth continuing.

The premise is great. The underground railway, the people that escaped slavery and those that helped and hindered them. This is an era and perspective little explored on tv. Unfortunately, it is treated too much like a teen drama (even some of the cast is familiar as such). Over loud and nonsensical music choices have you reaching for the volume every few minutes. It is sanitised and silly rather than gritty and engaging. The shame is that tv drama is many people's only exposure to history - and this is not teaching the viewer anything. It is moderately entertaining though and well acted for the most part - just watch with the sound down!

I really enjoyd this serie. Action, scene, story. All is nice but music is very bad. Like some 15 years old has chosen all music and it just does not fit in the picture.

For example in season 1, section 3 in the action at the minute 25.33. Really? Why?

So much money and pain and work and music spoiles everything. Modern music doesn't fit a film set old stories because it doesn't match the historical sound and mood of that time. The instruments, styles, and emotions in those age were very different, so using modern music can make the film feel out of place and less authentic.

Using the wrong music in a film can ruin the experience by disrupting the authenticity and emotional connection to the story, it makes it difficult for viewers to fully engage with the film.

Nice show, bad music.